Questions on PL 3

ENGL 513

Dr. Fike

GOD (80ff., 167ff., 274ff.)

• What is Milton's position on the Trinity?  In other words, what is the relationship between God and Son?  What does Milton say about grace?  Are there different types?
• What is God's position on predestination?  Does not being "elect" mean that one is damned?  "What I will is fate," God says at 7.173.  Does this contradict his assertions in book 3?
• How is man different from the fallen angels?
• Do you notice the Great Chain of Being here?  How is this foreshadowing?
• How is God's rhetoric different from Satan's? 
• How can we be sure that God is not a puppeteer? 

SON (144ff, 227ff.)

• Compare and contrast Satan's mission and the Son's.
• What elements of Christian history do you find here?  What interpretations arise from historical details that have not yet happened?
• What things define Christian heroism?
• The music at 344ff. contrasts with what kind of sounds at Satan's parallel moment in book 1?

SATAN (422ff.)

• How does Milton's style change when he returns to Satan?
• What do you make of the simile at 3.431ff.?
• What do you make of the Limbo of Vanity?  Why does it exist before the Fall?  Is there anti-Catholic satire here?
• What associations with Jacob's ladder (line 510)?