Satan’s Soliloquy and Return to Hell

Milton: Paradise Lost: Books 9-10

In this course, Professor Karen Edwards (University of Exeter) explores of Books 9 and 10 of John Milton’s Paradise Lost through five key questions: (1) What do we learn from Satan’s soliloquy and his return to hell? (2) What is the function of Adam and Eve’s argument at the beginning of Book 9? (3) Are Adam and Eve’s falls the same? (4) How are Adam and Eve reconciled after the Fall? (5) What kind of poem is Paradise Lost?

Satan’s Soliloquy and Return to Hell

In this module, we think about Satan’s soliloquy near the start of Book 9 and his return to Hell in Book 10, thinking in particular about why Milton gives Satan such long soliloquy here at this point in the poem. After that, we turn to the scene in which Satan and his followers are transformed into snakes.