Paradise Lost: Book 10 Summary & Analysis

Back in Heaven, God immediately knows when Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit. The angelic guards of Eden also know, and they fly up to Heaven to ask God how Satan re-entered Paradise, as they guarded it as best they could. God tells them that they are not to blame, as he himself allowed Satan to return, unwilling to affect Adam and Eve’s free will by protecting them from temptation. God then sends the Son down as “Man’s friend, his Mediator,” and his “Redeemer,” to pass judgment on the couple.

The Son reminds God that whatever judgment he passes will later fall on himself, as he has already volunteered to suffer on humanity’s behalf. The Son then rises from his throne and immediately enters Paradise, as “the speed of Gods / Time counts not.” The Son walks through the garden and calls for Adam, but the couple hide themselves in the trees.

The Son calls again and then Adam and Eve emerge looking guilty, angry, and ashamed. Adam says he hid because he was embarrassed of his nakedness, and the Son asks if he ate the fruit of the forbidden tree. Adam says that Eve gave him the fruit to eat, and as she had been given to Adam by God he couldn’t suspect her of sinning. The Son immediately rebukes Adam, asking if Eve is his God now that he should obey her instead of God, and allow her attractiveness to sway Adam’s superior wisdom and intellect.

The Son then asks Eve to explain herself, and Eve says that the serpent tricked her into eating the fruit. The Son (now referred to as God) immediately condemns the serpent to forever crawl on its belly as a punishment for being the vehicle of Satan. He ordains that Adam and Eve’s offspring will bruise the serpent’s head, and the serpent will bite their heel. Milton then references the eventual fulfillment of this prophecy, when Jesus “son of Mary second Eve” will defeat Satan, delivering the serpent his last “fatal bruise.”

God punishes Eve by condemning all women to suffer in childbirth and to submit to their husbands. He punishes Adam by condemning all men to work constantly at farming the unfriendly ground, and then to die and return to the ground, “For dust thou art, and shalt to dust return.” The Son then pities the couple in their naked shame, and he clothes them in animal skins before returning to Heaven and his throne.

The scene then jumps slightly back in time, as Sin and Death wait at the Hell’s gates where Satan left them. Sin suddenly senses that Satan has succeeded in his task, and she convinces Death to come along with her, as he smells “mortal change on earth” and the possibility of much prey to feed his hunger. The two gather up whatever materials they find in Chaos and construct a wide, smooth bridge from Hell to Earth.

Just as they finish their work Satan greets them at the edge of Paradise, and he is delighted at the bridge they have built. Sin congratulates Satan for his success, encouraging him to take all the credit for the bridge, and she says that she and Death will make this world his. Satan responds by saying he is proud of his children, and he finally accepts the name “Satan” (“Adversary”) for himself. He decides to return to Hell to tell his followers the news, but he sends Sin and Death up into Earth in his place, instructing the two to corrupt humans and then kill them.

Sin and Death enter the mortal universe and immediately begin infecting it, and Satan flies swiftly down to Hell. He arrives at Pandaemonium, where all his followers have been awaiting his return. Satan sits down on his throne and shines with all the brightness he has left in his fallen state. He then addresses the devils and tells them of his triumph, glorifying his own exploits and how he destroyed all humanity “with an apple.”

Satan ends his speech by telling his followers to fly up to Earth and “enter now into full bliss.” He expects to hear applause after this, but instead hears only hissing, “the sound / Of public scorn,” and he sees that all the devils have been suddenly transformed into serpents. Satan himself is turned into a huge serpent as well, a dragon, and he realizes that he is being “punished in the shape he sinned,” according to the doom the Son had delivered to the earthly serpent.

A grove of trees then sprouts up in Hell, filled with fruit like the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, but whenever the hungry, thirsty snakes try to bite it the fruit turns to ash. Later the devils are allowed to return to their usual forms, but every year in the future God punishes them this way.

Meanwhile Sin and Death arrive on Earth. Death says that all places are alike for him, as he experiences only ravenous hunger, but he is pleased at the bounty of life on Earth. Sin instructs him to feast on the plants, the animals, and then on humans after she has corrupted them. God watches the two from Heaven and laments to his angels how they are ruining his wondrous creation. He declares that he allowed them to enter Earth, and he will permit them to stay until Judgment Day, when the victorious Son will cast them back into Hell with the other devils.

The angels sing praises about God’s justice, and then God sends them down from Heaven to alter the universe. They either tilt the Earth’s axis or alter the sun’s position (Milton doesn’t say which) so that the temperatures on Earth grow more extreme and uncomfortable, and they create storms, strong winds, and ice. Then Discord, the daughter of Sin, arrives and causes all the animals to be at war with each other and with humans as well.

On Earth Adam notices these changes and grows miserable. He now knows that his children will all suffer because of his sin, and he wishes that he could bear all the punishment himself. He doesn’t understand God’s sense of justice, that he should punish the whole universe and all future humans for one man’s disobedience. Adam wishes he could just be punished by being unmade and returning to dust, instead of living with years of suffering. He wonders if God’s wrath will be infinite, and he longs for Death to come for him.

Eve approaches and tries to comfort Adam, but he grows angry with her and calls her “thou serpent,” wishing she had never been created, as she is “Crooked by nature” like the rib she was made from. Eve weeps and falls at Adam’s feet, begging him for forgiveness and pleading him not to leave her. She reminds him that she too was deceived by the serpent, but then she accepts the full blame for disobeying both God and Adam and wishes that God would place all the punishment on her.

Adam is moved by Eve’s distress and loses his anger. He says that if she cannot even bear this small portion of the punishment she has, then Eve shouldn’t wish for the full brunt of God’s wrath. Adam decides that they should stop blaming each other, but try to lessen their misery by loving each other. Eve responds by suggesting that they kill themselves so as to avoid passing on their curse to their offspring, and “Destruction with destruction to destroy.”

Adam warns Eve about the dangers of despairing, and that God will not allow her to escape punishment even by killing herself. He reminds Eve of the Son’s promise that their “seed shall bruise / The serpent’s head,” and decides to take this in a metaphorical sense – that one of Eve’s offspring will defeat Satan. Therefore if Eve kills herself, Satan will escape his punishment.

Adam decides to take comfort in the fact that they will not die immediately, and that their punishment – pain in childbirth, and hard labor for food – isn’t actually that bad. He then suggests that they return to the place where they were punished and ask God for forgiveness and grace. Eve agrees, and the two fall on their knees, weeping and confessing their sins.