Paradise Lost — who's who

The greatest of the rebel angels and the central figure of the first half. Refuses the elevation of the Son and leads a third of the host in revolt. Defeated by the Son in Book 6, falls nine days through chaos, lands in Hell. Rouses his army on the lake of fire in Book 1, presides over the council in Pandemonium in Book 2, undertakes alone the journey through chaos to corrupt the new creation. Soliloquizes on Mount Niphates in Book 4, slips into the serpent in Book 9, returns to Hell to be transformed into a serpent himself in Book 10.

Second only to Satan among the fallen. The first to whom Satan speaks on the lake of fire in Book 1. In the council in Book 2, Beelzebub stands up and proposes the strategy that will eventually be adopted — not war on heaven, but corruption of the new creation. He is Satan's mouthpiece for what Satan has already decided; the device lets the council appear to choose freely what was never in doubt.

The most warlike of the fallen lords. In the council in Book 2 he speaks first and argues for open war on heaven — better total destruction than this exile. Milton's portrait is uncomplicated: pure rage. He will be worshipped in the Old Testament, with children burned to him.

The smoothest speaker in the council. In Book 2 he argues against war on the grounds that Hell, terrible as it is, could become more terrible — and that, given enough time, things may improve. Milton frames the argument as cowardice dressed up as wisdom. "On the tongue / Dropt manna" — but his counsel "counselled ignoble ease, and peaceful sloth, / Not peace."

The least heavenly even before the fall — Milton says he walked with his head down in heaven, eyes fixed on the gold paving. In Book 2 he argues for staying in Hell and building it up, since they will never be re-admitted to heaven anyway. He directs the mining of the soil under Pandemonium — the first capital, founded on extracted wealth, in Western literature.

Sprang fully formed from Satan's head when he first conceived rebellion in heaven. Met him at the gates of Hell in Book 2, holding the keys. Their incestuous union produced Death, who tore his way out of her, and the hell-hounds who endlessly re-enter her womb. In Book 10, after the Fall, Sin and Death build a great causeway across chaos from Hell to Earth. Milton's darkest invention.

Allegorical figure born of Satan and Sin's incest at the gates of Hell. Fights his own father at the gates in Book 2 until Sin reveals their relation. In Book 10, after Adam and Eve's fall, builds with Sin the causeway from Hell to Earth — the road by which death enters the world. Milton's most chilling image of how the Fall actually reaches us.

Foreknows everything that will happen, including the Fall, and permits it because virtue under no temptation is not virtue. In Book 3 makes the case directly: "I made him just and right, / Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall." Many readers find him cold; Milton thought theological precision required it. The Father carries the argument; the Son carries the love.

Volunteers in Book 3 to take on humanity and die for it when no other creature will. Drives the rebel angels out of heaven in Book 6 in three days of war. Pronounces judgment on Adam and Eve in Book 10. Intercedes for them in Book 11. The poem's image of grace — willing what the Father requires.

Sent down in Book 5 to warn Adam of the danger he is in. Eats with Adam in the garden in one of the strangest scenes in any epic — an angel and a man at table together while Eden is still intact. Tells Adam the story of Satan's rebellion and the war in heaven across Books V through VII. The poem's internal storyteller; through him, Milton narrates everything that happened in heaven before the action proper.

Sent in Book 11 to lead Adam and Eve out of paradise after the Fall. Before they leave, takes Adam up a hill and shows him the future of human history through the Incarnation. His final teaching — "a paradise within thee, happier far" — is one of the central theological claims of the poem. The angel of the long return.

Commander of the angelic guard around Eden. Catches Satan in Book 4 after the Fiend has taken the form of a toad whispering at Eve's ear in her sleep. Confronts him at the gate of paradise. The two are about to fight when God hangs golden scales in heaven, weighs the outcomes, and Satan flees.

One of Satan's own captains who, when Satan reveals the rebellion, speaks against him alone in front of the assembled host and walks out. The only named angel in the poem to defy his lord and leave. Milton — a man who had stood almost alone in defending the regicide of Charles I — clearly identified with him. "Among the faithless, faithful only he."

Created by God, named the animals, given the warning about the tree, given Eve. Argues with Raphael about astronomy in Book 8. Argues with Eve about whether to garden separately in Book 9. Loses that argument. When Eve returns having eaten the fruit, eats it knowingly to share her fate — a choice Milton renders as moral failure and as recognizable love at the same instant. After the Fall, rages and mourns and finally accepts the future Michael shows him.

Created from Adam's side. Wakes by a pool and falls in love with her own reflection before God turns her toward Adam. The most psychologically complex character in the poem. Argues for separating to garden faster; wins. Listens to Satan's flattery in the form of the serpent. Eats the fruit alone, then deliberates whether to share — and decides to, partly out of love, partly out of fear that another woman would replace her. After the Fall, repents first.