Paradise Lost 773this “talking,” whenever she says to Adam: “With
thee conversing I forget all time, / All seasons and
thir change, all please alike” (4:640). Thus, in the
sequence from conversation to adoration to sex
a progression of intimacy emerges through three
types of human intercourse: verbal, spiritual, and
physical. Adam and Eve’s pre-Fall sex is a physical
expression of the bond they share both verbally and
spiritually.
But in an imperfect world, such intimacy neces-
sitates commands, because love cannot be assumed.
The tripartite division—verbal, spiritual, and physi-
cal—corresponds for the poet to the three most
intimate levels of human relationships: friendship,
Christian brotherhood, and marriage. The concept
of love after the Fall in Paradise Lost calls all humans
to “strive” against the selfish impulse of bearing one’s
own burden, and strive for lightening “Each other’s
burden in our share of woe” (10:959–961)—“offices”
that require loving intercourse in varying degrees.
Jereme Wade Skinner
reliGion in Paradise Lost
Although the term “religion” appears only three
times in Paradise Lost (1:372; 11:667; 12:535), the
theme of faithful devotion to an object or person
is central to the entire poem. The poet uses the
terms “faith,” “devotion,” “worship,” “belief,” and
“adoration” in various forms to indicate a character’s
religious orientation. All characters in Paradise Lost,
whether demonic, angelic, or human, have a religion,
because they demonstrate varying levels of faithful
devotion to something or someone.
Religion in Paradise Lost is not exclusive to the
pious; even the demons share adoration for and faith
in Satan. Satan laments his own internal “torments,”
while recognizing that the devils “adore me on the
Throne of Hell, / With Diadem and Sceptre high
advanc’d” (4:89–90). The words “adore,” “Throne,”
“Diadem,” and “Sceptre” suggest that Satan and
his followers see him as a king or ruler. In one of
his addresses as ruler of Hell, by addressing the
demons as “our faithful friends / Th’ associates and
copartners of our loss” (1:264–265), Satan unknow-
ingly highlights the fact that he and his “friends” are
forever entrapped in the very thing they abandoned
Heaven to escape—religion. Yet now their adoration
and faith are directed at a false “king,” instead of the
true King appointed by the Father in Heaven—the
Son. Although there is a sense in which the demons
willfully acknowledge Satan as their ruler in Hell,
their confinement to and suffering in the Lake of
Fire is a constant reminder that God, not Satan, is
the ultimate ruler. Satan represents this truth when
he calls God “our Conquerour” and in a parenthesis
admits that God is the one “whom I now / Of force
believe Almighty” (1:143–144).
Similar to the demons, the angels in Heaven
express their religious devotion through acts and
words of faithfulness and worship. But, unlike
demonic religion, angelic religion lacks the chaos
of the kingdom of Pandemonium and aims only at
God. After the Father commands all the “Gods” in
Heaven to “Adore the Son, and honour him as mee”
(3: 343), the poet says thatlowly reverent
Towards either Throne they bow, and to the
ground
With Solemn adoration down they cast
Thir Crowns inwove with Amarant and
Gold. (3:349–352)Unlike Satan’s portrait of demonic adoration, the
narrator’s description here indicates that the angels
interpret the Father’s command to “honour” the Son
“as mee,” by responding with a “bow” that expresses
their “lowly” or humble reverence. But their inter-
pretation also elicits a debasing action of “Solemn
adoration” that goes further than their bow: “down
they cast / Thir Crowns inwove with Amarant and
Gold” (3: 351–352). For the angels, properly adoring
and honoring God means removing any symbol of
their God-like stature. That the angels “cast” these
“Crowns inwove with Amarant and Gold . . . to the
ground” suggests one very important detail about
their worship practice: It includes an immediate,
unquestioning, and “Solemn” or sincere imitation of
God the Son’s voluntary offering of himself for the
punishment of sinful humanity: “Behold mee then,
mee for him, life for life / I offer, on mee let thine
anger fall” (3:236–237). Thus, the angelic denial of
place in Heaven reflects the Son’s “offer” to bear the
“anger” of the Father by casting off his full divinity