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Date of Award
Spring 2012
Document Type
Restricted Thesis: Campus only access
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
English
First Advisor
Dr. Louis Schwartz
Abstract
Book IV of Paradise Lost closes with the near clash of the archfiend Satan and the Garden of Eden’s angelic guardsmen headed by the angel Gabriel. Satan, having—as we later discover—just planted a seed of curiosity in Eve’s mind in the form of a dream, is apprehended by a patrol and brought before Gabriel. A short debate about his intentions unfolds and the confrontation of invader and guard quickly comes to the brink of violence as the angels encircle Satan hoping to capture him. The violence that threatens to come out of this skirmish is described in world-ending terms and it is suggested that, had God not intervened, the battle would have cracked the world and doomed creation. But what follows has confounded critics for generations.
Recommended Citation
Wasserman, Victor J., "Though the field be lost : making sense of Milton's careful plowman, Paradise lost, IV. 983" (2012). Honors Theses. 96.
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/honors-theses/96