Book six of John Milton's Paradise Lost is a continuation of the speech of the angel Raphael to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It tells of the fall of Satan and focuses on the battles that take place between angels and rebel angels. These battles are a prelude to the expulsion of the rebels from Heaven. Raphael must find a way to convey the details of the struggle in a way that humans can relate to. Since they are not ethereal, the ways of angels are beyond their reach. Raphael decides to tell the story as an epic battle using Homeric style and language, thus positioning this book as a sort of epic within an epic. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay As the book begins, dawn breaks over the skyscape as the angel Abdiel heads toward God and his faithful legions. At the beginning of the conflict between Satan and God, Abdiel sides with Satan. After recognizing his folly in this approach, he changes his mind and returns to God. This is a lesson offered for the benefit of Adam and Eve. This illustrates the power of free will: Abdiel did not have to side with Satan, it was not out of his control and it was through his own free will that he made the righteous decision to return to God. Abdiel's name means "Servant of God" and he represents free will directed towards the path of good. In the Bible, Abdiel is not an angel, but a person, and there has been speculation that Milton was using the angel as an allegorical character for himself and his quest to justify God's ways to men . This, if true, further complicates the effort to keep track of the separate allegories, for now one can see that there is an allegory within an allegory within an allegory. Raphael is trying to make the point that Adam and Eve should not stray from God's side in the first place, but that even if they did, hope is still not lost. Upon Abdiel's return to the ranks of the faithful, God shows his mercy and forgiveness by welcoming him with open arms and without any reprimand, thus illustrating that any of the rebellious angels, at any time, could have recognized the evil of his actions and return to God's side without fear of negative repercussions. God's justice is also manifested when He requires that His angels fight as many as there are rebellious angels in opposition. However, God also reveals himself as a force to be reckoned with by the very act of gathering troops to fight. Raphael describes the righteous angels roaming the sky to confront the rebellious angels in a way that Adam and Eve can understand; no mortal could hope to fathom the reach of Heaven. Raphael expresses it in terms that both humans can understand: “They walked over many expanses / Of the sky and over many provinces, / Increased the length of this earth tenfold” (VI, 76-78). When the rogue angels are encountered, Raphael notes the irony that the two groups now meet in a civil war who had once met "so often in feasts of joy and love" (vi, 94). Abdiel then confronts Satan, but before he speaks in an aside intended not only for the consideration of Adam and Eve, but also for Milton's audience. It follows the tradition of the Greek theater chorus, which exists for the purpose of asking important questions and drawing the audience's attention to important plot points. Abdiel wonders why Satan should still preserve an angel's healthy body when his faith and virtue have begun to rot inside. This feeling foreshadows Satan afterhis fall, when he begins to transform into more and more inferior animals, eventually becoming unrecognizable to the angels of heaven. Following this aside, Abdiel accuses Satan of thinking he had a chance to win a battle against God. Satan is reminded that he could have repented and been forgiven at any time for his transgressions, but he chose not to and is now a fallen angel. This could be a lesson in disguise for Adam and Eve, whose fall is predicted but who still have the ability to resist temptation. Satan replies that he would prefer hell to servility, to which Abdiel replies that Satan only serves himself. Abdiel then strikes Satan in anger. This blow marks the start of the battle. Michael gives the battle cry and Raphael describes the battle in epic terms to convey to Adam the incredible scale of the fight. The outcome of the battle hangs in the balance for a long time because the angels cannot die, and the rebel angels and the righteous angels are tied. Satan and the angel Michael meet on the battlefield, and Michael is optimistic that the war will now end. He does not raise his sword to Satan in the hope that Satan will relent and take his rebels to hell. In Michael's speech to Satan, he reminds Satan that he was unknown until he decided to revolt, and rebukes him for disturbing the peace of heaven and bringing misery into nature. Michael gives Satan a chance to leave and peacefully take his rebellious angels with him, before the sword casts him out. Satan tells Michael not to make aerial threats - he still believes he can win the battle. Having recognized the fact that neither will give in to the other, Michael and Satan prepare for battle. They both raise their arms to strike, but Michael's sword was given to him from God's armory and falls first. Satan is almost completely divided in two: “Satan was the first to know pain” (VI, 327). This can be seen perhaps in contradiction with Book II, line 752: "All of a sudden a miserable pain / Surprised you" - speaking of the moment when sin was born from Satan's head. However, as Sin's birth was Satan's first experience of pain, it cannot be said that he actually "knew" it, whereas Satan was capable of recognizing pain when it recurred. Likewise, before the Fall, Adam was capable of talking about Death but it was an empty idea for him; he didn't understand what it was or how it worked. But after the fall, all men experienced Death. Satan and his angels are injured, so they retire for the night and try to regroup. This book is interesting in that it frames the battle allegory that Raphael presents to Adam and Eve within the larger framework of the entire play presented by Milton. to his audience. This allegorical battle is told as an epic and, as such, is representative of Milton's familiarity with classical epics. In fact, there is a reference to Homer's Iliad in the opening lines of the book. In lines 2–4, Raphael describes the morning as opening the gates of light “with a rosy hand,” which is immediately reminiscent of Homer's “rosy-fingered dawn.” Both Dawn and Morning are personified as characters in the poem, and closely behind them the action of the poems begins. Likewise, as Satan enters the battlefield, he is described as follows: "With great strides I advance high and I come imposing, armed with iron and gold" (VI, 109-110). In the Iliad, Achilles is described as entering "the city, terrible and strong, / with high and haughty steps which he towered over." This is almost the same image as that presented by Milton and further reinforces the.