In our fourth reading assignment, Satan gives this heroic speech about the battle they have lost, and how god is at fault for not showing his full power. The interesting line though was when Satan says "So as neither to provoke, or dread/ New warr, provok't..."(645-646). These lines are echoed by the speeches of Moloch and Belial later. Moloch is all for the next war while Belial prefers not doing anything else to provoke God. Milton must have forgottent to turn the page, or maybe this is an imitation of group dynamics. After Satan's great speech, each demon tries to gain the respect of his peers by pulling parts of the fame.
Even Beelzebub's idea to begin tempting the humans is echoed in the lines following.
Some of the conventions of epic poetry are long speeches that do contain repetition of key ideas. Modern readers see this as wordy and unnecessary. But this device is left over, perhaps, from the oral tradition. Listeners may have needed such repetition, don't you think? Maybe you remember this being a characteristic of The Odyssey and Beowulf?
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