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Reading schedule · Grades 9–12

Paradise Lost in 6 Weeks: A Reading Schedule

A six-week plan for reading Paradise Lost by John Milton, one section a week. Each week gives the reading, a short summary of what happens, three discussion questions and the escape room that goes with it. For grades 9–12, in class or at home.

Pacing

Rhetoric-stage students (grades 9–12) can read a section a week independently, with time to annotate and to write. The questions suit seminar discussion or short written responses, and the escape room makes a quick check on the reading before the conversation or the essay. Some sections are much longer than others, so look ahead and give the heaviest weeks extra time.

Each week ends with an escape room on that week's reading: seven self-checking locks that run in any browser, with no logins, and progress is saved, so a room can be finished another day. Every room has free taster locks to try, and members can open them all.

Print this schedule Escape rooms on Paradise Lost

Week 1: Books 1–2

Read: Books 1–2

Satan and Beelzebub wake in hell after their fall, the fallen angels gather and build their palace, Pandemonium, and the great council debates what to do. Satan offers to go alone to find the new world, meets Sin and Death at the gates of hell and journeys through Chaos.

Discussion questions

1. Why does Satan seem so impressive in these books?
2. What do the speeches at the council reveal about each speaker?
3. What does Satan's meeting with Sin and Death say about evil?

Escape room: The Fallen Host (lockedlessons.com/rooms/paradise-lost-books-1-2/)

Week 2: Books 3–4

Read: Books 3–4

The poet's hymn to light opens a scene in heaven, where the Father and the Son speak. Satan passes the Paradise of Fools, deceives the angel Uriel in disguise, speaks alone on Niphates and leaps into Paradise, where he sees Adam and Eve; the angel guards find him at Eve's ear, and he faces Gabriel.

Discussion questions

1. How does Satan's speech on Niphates change our view of him?
2. What is Adam and Eve's life in Eden like?
3. Why does Milton show heaven foreseeing the fall?

Escape room: The Garden Wall (lockedlessons.com/rooms/paradise-lost-books-3-4/)

Week 3: Books 5–6

Read: Books 5–6

Eve has a troubled dream, and after their morning hymn the angel Raphael visits and eats with Adam and Eve. He tells how the Son was raised as head of the angels, how Satan rebelled while Abdiel stood firm, and how the war in heaven was fought until it ended.

Discussion questions

1. Why is Raphael sent to Adam?
2. What makes Abdiel heroic?
3. How can a war in heaven be told in human terms?

Escape room: War in Heaven (lockedlessons.com/rooms/paradise-lost-books-5-6/)

Week 4: Books 7–8

Read: Books 7–8

The poet calls on Urania, and Raphael tells how the Son rode out to create the world in six days and rested on the seventh. Adam asks about the heavens, then tells his own first memories, his naming of the creatures, his wish for a companion and the making of Eve, before Raphael leaves with a warning.

Discussion questions

1. Why does Raphael answer Adam's questions about the heavens as he does?
2. What does Adam's wish for a companion show about human nature?
3. What does Raphael warn Adam about?

Escape room: Six Days of Making (lockedlessons.com/rooms/paradise-lost-books-7-8/)

Week 5: Books 9–10

Read: Books 9–10

Satan returns, Eve wishes to work apart from Adam, and the serpent flatters her until she eats the fruit; Adam eats too. Their shame and quarrel follow, the Son judges them, Sin and Death build their bridge, Satan returns to hell, the world is changed, and Adam and Eve are reconciled.

Discussion questions

1. Why does Eve want to work alone, and should Adam have let her?
2. Why does Adam choose to eat the fruit?
3. What brings Adam and Eve back together?

Escape room: The Serpent Speaks (lockedlessons.com/rooms/paradise-lost-books-9-10/)

Week 6: Books 11–12

Read: Books 11–12

Adam and Eve pray, and Michael comes to them; Eve grieves at leaving her flowers. From a hill Michael shows Adam visions of the future, the Flood and the rainbow, and tells of Babel, Abraham, Moses and the promised Saviour, before Adam and Eve walk out of Eden together.

Discussion questions

1. Why does Michael show Adam the future?
2. Is the ending sad, hopeful or both?
3. How has Adam changed by the end of the poem?

Escape room: The World Before Them (lockedlessons.com/rooms/paradise-lost-books-11-12/)