1'Satan is more moral than God'
"Milton's devil as a moral being is... far superior to his God" - Percy Shelley
2'Milton hates women'
"a Turkish contempt of females, as subordinate and inferior beings" - Dr Johnson
3'Milton had a super traditional view of gender roles'
"He thought women made only for obedience, and man only for rebellion" - Dr Johnson
4'Eve acts like Milton in defying danger'
"principles very like Milton's own move Eve to decline to let Satan's threat intere with their liberties" - Diane K. McColley
5'The imagery is cosmic'
"imagery suggestive of vast size" - T.S. Eliot
6'Satan reveals how heroic ideas are stupid'
"by measuring Satan against the heroic standards, we become conscious of the inadequacy and fragility of all the heroic virtues" - Barbara Lewalski
7'Self obsession is Hellish'
"preoccupation with self... forms the cornerstone of the infernal city" - John H Steadman
8'Satan makes heroism bad'
"The Satanic image is not simply an illusion but a perversion of true heroism" - John H Steadman
9'Satan is heroic because he wins'
""Devil is properly his Hero, because he bests the better" - John Dennis
10'Not supposed to be any hero'
"He that looks for a Hero... searches for that which Milton never intended" - Addison
11'Satan's selfishness contrasts with selflessness'
"lust of self in opposition to denial of self" - Coleridge
12'Satan lies to everyone including himself'
difficult to "distinguish his conscious lies from his blindness" - C. S. Lewis
13'We like Satan because we share his faults'
"A fallen man is very like a fallen angel" - C. S. Lewis
14'Milton ruins Satan rather than Satan ruining himself'
"[Satan] does not degenerate; he is degraded" - Waldock
15'The Fall is caused by free thinking'
"Adam and Eve fall because they think honestly for themselves as free beings, and out of love" - Dr Sean McEvoy
16Milton is pro-men
Milton exemplifies a patriarchal tradition - Gilbert and Gubar
17'Hand holding shows their good marriage'
"The joining of their hands... suggest unity and fidelity in marriage" - Jing-fen Su