Paradise Lost Arguments

In Book II of Paradise Lost, by John Milton, suffering demons have a debate about the course of action that they are going to take in what seems to be a satire of a formal political debate. Four different demons spoke and each demon demonstrating both the nature of his own personality and the type of sin he represents. Moloch, Scepter King, argued for open war on Heaven. Next Belial spoke on behalf of a slothful method of hiding from God until God forget or forgives them. Mammon refuses to serve under god and proposes that they advance Hell into their own kingdom. And finally, Beelzebub speaks his evil plan of revenge which is voted to be actual plan. Each argument seemed to be appealing and some even seemed logical, but the arguments of each

His speech pleads for war and he does not care what the consequences are. Moloch believes that nothing can get worse than their present state in Hell, so he believes that they mine as well make their mark. They have been forced "to dwell here, driv'n out from bliss, condemned" for eternity (II.86). The worst case scenario is that they will be destroyed, but that would not be too bad because they would no longer have to endure hell. On the other hand if they are really immortal then they can have the power sufficient to disturb heaven and "if not Victory is yet Revenge," so any outcome would be a success in his mind (II.105). Moloch and his argument are violent and they both suffer from having the Will turned from God towards evil. He Wills violence without thought making his whole argument corrupted by his sinful ways; his call for desperate revenge is not the

His highly respected presence silences the crowd. Beelzebub first disarms war by saying that they have already lost the war when they fought in heaven and peace will not work because as of now they are the slaves to the punishment of God. Then he argues an idea that was first devised by Satan. He wishes to attack God by corrupting God's other beloved new creation, Man. Beelzebub presents the plan to corrupt man and make man fall just as they had fallen from their spots in heaven as angels. Beelzebub uses rhetoric like Belial that first disarms the other arguments and presences his argument as the only solution. He also appeals to the emotion of the group by getting the ultimate revenge on God who has chosen to punish and enslave them. They all voted and believed Satan's plan "which from the lowest deep / Will once more lift us up" and begin putting the plan into action