Characters and Symbols

 

Adam - First human, takes care of the Garden of Eden with his companion Eve.Grateful and obedient to God. In love with Eve, he joins her in the sin of eating the forbidden fruit. After falling into despair, accepts his fate with gratitude.

Eve - First woman, represents womanhood. Also accepts his fate with dignity and gratitude. Made from Adam's rib. She is weaker than Adam and Satan focuses his Power in tempt her  to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree, despite the order of God.

God the father – One part of the Christian Trinity. All-knowing and all-powerful creator of the world. He foresee the fall of mankind but does not prevent this from happening because he wants to preserves the free will.

Jesus Christ - The second part of the Trinity. He delivers the fatal blow to Satan’s forces, sending them down into Hell, before the creation of Earth. When the fall of man is predicted, He offers himself as a sacrifice to pay for the sins of mankind, so that God the Father can be both just and merciful.

Satan -  Head of the rebellious angels who have just fallen from Heaven.He is the originator of sin—the first to be ungrateful for God the Father’s blessings.He can assume any form, adopting both glorious and humble shapes.

Beelzebub -  Satan’s second-in-command. He discusses with Satan their options after being cast into Hell, they are both eloquent and rational but use their talents for wholly corrupt ends.

Belial -  One of the principal devils in Hell. Belial argues against further war with Heaven, but he does so because he is an embodiment of sloth and inactivity, not for any good reason.He is able to persuade many of the devils with his faulty reasoning.

Mammon - In the debate among the devils, he argues against war, seeing no profit to be gained from it. He believes Hell can be improved by mining the gems and minerals they find there.

Mulciber - The devil who builds Pandemonium, Satan’s palace in Hell.He is one of the most productive and skilled devils in Hell.

Moloch - He argues in Pandemonium that the devils should engage in another full war against God and his servant angels.He is rash, irrational, and murderous devil.

Sin -  Satan’s daughter, who sprang full-formed from Satan’s head when he was still in Heaven. Sin has the shape of a woman above the waist,that of a serpent below;She guards the gates of Hell.

Death -  Satan’s son by his daughter, Sin. Death in turn rapes his mother, begetting the mass of beasts that torment her lower half.

Gabriel - The chief of the angelic guards in Paradise. He is a major leader in the War in Heaven against the evil angels.

Raphael - God’s messenger to Adam to warn him of Satan’s presence in Paradise. Gracious and friendly, he still is capable of severe judgment and warns Adam particularly against unreasonable and passionate adoration of Eve.

Uriel - The regent of the Sun. Even though he is an angel, he is incapable of seeing through the mask of a hypocrite and fails to recognize Satan in his disguise as a lesser angel. He directs the evil spirit to Paradise but sees his actions in Paradise and hastily warns Gabriel that an evil spirit has gained entrance there.

Abdiel - An angelic servant of God. Alone among Lucifer’s angel hordes, he remains steadfast and is rewarded by God’s own praise and the favor of striking the first blow against Satan in the war against the rebel angels. Obviously one of the poet’s favorite creations in Paradise Lost, he is perhaps an idealized version of the poet himself.

Michael - The warrior angel. Chief of the angelic forces in the War in Heaven, he is a worthy opponent of Satan. He is God’s messenger to Adam and Eve to tell them of their banishment from Paradise and their coming death; however, he is allowed by God’s grace to foretell to Adam the future of the human race and the redemption to come.

Sources:
http://m.sparknotes.com/poetry/paradiselost/characters.html

http://www.enotes.com/topics/paradise-lost/critical-essays/paradise-lost-john-milton