Satan's Entrance into the Garden of Eden.
The fourth book of Paradise Lost tells of Satan entering the Garden of Eden, seeing its beauty, seeing the beauty of man, and plotting the destruction of man as his revenge on God. Milton describes the garden in vivid detail, using both symbolism and metaphor to convey the sense of awe experienced by Satan to the reader. Satan, while in this lush, symbolic paradise, is also being described by Milton metaphorically. Milton uses this style and language to give the reader a detailed image of the story at hand, and also some insight into the political conflict that had encapsulated England at the time.
Line 174 of Book IV begins the description of the garden. Satan cannot find an easy route into the garden, since there is no nicely cleared path. This suggests that the road to paradise is a very troublesome one. The garden is encompassed by four walls, each facing the four main directions of north, south, east, and west. The garden is considered paradise, a place for only those with God's blessing. Entrance into the garden is not easily attained, it is atop a steep wooded hill and is surrounded by a thicket and shrubs, suggesting that it is not easy for one to achieve the level of righteousness required to gain entrance to paradise. The garden has only one gate, which could mean there is only one way into paradise: through God. Satan cannot enter this way, since one can only obtain entrance through God. It makes sense that the gate would face the east, from where the sun rises. Satan enters the garden by scaling the opposite wall, or to the west side where the sun sets. In this metaphor God is represented as the light and Satan is represented by the darkness. Outside the garden the world is a harsh wilderness but inside the walls it is described much differently.
After Satan leaps over the west wall of the garden, he perches himself in the Tree of Life and looks around at the creation of his enemy, God.
