Paradise Lost and the War in the Sky Since the beginning of volume 1, the war in the sky seems more than just a completed event. In reality, we have presented the formal authorized side: the war was ambitious, impious, proud, vain and ended in ruin. Satan's first speech implies that there was another side, even after partly discounting the personal tone of the defeated leader talking about the good old lost cause, the "danger in the Glorious Enterprise." This is also a formal aspect presented by the losing actor in the drama. Then Satan continues, revealing, before he can pull himself together in challenge, something more: Into what pit you see, from what height he fell, how much louder did he provide him with his thunder: and then who knew the strength of these formidable arms? (I, 91, ff) A little later, the surprise was coupled with a sort of indignation: but his force was still hidden, which tempted our attempt and caused our downfall. (I, 641 f.) We soon learn that we cannot get answers in hell, but we begin to glimpse certain questions, and the possibility of their answers appearing when we see the actual dramatic presentation of the rebellion. On the one hand, Satan's "innumerable force" receives an accurate count later: it represents only a third of the angels. And this fact will be different when we learn that God opposes the enemy force in equal numbers only, and then sets a fixed limit to the individual strength of the competitors, and then only sends the Son against the rebels, and with its limited strength. Also. Satan is so focused on shaking God's throne, against "His greater power" - "Who of the terror of this Arm so late/...... middle of paper..... .s ; and then the gigantic delicacy of the details which represent the mountains, lifted by the summits, rising towards them. In between, we are forced to look away, to separate ourselves from the action and see it as a spectator and not a participant. In the grand finale of physical ridicule, the rebels are again exposed to laughter by the interrupted point of view. They never appear so ridiculous, even in the form of a timid herd, as when they are caught isolated between front and rear. This must be understood metaphorically, as the culmination of their physical humiliation. This does not last, nor does their subsequent massive metamorphosis into snakes, with which this parallels. But it is a punishment, on a material level, for the material nature of their sin. If they regain their form in hell, it is because they regain their free will.