. The central theme of the poem deals with the Christian story of “the fall of man”. The epic tells how the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, are tempted by Satan (the serpent) to disobey God by eating the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge and how they are consequently punished by God and driven out of the garden of Eden (the paradise) with the prospect of redemption of mankind by Jesus Christ, the son of God. To this main thread of the story is added the narration of Satan (before the fall, Satan was Lucifer, the highest angel in heaven), his rebellion against God and his defeat and fail into Hell, based upon the medieval tradition of the Christian church. Milton’s purpose for writing Paradise Lost, as he puts it very clearly at the beginning of the poem, is to “assert eternal Providence and justify the ways of God to man.