This new reading of Paradise Lost concentrates on the analysis of linguistic concepts underlying Milton's epic, and then builds on those concepts with a fresh interpretation that considers the role that Raphael plays in it. Relying on a narrative model that was already well-known in the seventeenth century and was baptized godgame by the twentieth century British novelist John Fowles, it reinterprets the role of the archangel as that of a tool in the great plan of Milton's Father's 'ironic' teaching. This book complements a basically linguistic approach to Milton's poetry and prose with concepts such as that of retraction adopted from 'heretical' Milton critics as Saurat, Hill, and Empson.

"Kuester's argument is lucid and perspicacious, and this book consolidates the argument that Milton viewed semiotic mediation as beneficent and necessary for redemption, rather than as punishment for the Fall…. Fine study into the burgeoning body of important work on Milton's political ethics of representation." - Milton Quarterly