Adam and Eve discuss the dangers (251-384)

But other doubt possesses me

Double entendre of 'possesses' perpetuates ideas of of possessiveness and being possessed.

Lest harm/Befall thee

Manipulation of latinate syntax. Emphasis on 'fall' foreshadows.

Severed from me

Violent. Image of division. Ironic as Eve was literally born of him.

What hath been warned us - what malicious foe.

Chastising.

Envying our happiness, and of his own/Despairing

Chimes with Satan's soliloquy.

Seeks to work us woe and shame/By sly assault

Link to 'world of woe'. Alliterative emphasis on the woe. Internal rhyme creates a mournful musicality.

With greedy hope

Ideas of appetite and hunger. Link to 'satiate'.

Hopeless to circumvent us joined

"Circumvent' perfectly describes Satan's movements. Circular imagery creates a sense of claustrophobia and entrapment.

Whether his first design be to withdraw/Our fealty to God

Ideas of duty and service. Logical and correct argument from Adam

Perhaps no bliss/Enjoyed by us excites his envy more

Faulty argument by Adam. This misinterpretation portrays him as profoundly humane.

Leave not the faithful side/That gave thee being

Double meaning of 'faithful side'. Adam asserts his authority.

Shades thee and protects

Images of safety and protection.

The wife, where danger or dishonour lurks/Safest and seemliest by her husband stays

Milton's philosophy. Alliterative d's link to 'defaced, deflow'red'. Ideas of danger paralleled by ideas of protection. Sibilant sounds serve as a reminder that Satan is lurking in even the safest of places.

With her the worst endures

Adam as a protective patriarch.

To whom the virgin majesty of Eve

Epithet elevates Eve after Adam subordinates

With sweet austere composure thus replied

Eve is portrayed as calm, regal, aesthetically appealing and controlled.

Offspring of Heaven and Earth, and all Earth’s lord

Series of epithets of praise. Flattery or sarcasm?

Our ruin

Unified

From the parting Angel overheard

Reestablishes sense of hierarchy

But that thou shouldst my firmness therefore doubt/To God or thee, because we have a foe/May tempt it, I expected not to hear

Shift to personal tone. Vanity or hurt? Weaponising her own victimhood.

As we, not capable of death or pain

No fear. Milton's attempt at unifying pre and postlapsarian concepts.

His fraud is, then, thy fear

Alliterative ties two concepts together, linking Satan with fear and foreshadowing the fall.

Which plain infers/Thy equal fear that my firm faith and love/Can by his fraud be shaken or seduced

Repetition of fraud. Alliterative link between 'fear' and 'faith'. Rhetorical shift is proleptically ironic and painfully human.

Which how found they harbour in thy breast

Bodily imagery suggests ideas of love and tenderness. Highlights how hurt Eve is.