There may be only one Milton, but in Paradise Lost there are at least two texts circulating at once: in the words of Richard Corum, one of “obedient submission” and another of “subversive mutiny.” This fact alone casts doubt upon the proposition that “students … would learn just as much about poetry from a professor who thought Milton was a sexist as they would from one who didn't,” only because the initial thesis (that Milton is a sexist) requires that attention be given to the first of these texts, while the second thesis (that Milton was not a sexist) cannot be seriously addressed without engaging the inner workings of both texts – their dynamic tensions and complicated interactions. One lesson to learn from these two texts, read in conjunction, is that Milton's poem is an arena for conflict, a battleground for warring values, for contrary theologies, philosophies, and politics. Milton thus gives voice to inconsistencies and to contradictions within his culture that often he cannot transcend.