English assignment
English103: Critical Thinking and English Composition
Assignment #1: Literary Analysis
Choose one of the questions below for your essay response. You are not
required to include outside research for this essay. Your paper should be 5 – 6
typed, double-spaced pages. Remember to support your opinions by reference to
the texts, and be sure to quote passages from the literary texts. Please see the
(attached) English Department’s rubric for the grading criteria.
1. In his epic poem Paradise Lost, John Milton recounts the story of the revolt
of Satan and his banishment from Heaven, and the Fall of man and his
expulsion from Eden. Compare the Adam and Eve in the Biblical Genesis to
their counterparts in Milton’s work.
2. Although Milton’s Eve has a jealous and possessive impulse, one cannot
ignore her other noble impulses of love and self-sacrifice. On some
occasions, Eve is at least Adam’s equal in both intellect and argumentative
power. Her desire to work apart may be based on pride and wandering vanity,
as Adam says, but the poem does not allow us to assess her motives. Eve
argues for freedom and growth, while Adam argues for prudence, playing it
safe, and stasis. Rather than causing the Fall of mankind, is Eve in fact the
heroine of Paradise Lost?
3. Satan is often considered to be the epic hero of Paradise Lost. Throughout
the text, Milton’s God is described as a tyrant, whereas Satan is a
compassionate leader of the underdog. Regretting his actions, Satan feels
ashamed of his vain boast to subdue God and laments that Adam and Eve
have found happiness in Eden, while Hell is his prison. His evil intentions
result from exclusion rather than callous apathy. Satan appears more
emotional and less conniving than the devil of Biblical renown and assumes a
heroic position in early modern works, primarily because he encourages
individuality, and because people could identify with his conflicted desires and
personality flaws (his willfulness, courage, and endurance dwindle to “ire,
envy, and despair”). Do you feel sympathetic to Milton’s Satan?
4. The 1997 movie “The Devil’s Advocate” directed by Taylor Hackford shares
similar themes with Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, John Milton’s
Paradise Lost, and Goethe’s Faust. Choose one of the three essay
questions: a) Both Dorian Gray and the talented novice attorney Kevin
Lomax (played by Keanu Reeves) lack father figures, and both are influenced
by their wicked mentors to indulge in pleasure and to commit sin. Hackford’s
film features Al Pacino, who plays Satan in disguise as the head of a major
international law firm, and who is a charming and persuasive mentor to a
naïve and impressionable protagonist. Pacino’s character – named John
Milton – sees women as entertainment for men, and has disturbing thoughts
about women. As Kevin’s boss, he intentionally keeps the young man busy
and away from his wife Mary by having Kevin devote all of his time to the law
firm, encouraging Kevin’s sinful tendencies. Similarly, Lord Henry is a toxic
influence on Dorian in regards to his misogynistic views on women, and the
jaded aristocrat is cynical about marriage. Both protagonists allow temptation
and vanity to dominate their lives, though they are warned by a loved one of
what the future could hold for them: Kevin has a religious mother, Alice, who
asks her son to turn to God and to pray for light to enter his life, while Dorian
has Basil, a compassionate friend who tries to keep the naive young man
sheltered from the world and also advises Dorian to follow his higher soul.
Compare and contrast Wilde’s novel and Hackford’s highly entertaining film.
b) Analyze similarities between “The Devil’s Advocate” and John Milton’s
Paradise Lost.
c) You may also compare this film with Goethe’s Faust, who sold his soul to
the devil, as the Faustian legend did in fact serve as an inspiration for this
film.
5. Milton’s Satan shares undeniable parallels with Lord Henry Wotton as both
characters are great orators who are very persuasive and wish to manipulate
and to corrupt others. Both diabolical figures are tempters who encourage
immorality and express a strong dislike and disregard for the conventions of
society. Dorian Gray, much like Milton’s Satan, experiences a physical
degradation due to his moral corruption, though both do possess a
conscience. Dorian also shares many characteristics – such as beauty, vanity,
individualism, selfishness, sinful self-indulgence, a weak will, and remorse –
with another Miltonic counterpart: Eve. Compare and contrast
Paradise Lost
and The Picture of Dorian Gray.
6. The film “American Psycho”, a psychological thriller that was released in the
year 2000 and was based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis, shares
similarities with Oscar Wilde’s novel. The film’s central character Patrick
Bateman, a wealthy Wall Street banking executive, shares parallels with
Dorian Gray as both protagonists are narcissistic, vain, self-obsessed, and
misogynistic. Both young men indulge in excessive material consumption,
both are driven by rage, and both characters commit murder. Compare/
contrast Wilde’s novel and this film.
7. In Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian’s nature is gray as good
and evil are locked in combat within him. “Your voice and the voice of Sibyl
Vane are two things that I shall never forget. When I close my eyes, I hear
them, and each of them says something different. I don’t know which to
follow”, exclaims Dorian to his diabolical mentor. Just as the hedonist Lord
Henry Wotton is the voice of evil, the morally virtuous Sibyl Vane – reinforced
by Basil Hallward – is the voice of goodness in Dorian. When Sibyl dies, Basil
becomes exclusively the voice of goodness for the impressionable young
man. Dorian starts his inner journey caught between the caution of Basil, the
dispassionate logic of Lord Henry, and the passionate zeal of Sibyl. Discuss
Dorian’s inner turmoil – the battle between his higher soul and lower soul –
throughout Wilde’s novel: how do Lord Henry, Sibyl, and Basil reflect Dorian’s
inner conflict between good and evil?
Rubric
Essay Rubric 103 (1)
Criteria Ratings Pts
This criterion
is linked to a
Learning
Outcome
Critical
Thinking
10.0 pts
Excellent
Exhibits
clear,
logical, and
analytical
writing, with
depth and
complexity.
8.0 pts
Good
Exhibits
logical and
analytical
writing with
occasional
depth but less
complexity.
7.0 pts
Competent
Exhibits minimal
analytical writing
with occasional
disconnected
thought, or
lapses of logic.
5.0 pts
Weak
Exhibits
writing with
below-level
analyses,
and/or
conclusions
that do not
follow.
10.0 pts
This criterion
is linked to a
Learning
Outcome
Organization
10.0 pts
Excellent
Introduces
a strong
thesis,
followed by
paragraphs
with quotes
from a
literary text
that
precisely
relate back
to the
controlling
idea.
8.0 pts
Good
Introduces with a
cliched or
standard thesis,
with paragraphs
generally
relating back,
but with
digressive
and/or
underdeveloped
parts.
7.0 pts
Competent
Introduces
with a weak
or
uncommitted
thesis, with
paragraphs
that might
flow toward a
controlling
idea, but are
loosely and/or
generally
connected.
5.0 pts
Weak
Introduces
with either a
weak thesis
or none, with
paragraphs
sometimes
related to a
controlling
idea, but
others are not
or are
off-topic, as
well as
quotes that
are
awkwardly
related back
or are not
even
provided.
10.0 pts
This criterion
is linked to a
Learning
Outcome
Support and
Documentati
on
10.0 pts
10.0 pts
Excellent
Provides
paragraphs
that
integrate
and
properly
cite quotes,
as well as
avoid
plagiarism.
8.0 pts
Good
Provides
paragraphs
that
effectively
offer, if not
always
integrate,
and/or
document
them, but
does avoid
plagiarism.
7.0 pts
Competent
Provides
paragraphs
that do not
integrate
quotes nor
always
document
them, but
does avoid
plagiarism
for the most
part.
5.0 pts
Weak
Provides
paragraphs with
quotes that are
awkwardly
introduced and/or
are not clearly
related, with writing
that frequently
resorts to
generalization,
and/or redundancy,
and/or plagiarism.
Total Points: 30.0
https://youtu.be/ZHDWstQ-2oE
Paradise Lost
Lecture Series 1B
BOOK 1/ PARADISE LOST
Justify the ways of God to man
→ the epic poem starts with an invocation, calling upon a “Heavenly Muse” to aid the
author in crafting a work “unattempted yet in prose or rhyme” (1. 6-16). Yes, we have an
egotistical author!
→ Milton’s lofty goal is to “justify the ways of God to men” (1.26).
→ so, after we have completed this literary work, my question to you is: does Milton in
fact “justify the ways of God to man”?
→ within the first few lines of the poem, Milton tells us its theme: the story of our first
parents Adam and Eve, who ate fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and
by this brazen act of disobedience, they lost for us the gift of immortality, bringing “death
into the world” and sorrow: “Of man’s first disobedience, and the fruit/ Of that forbidden
tree whose mortal taste/ Brought death into the world, and all our woe,/ With loss of
Eden, till one greater Man/ Restore us, and regain the blissful seat” (1.1-5).
→ the “greater Man” is Christ, who regained man’s place in Paradise
Paradise Lost
Lecture Series 1C
BOOK 4/ PARADISE LOST
Hell is a state of mind
→ this book begins with the narrator hoping for someone to warn “our first parents”
about the entrance of Satan – “their secret foe” – into Paradise (4.6-7).
→ Satan, “inflamed with rage” as genuine angels should never be, is full of anger: “The
tempter ere th’ accuser of mankind,/ To wreak on innocent frail man his loss/ Of that first
battle, and his flight to Hell” (4.10-13).
→ we learn so many life lessons from the classics of literature, and I remember this
passage about the “antagonist of Heaven” Satan whenever I feel sad: “Horror and doubt
distract/ His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom stir/ The Hell within him; for within
him Hell/ He brings round about him, nor from Hell/ One step no more than from himself
can fly/ By change of place” (4.18-23).
==> Hell is not just a physical realm; even though Satan is approaching Paradise, he
finds that he’s still in Hell, as Hell is a state of mind here
→ here is another great quote from Book 1 echoing the same theme: “The mind is its
own place, and in itself/ can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven” (1.254-255)
→ moments later, the much-anguished Satan is still a sympathetic figure: “Me
miserable! Which way shall I fly/ Infinite wrath and infinite despair?/ Which way I fly is
Hell; myself am Hell;/ And in the lowest deep a lower deep/ Still threatening to devour
me opens wide,/ To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heaven” (4.73-78).
→ we discover that the “Adversary of God and Man” has a conscience, which makes
him an endearing character: “Now conscience wakes despair/ That slumbered, wakes
the bitter memory/ Of what he was, what is, and what must be/ Worse; of worse deeds,
worse sufferings must ensue” (4.23-26).
→ this is a poignant moment for Satan, who is aware of his degeneration and realizes
“what he was [Lucifer, Heaven’s highest angel], what is, and what must be worse”.
The Sin of Pride
→ as Satan approaches the Garden of Eden, we see his disoriented emotional state as
his mind is “much revolving”, and he reveals his inner turmoil when he addresses the
sun: “O sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams,/ That bring to my remembrance from
what state/ I fell, how glorious once above they sphere,/ Till pride and worse ambition
threw me down,/ Warring in Heaven against Heaven’s matchless King!” (4.31-41). Satan
recalls his past grandeur and magnificence, and his now moral degeneration
→ ironically, he was once the “light-bearer” Lucifer but has been demoted to the darkest
realms of Hell
→ despite his anger and despair, this is Satan’s moment of self-awareness, and he
sees everything clearly, admitting that “pride and worse ambition” caused his revolt
against “Heaven’s all-powerful King”: “He [God] deserved no such return/ From me,
whom he created what I was/ In that bright eminence, and with his good/ Upbraided
none; nor was his service hard./ What could be less than to afford him praise,/ The
easiest recompense, and pay him thanks,/ How due! Yet all his good proved ill in me,/
And wrought but malice. Lifted up so high,/ I’disdained subjection, and thought one step
higher/ Would set me highest, and in a moment quit/ The debt immense of endless
gratitude,/ So burdensome, still paying, still to owe,/ Forgetful what from him I still
received” (4.42-54).
→ Disdaining “subjection”, Satan has too much pride to subject himself to God’s
will
→ the “Arch-Fiend” admits that he himself is responsible for his fall, and he also admits
his inability to allow anyone – even the “King of Heaven” – to be superior to him
→ although he was once Heaven’s highest angel, due to his dignity, the “false
archangel” could not acknowledge God as his superior
→ “Hell’s dread Emperor” can never repent and refuses to submit to God: “O then at
last relent! Is there no place/ Left for repentance, none for pardon left?/ None left but by
submission; and that word/ Disdain forbids me, and my dread of shame/ Among spirits
beneath whom I seduced/ With other promises and other vaunts/ Than to submit,
boasting I could subdue/ Th’ omnipotent” (4.79-86).
→ here, Satan is also saying that he doesn’t want to look bad to his followers, who are
one-thirds of Heaven’s angels that were “seduced” by him to Hell
→ the “lost archangel” admits that he had the “free will and power to stand”, and Satan
is the incarnation of free will, which makes him an attractive figure as he revolts against
the authoritarian government of Heaven (4.66). The word “freedom” and similar terms
like “liberty” and “free will” appear frequently in this poem
→ this is why the 19th century Romantic era writers embraced the proud figure of
Satan as a romantic one; the Romantic hero rebels against society, not wanting
to submit to an authority figure
→ however, freedom can be abused and misused, as perhaps Milton had meant to
show in Satan’s fall
→ the “Antagonist of Heaven” knowingly chooses evil. Deliberately, knowing fully what
he is doing, Satan chooses wrongly, refusing to submit to God or to repent: “So farewell
hope, and with hope farewell fear,/ Farewell remorse! All good to me is lost;/ Evil be
thou my good” (4.108-110).
→ Satan’s once admirable qualities have degenerated to “ire, envy, and despair”, and
his physical degeneration reflects his moral degradation (4.115).
→ he is the “Artificer of fraud; and was the first/ That practiced falsehood under saintly
show,/ Deep malice to conceal, couched with revenge” (4.121-123).
“A Heaven on Earth”
→ the “Arch Enemy” – likened to a predatory wolf – refuses to submit to God’s
pronouncement and leaps over the fence and enters into the Garden of Eden: “when
the arch-felon saw/ Due entrance he disdained, and in contempt/ At one slight bound
high overleaped all bound/ Of hill or highest wall, and sheer within/ Lights on his feet. As
when a prowling wolf,/ Whom hunger drives to seek new haunt for prey,/ Watching
where shepherds pen their flocks” (4. 179-185).
→ the “first grand thief” Satan comes to a grove of trees that surround Eden and
assumes several disguises as animals to better overhear then to act upon his prey
(Adam and Eve), and when he first enters the Garden of Eden, he flies as a cormorant
into the Tree of Life where – ironically – he sits “devising death” for Eden’s innocent
inhabitants (4.197).
→ “Our Adversary” Satan schemes to overthrow immortality
==> for those who have (in my opinion) misguided sympathy for Satan until this point, I
empathize now with “our first parents”, the innocent Adam and Eve
→ Milton’s description of the Garden of Eden – “A Heaven on Earth” – reflects the purity
and chastity of Adam and Eve as the natural world here parallels the purity and
harmony of its innocent inhabitants
→ The Garden is Eden is described as a sensual place where “Nature’s whole wealth”
is “To all delight of human sense exposed” (4.206-207).
==> the season is one of “eternal Spring”, and sensuous details abound here: the rich
fertility of the soil, the fragrant breezes and scents, and water overflows from the
brooks, rivers, and fountains
→ however, we know that if something seems too good to be true, it usually is too good
to be true: “In this pleasant soil/ His far more pleasant garden God ordained./ Out of the
fertile ground he caused to grow/ All trees of nobles kind for sight, smell, and taste;/ And
all amid them stood the Tree of Life,/ High eminent, blooming ambrosial fruit/ Of
vegetable gold: and next to life,/ Our death, The Tree of Knowledge, grew fast by -/
Knowledge of good bought dear by knowing ill” (4.214-222).
==> the fact that the Garden contains this forbidden fruit shows that the potential
for wrongdoing and evil exists here
→ moments later, Milton’s depiction of the Garden of Eden foreshadows anguish and
gloom when the author refers to Dis, or the city of Hell, in his description of the Edenic
landscape (4.270).
→ Adam and Eve are depicted as nearly perfect, in the image of their God – “the Most
High Eternal Father” – to whom absolute perfection belongs: “Two of far nobler shape,
erect and tall,/ Godlike erect, with native honor clad/ In naked majesty, seemed lords of
all,/ And worthy seemed; for in their looks divine/ The image of their glorious Maker
shone” (4.288-292).
==> however, only God can possess absolute perfection, just as human beings –
through free will – are prone to make mistakes
→ friendly note to feminists: we must realize that the 17th century attitude was one
where women were second to men in the patriarchal order, and female subordination is
quite apparent here: “Whence true authority in men; though both/ Not equal, as their sex
not equal seemed;/ For contemplation he and valor formed,/ For softness she and
sweet attractive grace:/ he for God only, she for God in him” (4.295-299)
→ one could argue that if Eve had felt more equal to Adam, she may not have
suggested (in Book 9) that they work apart and alone, which is when she would fall to
Satan’s deception
→ Milton’s first description of Eve portrays her as a compelling figure: “She, as a veil
down to the slender waist,/ Her unadorned golden tresses wore/ Disheveled, but in
wanton ringlets waved/ As the vine curls her tendrils, which implied/ Subjection, but
required with gentle sway,/ And by her yielded by him best received,/ Yielded with coy
submission, modest pride,/ And sweet, reluctant, amorous delay” (4.304-311).
→ interestingly – and coincidentally – Eve’s golden hair picks up the color of the
forbidden fruit, which is of “vegetable gold” and “burnished with golden rind” (4.220,
249).
→ What is Milton implying here? Does he think the potentiality for evil exists in Eve in
this reference?
→ furthermore, Milton has several references to Eve’s veil throughout the poem: does
this veil reference imply a negative connotation, as if she is hiding something?
→ life in the Garden of Eden is easy, as there’s only enough labor for Adam and Eve to
make their evening meal, and they have an easy life in Eden
→ Milton’s depiction of Paradise is enchanting, but Eden lacks vitality, and life there
seems rather dull: “How from that sapphire fount the crisped brooks,/ Rolling on orient
pearl and sands of gold,/ with mazy error under pendant shades/ Ran nectar”
(4.237-240).
==> it’s no wonder that Eve will eventually want to venture out alone, perhaps due to
restlessness
→ do you think that Milton’s Paradise is too boring? In other words, is it a welcome
prospect to have an easy life, or are life’s difficulties, which can be overcome to achieve
something, more rewarding?
Vengeance is wrong
→ Satan, from his high perch on the Tree of Life, glimpses the scene of innocence and
love between Adam and Eve, and he still has enough angelic conscience to feel
hesitation for what he plans to do.
→ the fallen angel reveals the noble characteristics that he still possesses when first
spotting Adam and Eve, as his admiration for the couple leads him to the brink of love:
“When Satan, still in gaze as first he stood,/ Scarce thus at length failed speech
recovered sad:/ ‘O Hell! What do mine eyes with grief behold?/ Into our room of bliss
thus high-advanced/ Creatures of other mold, Earth-born perhaps,/ Not spirits, yet to
heavenly spirits bright/ Little inferior; whom my thoughts pursue/ With wonder, and could
love; so lovely shines/ In them divine resemblance, and such grace/ The hand that
formed them on their shape hath poured’ ” (4.356-365).
→ after his glimpse of Adam and Eve, however, Satan inaudibly tells them that “the
Great Architect” God is to blame for wronging Satan, not he for wronging them; his
actions against our first parents, he says, are a consequence of God’s actions: “Ah!
Gentle pair, ye little think how nigh/ Your change approaches, when all these delights/
Will vanish, and deliver ye to woe,/ More woe, the more your taste is now of joy”
(4.366-369).
→ for Satan sympathizers, we may change our point-of-view at this point when “our
almighty Foe” declares his malicious intent: “Accept your Maker’s work; he gave it to
me,/ Which I as freely give. Hell shall unfold,/ To entertain you two, her widest gates,/
And send forth all her kings; there will be room,/ Not like these narrow limits, to receive/
Your numerous offspring; if no better place,/ Thank him who puts me, loath, to this
revenge/ On you, who wrong me not, for him who wronged” (4.380-387).
==> here, the gate of salvation is narrow, whereas the gates of Hell are wide and
spacious
→ despite his diabolical qualities, the “Arch Enemy” does at least feel a little reluctance
about proceeding forward: “ Honor and empire with revenge enlarged/ By conquering
this new world – compels me now/ To do what else, though damned, I should abhor”
(4.390-392).
→ as Satan moves closer to Adam and Eve – his prey – he transforms into several
animals: first as a lion, then in the form of a tiger to better overhear the intimate
conversation between the innocent pair; the former “glorious Archangel” will eventually,
in Book 9, transform himself into a vile serpent
God’s sole prohibition
→ in this scene, “Sire of Men” Adam speaks about the one command of the “World’s
Great Author” God under the penalty of death: he is not to eat fruit from the Tree of
Knowledge and Good and Evil
→ as Adam discloses God’s sole prohibition to his “sole auditress” Eve, his formal
rhetoric show his gratitude to the “Great Creator” as well as his respect, affection, and
devotion to Eve: “Adam first of men/ To first of women Eve thus moving speech,/
Turned him all ear to hear new utterance flow./ ‘Sole partner and sole part of all these
joys,/ Dearer thyself than all; needs must the power/ That made us, and for us this
ample world,/ Be infinitely good, and of his good/ As liberal and free as infinite,/ That
raised us from the dust and placed us here/ In all this happiness . . ./ he who requires/
From us no other service than to keep/ This one, this easy charge, of all the trees/ In
Paradise that bear delicious fruit/ So various, not to taste that only Tree/ Of knowledge,
planted by the Tree of Life,/ So near death grows to life, whate’er death is,/ Some
dreadful thing, no doubt; for well thou know’ st/ God hath pronounced it death to taste
that tree,/ The only sign of our obedience left/ Among so many signs of power and rule/
Conferred upon us’ ” (4.408-430).
→ Adam is so innocent, he does not even understand the concept of death!
→ Eve will now begin her story about how she remembers coming into existence, but
before doing so, she acknowledges Adam’s authority that again reflects the patriarchal
society of Milton’s time: “ O thou for whom/ And from whom I was formed flesh of thy
flesh,/ And without whom am to no end, my guide/ And head” (4.440-443).
→ Later in Book 4, Eve herself refers to Adam again as her superior: “My author and
disposer, what thou bidst/ Unargued I obey: so God ordains./ God is thy law, thou mine.
To know no more/ Is woman’s happiest knowledge and her praise” (4.635-638).
Perhaps if she had felt equal to Adam, she would not have ventured out alone to work
independently and later unwittingly become deceived by Satan
You’re so vain
→ Eve is fascinated with her own looks and falls in love with her own fair appearance
→ we first glimpse her narcissistic ways when she is drawn to look into a lake and is
caught staring at her own reflection: “As I bent down to look, just opposite,/ A shape
within the watery gleam appeared,/ Bending to look on me. I started back,/ It started
back; but pleased I soon returned,/ Pleased it returned as soon with answering looks/ Of
sympathy and love. There I had fixed/ Mine eyes till now, and pined with vain desire”
(4.459-466).
→ moments later, when she sees Adam for the first time, his image is far less agreeable
than the one of herself in the lake-mirror; she prefers her own image to his “manly
grace”, and the only way she can be persuaded (by an angel’s voice) to leave the pool
and to become “our general mother” is if she’s promised many more like herself in her
own image: “he whose image thou art, him shalt enjoy/ Inseparably thine, to him shalt
bear/ Multitudes like thyself, and thence be called/ Mother of the human race”
(4.472-475)
→ Although Milton likens “our first mother” to the mythical Narcissus, the Greek figure
had no perfect partner and no divine guide; Eve, however, has found fulfillment with
Adam instead of pining with vain desire like Narcissus
→ Later in Book 9, Satan appeals to Eve’s vanity and draws her attention by
speaking flatteringly to her, calling her by titles such as “sovereign mistress”,
“empress”, and “goddess”. He will tempt her to eat the forbidden fruit by
appealing to her vanity
==> do you see Eve as vain in this episode, or does she seem to have the simplicity of
a child who is simply attracted to beauty?
The Sin of Jealousy
→ meanwhile, the “undaunted Fiend” Satan has overheard Adam’s revelation of God’s
one command and Eve’s background story, and as he watches the “conjugal attraction”
between Adam and Eve, he is inflamed with jealousy, giving them a dirty look: “ So
spake our general mother, and with eyes/ Of conjugal attraction unreproved/ And meek
surrender, half-embracing leaned/ On our first father; half her swelling breast/ Naked
met his under the flowing gold/ Of her loose tresses hid. He in delight/ Both of her
beauty and submissive charms/ Smiled with superior love . . ./ and pressed her matron
lip/ With kisses pure. Aside the Devil turned/ For envy, yet with jealous leer malign/
Eyed them askance” (4.492-504).
→ to Satan, the love scene is a “Sight hateful, sight tormenting! Thus these two/
Imparadised in one another’s arms,/ The happier Eden, shall enjoy their fill/ Of bliss on
bliss, while I to Hell am thrust,/ Where neither joy or love, but fierce desire,/ Among our
other torments not the least,/ Still unfulfilled with pain of longing pines” (4.505-512).
Clearly, the lust of the “Arch Fiend” is aroused at this sight
→ the information that Satan has overheard gives him what he needs for a plan of
action
→ the “traitor angel” says that God keeps man ignorant and subservient: “Knowledge
forbidden?/ Suspicious, reasonless. Why should their lord/ Envy them that? Can it be a
sin to know,/ Can it be death? And do they only stand/ By ignorance, is that their happy
state,/ The proof of their obedience and their faith? . . . Hence I will excite their minds/
With more desire to know, and to reject/ Envious commands, invented with design/ To
keep them low whom knowledge might exalt/ Equal with gods.”(4.515 – 526).
→ Satan claims that God forbids knowledge and hides it to increase His power
→ some believe that the figure of Satan in some ways helped humanity to find the true
meaning of life outside of Paradise; he can actually be credited with wanting to bring
enlightenment to humanity, making the case that knowledge should not be forbidden,
and its pursuit should not be restricted within bounds
Paradise Lost Lecture
Series 2B
BOOK 8/ PARADISE LOST
“Dream not of other worlds”
→ Book 8 begins with the “affable archangel” Raphael, who is sent by God to
strengthen Adam’s faith and to warn “our first father” about Satan’s approach; Raphael
is like a protector and wise instructor
→ the main theme of this book is the proper place of human knowledge, and its relation
to faith
→ the Heavenly angel Raphael warns Adam to be “lowly wise” and to not trouble
himself with details about astronomy. Adam admits to having a desire for knowledge,
but the “angel serene” Raphael teaches Adam the restraints on the pursuit of
knowledge.
→ the “Heavenly Guest” Raphael, reproaches Adam when he has questions about the
astronomical systems, and Raphael says that nature is not always to be divined by
human intelligence: “Solicit not thy thoughts with matters hid,/ Leave them to God
above, him serve and fear . . . joy thou/ In what he gives thee, this Paradise/ And they
fair Eve; heaven is for thee too high/ To know what passes there; be lowly wise:/ Think
only what concerns thee and thy being; Dream not of other worlds” (8.167 – 175)
→ the “godlike angel” Raphael lectures Adam about astronomy, and the “ethereal
messenger” says that Adam should not trouble himself with distant details
→ the divine intercessor Raphael makes it clear that man should desire knowledge but
only within bounds: “But apt the mind or fancy is to rove/ Unchecked, and of her roving
is no end;/ Till warned, or by experience taught, she learn,/ That not to know at large of
things remote/ From use, obscure and subtle, but to know/ That which before us lies in
daily life,/ Is the prime wisdom” (8.188 – 194)
→ the Heavenly angel warns Adam about the pursuit of excessive learning beyond
appropriate human limits, which Satan will later encourage in Eve
==> Why should there be restraints on the pursuit of knowledge? Why can’t one
dream of other worlds, like aerospace scientists at NASA?
→ interestingly, the “pure Intelligence of Heaven” Raphael says that he was guarding
the gates of Hell and was absent when the Creation of mankind occurred, and we get a
sense of God’s unruly temper here: “”while God was at his work,/ Lest he incensed at
such eruption bold,/ Destruction with creation might have mixed” (8.234-236).
→ in other words, if “Heaven’s perpetual King” was interrupted during Creation, He may
have destroyed what he sought to create!
→ here, Raphael mentions that a spy cannot come from Hell without God’s knowledge
and permission
→ Adam now gives his account of how he came into being, waking up from his creation,
at first like an infant; Adam is innately good, as he gazes Heavenward after he awakens
→ “Sire of Men” Adam relates to Raphael how he gained the faculty of speech and
began naming parts of the natural landscape, then praising his Creator (8.250-277).
→ Adam has no knowledge of who he is, or what brought him into existence: “But who I
was, or where, or from what cause,/ Knew not.” (8.269-270).
→ Adam then perceives a chaperone of “shape divine” who guides him through the
Garden of “bliss” to the Supreme Creator (8.295-310).
God’s “sole command”
→ “First Father” Adam is now addressed by “Heaven’s high King” God, who sternly
warns him against the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil: “Here had new begun/ My
wandering, had not he who was my guide/ Up hither, from among the trees appeared,/
Presence divine. Rejoicing, but with awe,/ In adoration at his feet I fell/ Submiss: he
reared me, and, ‘Whom thou soughtest I am,’/ Said mildly, ‘author of all this thou seest/
Above or round about thee or beneath./ This Paradise I give thee, count it thine/ To till
and keep, and of the fruit to eat./ Of every tree that in the garden grows/ Eat freely with
glad heart; fear here no dearth./ But of the tree who operation brings/ Knowledge of
good and ill, which I have set/ The pledge of thy obedience and thy faith/ Amid the
garden by the Tree of Life,/ Remember what I warn thee, shun to taste/ And shun the
bitter consequence: for know/ The day though eat’ st thereof, my sole command/
Transgressed, inevitably though shalt die,/ From that day mortal, and this happy state/
Shalt lose, expelled from hence into a world/ Of woe and sorrow.’ Sternly he
pronounced/ The rigid interdiction, which resounds/ Yet dreadful in mine ear”
(8.311-334).
→ then in gentler tones, “our Great Maker” bestows the Earth and all its animals to
Adam’s care, and tells Adam to respect them
My better half
→ as Adam is naming all the paired animals, he also desires a mate like the other
creatures, though he reasons that he is superior to an animal: “But in these/ I found not
what methought I wanted still” (8.354-355).
→ Adam realizes that he does not wish to be alone and asks the “Great Architect” God
for a mate: “In solitude/ What happiness? Who can enjoy alone,/ Or all enjoying, what
contentment find?” (8.364-366).
→ the “World’s Great Author” suggests that He is satisfied with His own solitude as a
model of self-reliance and autonomy, and that Adam should emulate His solitary state:
“What thinkest thou then of me and this my state?/ Seem I to thee sufficiently
possessed/ Of happiness or not? Who am alone/ From all eternity, for none I know/
Second to me or like, equal much less./ How have I then with whom to hold converse/
Save with the creatures which I made, and those/ To me inferior, infinite descents/
Beneath what other creatures are to thee?” (8.403-411).
→ Adam reasons that he is not God, either:” Of fellowship I speak/ Such as I seek, fit to
participate/ All rational delight, wherein the brute/ Cannot be human consort”
(8.389-392).
→ the gracious Creator approves of Adam’s desire for a companion:”What next I bring
shall please thee, be assured:/ Thy likeness, thy fit help, thy other self,/ Thy wish exactly
to thy heart’s desire” (8.349-351).
→ while Adam is in a sort of sleep-like trance, he remembers how Eve is created from
his rib: “Mine eyes he closed, but open left the cell/ Of fancy, my internal sight, by
which/ Abstract as in a trance methought I saw,/ Though sleeping where I lay, and saw
the shape/ Still glorious before whom awake I stood;/ Who stooping opened my left
side, and took/ From thence a rib, with cordial spirits warm/ And life-blood streaming
fresh. Wide was the wound,/ But suddenly with flesh filled up and healed./ The rib he
formed and fashioned with his hands;/ Under his forming hands a creature grew,/
Manlike, but different sex, so lovely fair/ That what seemed fair in all the world seemed
now/ Mean, or in her summed up, in her contained,/ And in her looks, which from that
time infused/ Sweetness into my heart, unfelt before,/ And into all the things from her air
inspired/ The spirit of love and amorous delight” (8.460-477).
→ Adam is “overjoyed” and grateful for his generous Creator’s gift: “This turn hath made
amends; thou has fulfilled/ Thy words, Creator bounteous and benign,/ Giver of all
things fair, but fairest this/ Of all thy gifts; nor enviest. I now see/ Bone of my bone, flesh
of my flesh, myself/ Before me; woman is her name, of man/ Extracted; for this cause
he shall forego/ Father and mother, and to his wife adhere,/ And they shall be one flesh,
one heart, one soul” (8.491-499)
→ the relationship between Adam and Eve is chaste, and they share love not lust, as is
apparent through Milton’s terminology before the Fall: the language is “Of nuptial
sanctity and marriage rites” (8.487). A virgin, Eve is led “to the nuptial bower” (8.510).
The disturbing power of Love
→ Adam speaks of the unusual disturbing power of Eve’s beauty; he is in fact
overwhelmed by the power of her beauty, which allows his passion to subdue his
reason: “here passion first I felt,/ Commotion strange, in all enjoyments else/ Superior
and unmoved, here only weak/ Against the charm of beauty’s powerful glance” (8.530 –
533)
→ Adam highly respects and even worships the queenlike Eve: “Yet when I approach/
Her loveliness, so absolute, it seems/ And in herself complete, so well to know/ Her
own, that what she wills to do or say/ Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best./ All
higher knowledge in her presence falls/ Degraded; wisdom in discourse with her/ Loses
discountenanced, and like folly shows:/ Authority and reason on her wait/ . . . Greatness
of mind and nobleness of seat/ Build in her loveliest, and create an awe/ About her as a
guard angelic placed” (8.546 – 559).
→ Adam’s unbounded love for Eve alarms Raphael, and the “affable angel”, “with
contracted brow”, senses danger in Adam’s overwhelming adoration of her, which
Raphael equates with idolatry (8. 560-570). The “godlike angel” reminds Adam that his
free will, temptations, and longings will be tested
→ later in Book 9, Adam will act upon his deep love for Eve, which will result in his
downfall – and that of all humanity!
→ the “serene angel” warns Adam that sensual lust and beauty can be corrupting
forces: “In loving thou dost well, in passion not,/ Wherein true love consists not. Love
refines/ The thoughts, and heart enlarges, hath his seat/ In reason, and is judicious, is
the scale/ By which to heavenly love though may’ st ascend,/ Not sunk in carnal
pleasure, for which cause/ Among the beasts no mate for thee was found” (8588-595).
→ Raphael speaks of the positive qualities of love, and the relation between earthly love
and heavenly love. The angel finally tells Adam to not allow passion to “sway” him but to
follow his sound reason
Paradise Lost
Lecture Series 2C
BOOK 9/ PARADISE LOST
Trouble in Paradise
→ we’re departing from the idyllic days in Paradise before the Fall, and Milton even
acknowledges: “I must now change/ these notes to tragic” (9.5-6)
→ some of the terms in the first few lines of Book 9 hint at future gloom, like “distrust”,
“disloyal”, “disobedience”, “distaste”, “distant”; the prefix “dis” echoes the city of Hell,
Dis!
→ there’s more foreshadowing with his terminology here: “Anger”, “just rebuke”, “Sin
and her shadow Death”, “Misery”
→ in the meantime, “Hell’s dread Emperor” – “in meditated fraud and malice” – has
surveyed the earth for a week, taking the Tigris River underground, and rising to its
surface hidden in the morning mist at the Tree of Life in Eden (9. 55-75)
→ in Eden now, Satan finds the serpent, the “subtlest beast”, and wants to
inhabit its body (9.86)
→ in an endearing moment, the “lost archangel” momentarily regrets that he’s lost
Heaven: “With what delight could I have walked thee round,/ If I could joy in aught;
sweet interchange/ Of hill and valley, rivers, woods, and plains,/ Now land, now sea,
and shores with forest crowned,/ Rocks, dens, and caves!; and the more I see/
Pleasures about me, so much more I feel/ Torment within me, as from the hateful siege/
Of contraries; all good to me becomes/ Bane” (9.114-123).
→ however, Satan is back to his Satanic self a bit later: “For only in destroying I find
ease/ To my relentless thoughts” (9.129-130).
→ Satan’s degeneration here is evident as he acknowledges that he’s intentionally
chosen baseness: “O foul descent! That I, who erst contended/ With Gods to sit the
highest, am now constrained/ Into a beast, and, mixed with bestial slime,/ This essence
to incarnate and imbrute,/ That to the height of deity aspired!/ But what will not ambition
and revenge/ Descend to? Who aspires must down as low/ As high he soared,
obnoxious, first or last,/ To basest things” (9.163-171).
→ “our envious Foe” Satan admits that Adam, “this new favorite of Heaven”
provokes his envy (9.175-176).
→ Satan is resolved to seek vengeance against the “Monarch in Heaven” God:
“spite then with spite is best repaid”(9.178).
→ he finally finds the serpent sleeping and “In at his mouth/ The devil entered”
(9.187-188).
You Go, Girl
→ Eve’s autonomy and strong sense of identity are presented just before her fall when
she insists on gardening alone, separate from Adam; this scene shows that Eve has
become an individual character, capable of acting on her own
→ Eve tells Adam that they should divide their work, since what they prune in the
Garden quickly grows back, and their work gets delayed since they’re likely to talk while
tending to the landscape: “For, while near each other thus all day/ Our task we choose,
what wonder if so near/ Looks intervene and smiles, or objects new/ Casual discourse
draw on, which intermits/ Our day’s work, brought to little, though begun/ Early, and th’
hour of supper comes unearned!” (9.220-225).
→ however, during the course of her self-discovery, she will later fall prone to Satan’s
trap
→ the father of the human race tells Eve how he feels about a woman’s role, and how
he wants to be her protector: “for nothing lovelier can be found/ In woman than to study
household good,/ And good works in her husband promote/. . .leave not the faithful side/
That gave thee being, still shades thee and protects./ The wife, where danger or
dishonor lurks,/ Safest and seemliest by her husband stays ” (9.232-268).
→ he then warns Eve of venturing out alone as she might encounter a “malicious foe,/
Envying our happiness, and of his own/ Despairing, seeks to work us woe and shame/
By sly assault” (9.253-256).
→ “our first mother” openly acknowledges that she overheard Raphael’s warning to
Adam: “That such an enemy we have, who seeks/ Our ruin, both by thee informed I
learn,/ And from the parting angel overheard,/ As in a shady nook I stood behind,/ Just
then returned at shut of evening flowers./ 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”
(9.274-281).
→ Eve’s feelings are hurt when Adam objects to her suggestion, and when he explains
that she is not strong enough to be alone, she thinks that he doubts her “firm faith and
love” (9.286).
→ Adam affectionately responds – with “matrimonial love” – that he feels wiser and
stronger in her presence, and perhaps she can feel the same way when they are
together (9.309-317).
→ although they have been warned about Satan’s malicious intent, Eve argues for her
free will, and she stands up for herself here: “If this be our condition, thus to dwell/ In
narrow circuit straightened by a foe,/ Subtle or violent, we not endued/ Single with like
defence wherever met,/ How are we happy, still in fear of harm?/ But harm precedes not
sin: only our foe/ Tempting affront us with his foul esteem/ Of our integrity . . . / And
what is faith, love, virtue, unassayed/ Alone, without exterior help sustained?”
(9.322-336).
→ she passionately – and logically – argues what the value of virtue is if it cannot stand
trial without help
→ the danger of free will is that individuals are free to choose badly. Freedom can be
misused, and reason can also be deceived, as Adam counsels Eve before she ventures
out alone: “O woman, best are all the things as the will/ of God ordained them; his
creating hand/ Nothing imperfect or deficient left/ Of all that he created, much less man,/
Or aught that might his happy state secure,/ Secure from outward force. Within himself/
the danger lies, yet lies within his power;/ Against his will he can receive no harm./ But
God left free the will; for what obeys/ Reason is free; and reason he made right,/ But bid
her well beware, and still erect,/ Lest, by some fair appearing good surprised,/ She
dictate false, and misinform the will/ To do what God expressly hath forbid.” (9. 343 –
356)
→ Adam gives in and yields to her insistence: “Go; for thy stay, not free, absents thee
more./ Go in thy native innocence; rely/ On what thou hast of virtue; summon all;/ For
God towards thee hath done his part: do thine” (9.372-375).
→ Milton employs foreshadowing: “from her husband’s hand her hand/ Soft she
withdrew” (9.385-386).
→ “the fiend, mere serpent in appearance” catches sight of Eve – “fairest unsupported
flower” – and is disarmed by her beauty, and momentarily, his guile, hate, jealousy, and
vengeance are gone (9.432)
→ however, he’s then angered when he realizes he can never possess the likes of her:
“Such pleasure took the serpent to behold/ This flowery plat, the sweet recess of Eve/
Thus early, thus alone; her heavenly form/ Angelic, but more soft, and feminine,/ Her
graceful innocence, her every air/ Of gesture or least action overawed/ His malice . . .
But the hot Hell that always in him burns,/ Though in mid Heaven, soon ended his
delight,/ And tortures him now more, the more he sees/ Of pleasure not for him
ordained; then soon/ Fierce hate he recollects” (9.455-471).
→ Eve is depicted as a patriarchal ideal of womanhood who is deprived of her
autonomous identity, and she is continually shown by Milton to be unequal and inferior
to Adam.
→ for instance, Satan realizes that he’s fortunate to find Eve alone, and he tells himself
how happy he is not to see Adam, since Adam is regarded as having a higher
intellectual capacity than Eve
→ the “Arch Fiend” is ready to take advantage of her: “Then let me not pass/ Occasion
which now smiles; behold alone/ The woman, opportune to all attempts,/ Her husband,
for I view far round, not nigh,/Whose higher intellectual more I shun,/ And strength, of
courage haughty, and of limb/ Heroic built, though of terrestrial mold. Foe not
informidable” (9.479-486).
→ to “our grand Foe”Satan, Adam would have proved to be a “foe not informidable”
→ the serpent’s “burnished neck of verdant gold” picks up the color of Eve’s hair and
the forbidden fruit, and in defense of Eve, “Pleasing was his shape,/ And lovely”, so Eve
has no reason to be suspicious of him (9.501-504)
“Vanity of vanities, All is Vanity”
→ Satan appeals to Eve’s vanity and draws her attention by speaking flatteringly to her,
calling her by titles such as “sovereign mistress”, “empress”, and “goddess”. He begins
his “fraudulent temptation” by speaking a lofty language unfamiliar to her and assures
her that all living things “adore” her heavenly beauty and gaze at her with “ravishment”
from afar (9.531-551).
→ such beauty, Satan says, deserves universal admiration and should not be wasted,
as it is, upon the beasts and only one man who is fortunate to see her.
==> Eve is led to evil by flattery; since she is human, she is prone to make mistakes,
which is only natural
The Great Deception
→ the arch-tempter Satan – disguised as a serpent – explains to a curious Eve that the
forbidden Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil has given him human powers, including
the faculty of speech, and can also render the “Mother of Mankind” and Adam to be
god-like: “Strange alteration in me, to degree/ Of reason in my inward powers, and
speech/ Wanted not long, though to this shape retained” (9.599-601).
→ fascinated and curious that the serpent has undergone such a transformation, Eve
allows the serpent to lead her to the forbidden tree: “ ‘Lead then,’ said Eve. He leading
swiftly rolled/ In tangles, and made intricate seem straight,/ To mischief swift”
(9.631-633).
→ as Eve is led into the final consequences of wandering, she is said to be like one who
is led into an evil, dark landscape from which no one can help her, as when “some evil
spirit . . .Misleads th’ amazed night-wanderer from his way/ To bogs and mires, and oft
through pond or pool,/ There swallowed up and lost, from succor far:/ So glistered the
dire snake, and into fraud/ Led Eve our credulous mother, to the tree/ Of prohibition,
root of all our woe” (9.638-645).
→ paradise is lost for the first time as the “bogs and mires” foreshadow the future
turmoil in Eden; mankind’s loss of paradise is foreshadowed by this image of a foul
place as Eve goes to the forbidden fruit (9.641)
→ the reasonless prohibition of God appears also in Eve’s explanation to Satan: “But of
this tree we may not taste nor touch. . . / the rest, we live/ Law to ourselves, our reason
is our law.” (651-654)
→ to avoid an individual from knowing good and evil is to deny them the ability to use
their reason and to gain knowledge, and Satan uses this argument in his suggestion to
Eve that knowledge of evil should be “known since [it is] easier shunned” (9.698-699)
→ the “dire snake” confuses Eve as he tries to show the logical fallacy of God’s sole
prohibition: “Ye shall not die;/ How should ye? By the fruit? It gives you life/ To
knowledge; by the Threatener? Look on me,/ Me who have touched and tasted, yet both
live,/ And life more perfect have attained than Fate/ Meant me, by venturing higher than
my lot” (9.685-690)
→ the diabolical serpent craftily tells her that she will attain wisdom if she partakes of
the forbidden fruit and even possess “what might lead/ To happier life, knowledge of
good and evil” (9.696-697).
→ Satan lures Eve to have the fruit that will supposedly give her intellectual reasoning
and knowledge
→ “Our almighty Foe” is an oratorical wizard, and his words are “replete with
guile”, which persuade the unassuming but interested Eve that she will acquire
divinity, or “godhead” (9.733, 790).
→ Why should certain forms of knowledge of good and evil – be forbidden to
humankind? Satan argues: “Why then was this forbid? Why but to awe,/ Why but to
keep ye low and ignorant,/ His worshippers?”(9.703-705)
→ a rebel – and a destructive influence – the “spirited sly snake” wants Eve to disobey
the commands of God. Satan questions the authority of the Almighty Creator when he
tempts Eve: “What can your knowledge hurt him, or this tree/ Impart against his will if all
be his?” (9.727-728)
→ Eve knows she must use her Reason, but the serpent has confused her: “He ended,
and his words, replete with guile,/ Into her heart too easy entrance won:/ Fixed on the
fruit she gazed, which to behold/ Might tempt alone, and in her ears the sound/ Yet rung
of his persuasive words, impregned/ With reason to her seeming, and with truth”
(9.733-738).
→ in the meantime, it is noon and lunchtime, so Eve is hungry; the timing of the
temptation here is significant (9.739-741)
==> Why is it a sin to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil if God created
it? Why would He create such a thing and forbid it at the same time?
→ some see the “undaunted Fiend” Satan in a different light; they see him as an
anti-hero, someone who went against the establishment, someone who was full
of ambition and pride, and who was willing to risk it all
→ they see a humane version of someone who is not afraid to question
everything around him, even “our Great Maker” God
==> whatever your point-of-view, Satan is admittedly a more interesting,
multi-dimensional, and unforgettable character
→ Eve uses her logical reasoning when approached by the serpent (Satan) and does
not immediately taste the forbidden fruit; Eve knows that she must follow reason: “But if
Death/ Bind us with after-bands, what profits then/ Our inward freedom? In the day we
eat / Of this fair fruit, our doom is, we shall die./ How dies the serpent? He hath eaten
and lives,/ And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and discerns,/ Irrational till then. For
us alone/ was death invented? Or to us denied/ This intellectual food, for beasts
reserved?” (9.760-768).
→ to her credit, Eve does not know how to defend herself from trickery and lies,
because she doesn’t even know what these are; she’s innocent and lacks any
knowledge of the concept of evil
→ also, God never directly interacted with Eve, so His authority should not apply to her
in the same degree as to Adam; God never actually shows her His presence
→ highly impressionable and easily influenced due to her innocent nature, she falls prey
to evil manipulation; Eve falls victim to the smooth talking and seductive power of “our
Adversary” Satan
→ “our envious Foe” Satan first convinces Eve to eat the forbidden fruit by making her
question ideas that she had never questioned before, because she trusted God. Satan
reveals to her “ knowledge both of good and evil” (9.752).
→ she muses to herself: “What fear I then, rather what to know fear/ Under this
ignorance of good and evil/ Of God or death, of law or penalty?” (9.773-775)
→ when Eve eats the fruit, she devours it excessively, and nature reacts with great
sorrow: “So saying, her rash hand in evil hour,/ Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked,
she eat./ Earth felt the wound, and nature from her seat/ Sighing through all her works
gave signs of woe,/ That all was lost” (9.780-784).
→ in my opinion, it only took Satan’s charisma and a few lines of clever rhetoric to make
Eve question her entire existence and to commence the Fall
→ When Eve eats the forbidden fruit, she wishes to attain what the serpent had
promised: ”expectation high of knowledge” (9.789-790).
→ the first word she utters after her rash action is “O sovereign”- and she’s addressing
a tree! The “Almighty Father” God is now, in her opinion, the “great Forbidder”, and His
angels are “spies” (9.795-815).
→ after she eats the fruit, she wonders if she should share her discovery with Adam or
“keep the odds of knowledge in my power/ Without copartner? so to add what wants/ In
female sex, the more to draw his love,/ And render me more equal, and perhaps,/ A
thing not undesirable, sometime/ Superior” (9.820-825).
→ although her first instinct is to keep the knowledge to herself, she persuades Adam to
follow suit, and he also falls prey to the allure of knowledge and intellectual growth from
the fruit
The Sin of Jealousy (part 2)
→ Eve’s selfish ways are evident after she has just eaten the forbidden fruit and decides
to offer some to Adam
→ Eve’s love for Adam at this point is purely selfish; she does not think of him at all in
this instance. She only thinks of herself
→ although she genuinely loves Adam, Eve is being selfish and envious here: “But what
if God have seen/ And death ensue? Then I shall be no more,/ And Adam, wedded to
another Eve,/ Shall live with her enjoying, I extinct;/ A death to think. Confirmed then I
resolve,/ Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe” (9.826-831).
→ meanwhile, Adam has lovingly woven a garland of flowers to adorn Eve’s hair
(9.845-846)
→ upon seeing her in a state of intoxication and realizing that she’s broken God’s sole
command, Adam is appalled. The garland of roses symbolically falls from his hand,
before the deflowering of Eve occurs: “But in her cheek distemper flushing glowed./ On
the other side, Adam, soon as he heard/ The fatal trespass done by Eve, amazed,/
Astonished stood and blank, while horror chill/ Ran through his veins, and all his joints
relaxed;/ From his slack hand the garland wreathed for Eve/ Down dropped, and all the
faded roses shed./ Speechless he stood and pale” (9.887-893).
→ “our first mother” lies to Adam, saying she endured the “pain” of being separated
from him while she was away (we know that’s not true!), and that she ate the fruit for his
sake (not true)
→ Eve tells him of the “divine effect” of the forbidden fruit, which “make them gods who
taste” in an effort to achieve “godhead” (9.865-877)
Two wrongs don’t make a right
→ Broken-hearted and regretful of her mistake, Adam – with “sad dismay” – resolves to
die with his beloved; although Eve was confused by the “logic” of the serpent when she
committed the “bold deed”, Adam’s mind is clear, and he understands the gravity of
what he is about to do (9.921).
– “our first father” Adam is willing to sacrifice his life for her and would rather die than
live without her or with any other woman: “Some cursed fraud/ Of enemy hath beguiled
thee, yet unknown,/ And me with thee hath ruined, for with thee/ Certain my resolution is
to die./ How can I live without thee, how forgo/ Thy sweet converse and love so dearly
joined,/ To live again in these wild woods forlorn?/ Should God create another Eve, and
I/ Another rib afford, yet loss of thee/ Would never from my heart; no, no! I feel/ The link
of nature draw me: flesh of flesh,/ Bone of my bone thou art, and form thy state/ Mine
never shall be parted, bliss or woe” (9.904 – 916). “ So forcible within my heart I feel/
The bond of nature draw me to my own,/ Mine own in thee, for what thou art is mine;/
Our state cannot be severed; we are one,/ One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself”
(9.955 – 959).
→ our first father knowingly completes the original sin and intentionally allows
his passion to overcome his reason: “he scrupled not to eat,/Against his better
knowledge, not deceived,/ But fondly overcome with female charm” (9.997-999)
→ again, nature reacts in the same anguished manner as when Eve ate the forbidden
fruit: “Earth trembled from her entrails, as again/ In pangs, and Nature gave a second
groan./ Sky lowered, and muttering thunder, some sad drops/ Wept at completing of the
mortal sin/ Original” (9.1000-1004).
→ Adam sinned out of love, and I view his self-sacrifice – and moral transgression –
here as foolish
→ they’re both intoxicated now, and they indulge in sexual intimacy: “As with new wine
intoxicated both,/ They swim in mirth, and fancy that they feel/ Divinity within them
breeding wings/ . . .Carnal desire inflaming; he on Eve/ Began to cast lascivious eyes,
she him/ As wantonly repaid; in lust they burn” (9.1008-1015).
→ after they engage in amorous indulgence, they fall asleep then wake up to the
rashness of their error
→ Milton again makes a veil reference: “Innocence that as a veil/ Had shadowed them
from knowing ill, was gone;/ Just confidence, and native righteousness,/ And honor from
about them, naked left/ To guilty shame” (9.1054-1058).
→ for the first time, their naked bodies suddenly appear shameful to them: “O how
unlike/ To that first naked glory!” (9.1014-1015). They find a fig tree and make loincloths
out of its fig leaves
→ there’s trouble in paradise: “nor only tears/ Rained at their eyes, but high winds
worse within/ Began to rise, high passions, anger, hate,/ Mistrust, suspicion, discord,
and shook sore/ Their inward state of mind, calm region once/ And full of peace, now
tossed and turbulent” (9.1121-1126).
→ our first parents have allowed their passion to supersede their Reason
→ as Book 9 ends in turbulence in Eden, Adam and Eve spend “fruitless hours” “in
mutual accusation”, “but neither self-condemning” (9.1187-1188).
https://youtu.be/o-JgTJYvje0
Paradise Lost
Lecture Series 3B
BOOK 10/ PARADISE LOST
Adam Justifies the Ways of God – to Adam
→ Adam laments the change that has occurred and desires God’s punishment to affect
him solely so that others may enjoy the Garden of Eden, but he’s alarmed to discover
that his descendants will suffer from the an inherited “curse”: “hide me from the face/ Of
God, whom to behold was then my height/ Of happiness! Yet well, if here would end/
The misery; I deserved it, and would bear/ My own deservings; but this will not serve,/
All that I eat or drink, or shall beget,/ Is propagated curse. O voice, once heard/
Delightfully, ‘Increase and multiply’/ Now to death to hear! For what can I increase/ Or
multiply, but with curses on my head?” (10.723-732).
→ “Sire of Men” Adam tells “The Great Creator” whether he asked to be born:
“Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay/ To mold me man? Did I solicit thee/ From
darkness to promote me, or here place/ In this delicious garden?” (10.743-745).
→ why, Adam wonders, has the “Almighty Maker” added “the sense of endless woes?
Inexplicable/ Thy justice seems” (10.754-755).
→ at this moment, Adam welcomes death and wonders why the “Great Creator”
is delaying his execution: “Be it so, for I submit; his doom is fair,/ That dust I am and
shall to dust return./ O welcome hour whenever! Why delays/ His hand to execute what
his decree/ Fixed on this day? Why do I overlive?/ Why am I mocked with death, and
lengthened out/ To deathless pain? How gladly would I meet/ Mortality, my sentence,
and be earth/ Insensible! How glad would lay me down/ As in my mother’s lap! Here I
should rest/ And sleep secure; his dreadful voice no more/ Would thunder in my ears;
no fear of worse/ To me and to my offspring would torment me/ With cruel expectation.”
(10.769-782).
→ a terrible possibility occurs to Adam about whether both the body and soul cease to
exist when one dies: “Yet one doubt/ Pursues me still, lest all I cannot die;/ Lest that
pure breath of life, the spirit of man/ Which God inspired, cannot together perish/ With
this corporeal clod; then, in the grave,/ Or in some other dismal place, who knows/ But I
shall die a living death? O thought/ Horrid, if true!” (10.782- 789).
→ in other words, Adam is concerned that the death which he desires may not end his
conscience and awareness of his sin, since one’s spirit lives on: “But say/ That death be
not one stroke, as I supposed,/ Bereaving sense, but endless misery/ From this day
onward . . . in me all/ Posterity stands cursed. . . Ah, why should all mankind/ For one
man’s fault thus guiltless be condemned,/ If guiltless?” (10. 809-817-824).
→ Adam admits that he himself is to blame for the Fall, and the “eternal Father”
God cannot be faulted: “ Him, after all disputes,/ Forced I absolve. All my evasions
vain/ And reasonings, though through mazes, lead me still/ But to my own conviction:
first and last/ On me, me only, as the source and spring/ Of all corruption, all the blame
lights due” (10.828-833).
→ our first father has not found solace: “ ‘O Conscience! Into what abyss of fears/ And
horrors hast thou driven me; out of which/ I find no way, from deep to deeper plunged!’/
Thus Adam to himself lamented loud/ Through the still night . . to his evil conscience”
(10.842-849).
“Forgive, and you will be forgiven”
→ unable to escape his consciousness, when he catches sight of Eve, he calls her a
snake and condemns her as a “rib crooked by nature”: “Out of my sight, though serpent!
. . . But for thee/ I had persisted happy, had not thy pride/ And wandering vanity, when
least was safe,/ Rejected my forewarning, and disdained/ Not to be trusted, longing to
be seen/ Though by the devil himself” (10.867-878).
→ here, Adam seems to forget that he had asked God for a companion and bitterly
resents that God had not peopled the earth with men only: “Oh, why did God,/ Creator
wise, that peopled highest Heaven/ With spirits masculine, create at last/ This novelty
on earth, this fair defect/ of nature, and not fill the world at once/ With men, as angels,
without feminine;/ Or find some other way to generate/ Mankind?” (10.888-895)
→ a repentant Eve falls as a suppliant at Adam’s feet “with tears that ceased not
flowing,/ And tresses all disordered, at his feet/ Fell humble, and, embracing them,
besought/ His peace” (10. 910-913).
→ weeping, our first mother begs Adam to not cast her aside her since the serpent had
deceived her, and she wishes to shoulder all the blame: “On me exercise not/ Thy
hatred for this misery befallen;/ On me already lost, me than thyself/ More miserable.
Both have sinned, but thou/ Against God only; I against God and thee,/ And to the place
of judgment will return,/ There with my cries importune Heaven, that all/ The sentence,
from thy head removed, may light/ On me, sole cause to thee of all this woe,/ Me, me
only, just object of his ire” (10.927-936).
→ Eve’s genuine remorse “wrought commiseration” in Adam, and “with peaceful words”,
he raises her from the ground and no longer blames her (10.938-945).
→ Eve suggests that they should abstain from physical intimacy, “to abstain/ From
love’s due rites, nuptial embraces sweet”, and Adam is moved by her “contempt of life
and pleasure” (10.993-1013)
→ Adam believes that God has a plan that they must abide by, and the son of God will
redeem them, so they can bring forth children into the world
→ Adam realizes that their penalty is not as drastic as it seemed: Eve will their bring
offspring into the world “Soon recompensed with joy”, and Adam will labor to “earn” his
“bread”, “what harm: Idleness had been worse;/ My labor will sustain me”
(10.1052-1056).
→ Good always triumphs over evil, as Adam tells Eve: “thy seed shall bruise/ The
Serpent’s head” (10.1031-1032). The word “seed” appears a few times from this
point on, signifying hope for the salvation of mankind
→ remorseful and repentant, our first parents fall before the “king of Heaven” God in
reverence and contrition: “They, forthwith to the place/ Repairing where he judged them,
prostrate fell/ Before him reverent, and both confessed/ Humbly their faults, and pardon
begged, with tears/ Watering the ground, and with their sighs the air/ Frequenting, sent
from hearts contrite, in sign/ Of sorrow unfeigned and humiliation meek”
(10.1098-1104).
BOOK 12/ PARADISE LOST
Paradise is a State of Existence
→ after “Heaven’s all-powerful King” decrees that Adam and Eve can no longer inhabit
Paradise, the archangel Michael will soon lead the couple out of the gates of Paradise,
and he reassures Adam that if he has faith, virtue, patience, temperance, and love, he
will possess an inner paradise: “To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess/ A paradise
within thee, happier far” (12.584-587).
==> Paradise is not just a physical realm but a state of being, just as Hell was a
state of mind for Satan
→ encouraged and comforted, Adam leaves to awaken Eve, who has tranquil dreams,
and her final words reflect hope for humanity: “ ‘For God is also in sleep, and dreams
advise,/ . . . But now lead on;/ In me is no delay; with thee to go/ Is to stay here; without
thee here to stay/ Is to hence unwilling; thou to me/ Art all things under Heaven, all
places thou,/ Who for my willful crime art banished hence’ ” (12.611-619).
→ To Eve, Paradise not is just a physical realm but her state of existence wherever she
may be with her beloved Adam, and she optimistically refers to the “Promised Seed”
(12.623).
→ the concept of an inner paradise is a justification of the ways of God to man, and this
poem’s emphasis on the paradise within an individual highlights the significance of
one’s inner light and spirit
“The World was All Before Them”
→ “The brandished sword of God before them blazed,/ Fierce as a comet”, and the
archangel Michael leads Adam and Eve to the gate of Paradise (12.633-634).
→ this is the last moment we will see Adam and Eve as they’re leaving their sheltered
domain to encounter the dangers of the world beyond Paradise
→ as they depart from the Garden of Eden, the world is indeed all before them,
and they may perhaps find a happier paradise as they experience an opportunity
for growth and maturity
→ this final scene is moving, as our first parents linger until the “hastening angel”
Michael takes them by the hand to the eastern gate, and even when they venture
beyond the gate, they look back to what had been a happy existence for them: “In either
hand the hastening angel caught/ Our lingering parents, and to the eastern gate/ Led
them direct, and down a cliff as fast/ To the subjected plain; then disappeared./ They,
looking back, all the eastern side beheld/ Of Paradise, so late their happy seat,/ Waved
over by the flaming brand . . . Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon;/
The world was all before them, where to choose/ Their place of rest, and Providence
their guide./ They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow,/ Through Eden took
their solitary way.” (12.637-649).