The Paradise Lost Project

Twelve Books, two friends, one summer.

[theparadiselostproject-blog]

And Adam Eats the Fruit

This is my last post on Book 9 and probably my last post for a little while. Not that I have been super consistent with my posting recently, but it turns out grad school takes a hell-of-a-lot of work and my next couple of weeks look a little scary. I will be battling Victorian school boys and alternate worlds while the Son continues to battle Satan for control of the universe. It does put my stress level in perspective.

However, we’re not there yet. Adam has to taste the Forbidden Fruit first.

We pick back up with Adam patiently waiting for Eve to come back from gathering dinner. Adam has no idea what has happened yet, but he is struck with a great feeling of foreboding. It scares him so much he goes looking for Eve and finds her by the Tree of Knowledge (shocking).

Eve has never missed Adam more (though I am not sure what that means since she has never been parted from him before). Now picture you are in a crowded theater watching the latest chick flick. There is the missing girl suddenly found by the latest heart throb. She looks at him; he looks at her, drops his bouquet of flowers and runs to her. Cue overly dramatic music now.

Of course, this isn’t a sappy chick flick and this isn’t the blissful end to the story. As soon as Adam gets close to Eve he knows something is off. For the first time Adam has a private thought. Before this Adam and Eve have always spoken their thoughts out loud, but at this moment, Adam can’t tell Eve his thoughts because he has to sort through how he feels about her in her new fallen state.

Adam realizes really quickly that he is so much in love with Eve that he would choose death over a life without her. Compare this (sinless) thought to Eve’s (sinful) thought where she doesn’t want to die without Adam. One is sacrificial (Jesus) the other is possessive (Satan).

Now there is almost a rehash of the debate Eve had with Satan/Serpent. Eve must convince Adam to eat the fruit so they can be together. Eve didn’t get to hear Adam’s thoughts so she doesn’t know that he is already favoring turning away from God so he can stay with her. However, Adam doesn’t make the decision without a fight. Milton is careful to distinguish the fall of Adam from Eve. Eve is deceived by the Snake/Satan. “Adam is not deceived” (1 Tim 2:14), but instead “fondly overcome with female charm” (999).

Now sinless love turns into lust: “Carnal desire inflaming, he on Eve / Began to cast lascivious eyes.” Thus Milton solves the puzzle about what is sinful about sex. It isn’t the sex, but the lust. Lust is also the reason that Adam and Eve suddenly feel they must cover themselves. Seeing each other’s naked bodies is just too tempting. Adam in particular is worried that God will be able to see lust all over his face.

In my opinion, this is a little like cutting off all your hair and then expecting no one will notice if you hide the sheared strands. This GOD we are talking about, omniscient and omnipotent. He knows Adam and Eve have eaten the fruit and discovered sin, masking their expressions isn’t going to change that.

The final act of Book 9 is a real, nasty, teeth drawn fight. Sinful Adam is not only motivated by love, but has all sorts of negative emotions including anger, hate, suspicion, etc. He blames Eve for causing his fall. No longer do Adam and Eve try to empathize and understand one another, now they just blame each other.

A really key phrase here is “in mutual accusation spent / The fruitless hours, but neither self-condemning, / And of their vain contest appeared no end.” (1187-9)

[astarryserenade]

♔Literature meme: 3 Genres

Mystery:

A story in which a detective, either professional or amateur, investigates and solves a crime mystery. With its a irresistible appeal to the human sense of curiosity, mystery fiction has enjoyed an immense popularity throughout the ages and continues to thrive to this very day.

Notable Authors:  Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Edward Stratemeyer, Stieg Larsson

[theparadiselostproject-blog]

Who knew we just had to go to rural Colorado to find our way back to the garden. Also, who knew it was in the middle of the desert.

[theparadiselostproject-blog]

Talking Animals and Tasty Fruit

The Fall of man is fast approaching. Satan is in the Garden (again) and this time he is determined. There will be no toad dreams or spiteful surveillance—just cunning revenge.

Eve is wandering alone; having won her fight with Adam, she is now unprotected. Satan finds her bending over (looking down towards Hell instead of up towards Heaven). Ironically, she is bending over to support a flower, but she is now the one unsupported.

Satan is ecstatic. Finding Eve alone and vulnerable is like discovering someone has left you the perfect gift just waiting to be opened.

However, as Satan stares at Eve, he is in awe of her. She is beautiful and good and everything he is not.

SIDE NOTE: Milton loves playing with words. It is one of things that distinguishes his poetry, but like his never ending references, most of his puns are obscure and require knowing about ten times more than the average bear just to realize there is a pun at all. Usually you have to be fluent in Latin. The pun on line 462, though, is really interesting and important to point out.

His (Satan’s) malice, and with rapine sweet bereaved

His fierceness of the fierce intent it brought. (9.462-3)

Rapine comes from the Latin rapere, which means to seize and is both the root of rape and rapture (let your brain explode with that one). Milton wants to invoke both of these ideas into the word rapine. Satan’s desire to violently seize (rapine) Eve is rapturous; it is an idea that consumes him and makes him feel possessed and more than himself. Eve’s wants and desires don’t even enter into the equation. For a moment he forgets everything and is “disarmed” of “hate,” “envy,” and “revenge.” But once he remembers his hate he decides to destroy all pleasure and thus destroy Eve.

Remember that Satan is the possessed serpent at the moment. When he speaks Eve is surprised that an animal is speaking to her. Imagine you are minding your own business and your cat suddenly says Howdy!

The Satan/serpent speaks to Eve using the conventions of Petrarchian love poetry. He flatters her by telling her how beautiful she is. While she is surprised to be talking to a snake, his words are so lovely and so complimentary that she listens.

Satan/Serpent explains that the reason he can talk is that he ate this magical fruit that is super tasty!! He then employs a common con trick. He gets her interested, baited if you will, and all excited about the prospect of eating this marvelous fruit. She has already thought about eating it before he tells her where the fruit came from.

Then he drops the bomb—it is the Forbidden Fruit.

At first Eve refuses.

But the snake has created a president. Eve sees that the snake ate from the Tree and didn’t die. This makes her doubt God’s words, plus the snake has gained new powers (the power of speech) and it makes her wonder what she would gain.

Still she refuses, but Satan is cunning little bugger and beings to argue.

Here are his reasons Eve should eat the fruit:

1.      It tastes good.

2.      It gives you knowledge (as proven by the fact the snake can talk).

3.      It was safe for the snake to eat (the snake didn’t die).

4.      Why would God make it safe for beasts and not for man?

5.      Do you even know what death is? It might be a good thing.

6.      God will actually praise you for your courage to try to get a better life.

7.      How do you know evil is real if you don’t know what it is?

8.      God is just trying to keep you low and ignorant so you will continue to worship him.

9.      If you know good and evil you will become like a god.

10.  What is a god? Someone with more information that you. Of course they wouldn’t want you to gain wisdom.

11.  How can you gaining knowledge hurt a god?

12.  Maybe they are simply envious of man?

**note Satan always talks of Gods plural not God singular (another snub to the polytheists? Or just Satan’s denial? Both?)

Eve listens to Satan/Serpent because it seems logical and therefore must be true. Also, it is lunch time so she’s hungry (true evil requires good timing).

Eve eats the damn fruit.

Here we get the first sin—gluttony. Eve “Greedily…engorged without restraint” (791). From now on we will see sin after sin exposed. Eve is really happy about her new knowledge, but suddenly she worries that Adam will be able to tell there is something different about her (opps).

First Eve doesn’t want to share her new power with Adam (sin: selfish, coveting, etc.). It gives her an advantage for the first time in her life. Perhaps this will make them more equal. She speaks a wonderful line stating that the fruit will “render me more equal, and perhaps, / A thing not undesirable, sometime, / Superior; for inferior who is free?” (822-25). You can almost hear Milton arguing this very things as he fought the monarchy or any oppressed person struggling to fight for a new social order.

However, in the world of Paradise Lost, this is an inversion of the divine order of things. Eve cannot be superior to Adam and no one is really free from God.

Eve’s next train of thought is: oh dear, God might have noticed that I did this thing and might kill me. Then Adam can marry another girl. Hell No! (sin: jealousy). Thus she decides she must get him to eat the fruit as well.

“Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe: / So dear I love him, that with him all deaths / I could endure, without him live not life.” (831-3)

Her desire to share the fruit is almost spiteful. She will take him down with her if need be.

[theparadiselostproject-blog]

I know we are behind, but I just cannot do Book 9 in one post. Book 9 is where EVERYTHING happens. Seriously, if you read one book in Paradise Lost it should probably be this one. I think I’m going to break it up into three parts and post the other two next week.

Milton starts Book 9 in his typical way. He takes us out of the story and talks about the big picture. In this case he humbly mentions how much more important the story about the fall of man is than say the fall or Troy or the love of Neptune or really any of the other famous epics. Milton really believed he was writing the epics of all epics and had no trouble in pointing that out. When he finally gets back to the story we find Satan sneaking into Paradise yet again (seriously, those guards should be fired; they kind of suck). He finds a nice spot, at the bottom of the river, near the Tree of Life, and hunkers down for a bit. He looks at all the plants and creatures and tries to decide who will be the most useful to him. Of course Satan must also take a minute to bemoan his internal struggle and complain about his miserable self. Finally he “Considered every creature, which of all / Most opportune might serve his wiles, and found /  The serpent subtlest beast of all the field.” (84-6). As soon as the snake decides to take a little nap, Satan slips in through his mouth (yum). When the snake awakes, he is kind of a mixture of Satan and serpent—thus solving another theological riddle: was it Satan or a snake that gave Eve the Forbidden Fruit? Now we know…both?

Now we shift focus to Adam and Eve who are having a typical martial spat, though this being the first martial spat in all creation, I guess it isn’t so typical. This fight is really important and rather fascinating. There are papers that can be written about this fight.

First of all it shows that even in Paradise there are disagreements. It ain’t all smellin’ the roses honey. Essentially, Eve wants to get their chores in the garden done faster and suggests they split up. Adam is like, “What!You want to leave me? You can’t do that! Our work is our “delight” and it is only made more delightful by doing it together. We will be happier if we are together always.”

Milton’s idea of an ideal marriage (keep in mind he was married very unhappily several times) is where the couple is stronger together and shouldn’t be parted. I argue that Eve just needed some space. I don’t care how much you love someone, you don’t get some alone time and suddenly that person becomes evil incarnate—but maybe that’s just me. Whatever the case is, Adam is definitely a clinger.

Again, the seeds for the Fall are already in Paradise. Eve’s desire for independence makes her vulnerable to Satan (yes, cue feminist head hitting against wall now). Adam is stronger than Eve because he always thinks of himself in terms of others and as part of the divine hierarchy. Eve is more of an individual. Adam finally lets her go because he knows if he forces her to stay he is taking away her free will and free will is very important in Paradise Lost. God allows mankind to fall in order to give them free will. Just to put Adam’s decision in perspective.

Also, note to all those repressive and controlling jerks out there (cough, cough Edward Cullen) a woman’s (or a man’s) right to make her (or his) own decisions is the more important than sin, literally.

I will tackle Eve’s fabulous little chat with Satan and eating the Forbidden Fruit next time.

As an addendum to this post for all you poetry nerds out there (I know I’m not the only one). There is a wonderful enjambed line when Adam lets Eve go that beautifully emphasizes how critical this moment is.

“Go: for thy stay, not free, absents thee more;

Go in thy native innocence, relay

On what thou hast of virtue, summon all,

For God towards thee hath done his part, do thine.” (9.372-5)

[theparadiselostproject-blog]

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.

Book 9,  lines 780-784

[theparadiselostproject-blog]

In case it wasn’t completely obvious, there are some parts of Paradise Lost that even I find less than interesting. Yes, I know it is hard to believe, but as much as I love and respect him, Milton can be a tedious bore. To be honest, I find Raphael to be a little bit snore worthy. However, all that begins to change in Book 8. Oh yes! We are starting to get back to the good stuff.

Now we find out about the creation of Adam.

When Adam first wakes, he looks up and wonders “who made me?” He quickly concludes that there must be a “Maker” and wants to know him and adore him. This is almost comical—or tragic depending on your point of view—when compared with Eve’s creation. When Eve first wakes up, she wanders until she sees herself in the pool and is so struck with her own beauty that she might have stayed there forever if God hadn’t interfered (Book 4). It reminds me of that joke about the difference between cats and dogs, you know the one. A dog thinks, “This person feeds and takes care of me, they must be a god.” A cat thinks, “This person feeds and takes care of me, I must be a god.” Am I the only one who thinks that is a little like Adam and Eve?

Besides the new developments to Adam’s character, Book 8 is a wonderful examination of the meaning of free will.

Theologians have asked time and time again, what was it about the Tree of Knowledge that created sin? And why should knowledge lead to sin? According to Milton, they are asking the wrong questions. It isn’t anything about the specific tree in question. God could have commanded any tree in the Garden as forbidden and it would suddenly have become the Tree of Knowledge and the results would have been the same. It is the act of transgression that causes the fall and allows Adam and Eve to know good and evil. If you have never done anything wrong then you cannot really know what wrong is. Just like if you have never known pain how can you really understand it? By choosing to go against God’s command they learn disobedience and thus right and wrong, and good and evil. The act has provided them the knowledge the tree is named for.

Theologians also ask, why did God put the Tree in the Garden in the first place, knowing Adam and Eve would fall and we would be denied Paradise?

However, without putting the Tree in the Garden there is no free will (I may have said this before, but it is important so I’ll say it again). If there is no Tree, there are no choices. The Tree is God’s gift to Adam and Eve. It separates them from the blindly obedient. It allows them to be neither Angles nor Devils because they have choice (even if that choice is predestined). I know that is where it gets murky, but sometimes giving someone an option, even when you know they are going to make the wrong decision, is the best you can do for them and it prevents you from being a tyrant.

Theologians also ask how eating that damned fruit could lead to Death…we haven’t gotten to that part yet, so stay tuned. The next chapter is well worth the wait!

As a sort of post script for this post, I want to draw attention to the moment when Adam asks Raphael if angels have sex. It cracks me up every time. You know Milton thought long and hard about this one.

Raphael’s response is adequately vague: “Let it suffice thee that thou know’st / Us happy, and without love no happiness” (8.620-1).

He does go on to explain that angels aren’t corporeal so that they mix “easier than air with air” and that it is a “union of pure with pure” and “soul with soul.” On that note Raphael takes his leave reminding Adam “first of all / Him whom to love is to obey, and keep / His great command; take heed lest passion sway / Thy judgment to do aught, which else free will / Would not admit”(633-7).

Oh Milton.

[theparadiselostproject-blog]

[theparadiselostproject-blog]

So I looked at the schedule today and it is a bit embarrassing how behind I am. Opps! I knew I would probably get behind with classes in June and July, but I thought I would do better than this. Of course, to make matters worse, I also took a much needed vacation to the absurdly beautiful Colorado where I had an in-depth conversation with my mother about Milton while hiking in Estes Park. Yes, that is what my mother and I do. We are those people. If you happen to see us on the trail (me, huffing and puffing from the altitude shock, and my mother being awesome) then feel free to ignore us and observe the scenery; it is definitely worth a look.  

Anyways, four weeks late, here is my post on Book 7. I hope you felt free to read ahead and haven’t been waiting for lazy old me as I got my act together.

The beginning of Book 7 is the halfway point in the epic of all epics. Milton is very conscientious of structure so he takes the opportunity to invoke a muse, but this time it is Urania, the Muse of Astronomy. Throughout Paradise Lost, the story has been slowly transitioning from a typical epic to something else less classifiable. We started in Book 1 with characteristic Greco/Roman epic forms, but in Book 7 those forms are modified and manipulated. For example, Milton likens Urania to the Holy Spirit combining (as he often does) science, with mythology, and Christianity.

Book 7 is saturated with biblical language. Milton does this to give Raphael’s story about the creation of the Universe more credence. If the Bible is the word of God, then biblical language is the most authoritative manner of language one can use. 

 However, note that though Raphael uses biblical language, it is not the word of God. Adam is getting the story of creation second hand, and Eve will get it third hand and the authority inherent in the words becomes less powerful with each delineation.

Book 7 develops Adam’s character as an almost aggressive listener. He hungers for information and wisdom (note all the food and digestion metaphors). This is another moment where I am just astounded how clever Milton is. He is able to provide the seeds for the Fall in a sinless world. Just like Eve shows an inclination for vanity but isn’t actually vain, Adam shows an inclination for insatiable curiosity which foreshadows his temptation to eat from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.

I heard somewhere, I don’t remember where, that perfect characters are the most boring characters you can write. Their motivations are simple, there is no suspense because they always do the right thing, and they are difficult to empathize with because, who’s perfect? I am crazy impressed with Milton’s ability to create the characters of Adam and Eve and make them interesting. Somehow he is able to give them complexity and personality before they have sin. Brilliant, brilliant man.

One last thing to note in Book 7. Maybe you noticed that Milton has the Son create the earth. If you are up on your Bible you’re probably scratching your head since you know that Christ had nothing to do with it and that “God created the heavens and the earth.” Milton is doing this for character development, at least that’s what I think. He is using the idea of the Trinity where the Son and God are literally inseparable. The idea is that they can be two distinct characters but really they are one and the same. I have to admit I have never fully understood the idea of the Trinity since my brain starts to explode when I think about the metaphysical complications about being both separate and together…the point is, yes, you read that right. In Milton’s world the Son creates the earth. This is to show that the Son is the most active part of God. The Son defeats Satan, creates the world, and dies for our sins.

And on that note, I’m going to rush into reading Book 8 so that I have a post for you in some sort of a timely manner.

[astarryserenade]

♔Literature meme: 3 Genres

Fantasy:

The genre of fiction that uses magic and supernatural phenomena as a primary plot element. With widespread popularity, it has found a home in every form of media. Though art and films are increasingly popular, it is literature which has always been the genre’s primary medium. 

Notable Authors: J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, J. K. Rowling, Eoin Colfer

[theparadiselostproject-blog]

Awesome. That is all there is to say.

[theparadiselostproject-blog]

I know I’m behind with my posts. I’m so sorry. It turns out graduate school and work actually take up time. Silly, I know. Two weeks left of class, and then I will be posting like mad, I swear. Anyways, on to:

Book 6

The first thing to keep in mind as you read the epic battle in Book 6, is that Milton’s angels don’t have physical bodies, at least not in the same way we do. They’re ethereal. They are also immortal. Which makes the whole battle kind of comical if you ask me. Think Saturday morning cartoons. Like Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote, the angels get a little beaten up, but they can’t actually be hurt so they blow up, dust themselves off, and fight again. At one point Satan nearly gets chopped in half and then God’s angels throw mountains, literally mountains, on him and his army.

There is no real point to the war. The outcome was always predetermined. However, God wants everything to be fair so even though the angels in Heaven far outnumber Satan’s little rebellion, God only sends an equal number of angels into battle. However, God seems to get sick of the fighting and sends the Son in, thus the battle is over.

My favorite metaphor Milton uses to describe the war is  “jarring spheres.” Raphael explains to Adam that the best way to understand the war in Heaven is to think about it like battling constellations or two planets duking it out. I like to picture Venus and Mars starring each other down, or maybe Orion going after the Big Dipper. Milton, of course, makes it seem eloquent and deep, but I also think it is really funny.    

Despite the ridiculousness of the situation, Milton take the opportunity to make a serious statement about a brand new technology—cannons. Since only Satan’s army uses cannons, the obvious implication is that gunpowder weapons are the instruments of the devil.

He also includes a little moral lesson. Angel Abdiel originally rebels with Satan but then repents and joins God’s army. He is forgiven and exalted in Heaven. This tale, of course, has greater implications. It means if Satan and the other fallen angels would repent, then they could also find their way back to Heaven. And, of course, the most important lesson is we should repent as well.  

On to Book 7

[astarryserenade]

♔Literature meme: 1 Epic

Paradise Lost

Pastoral Epics: awesome

[theparadiselostproject-blog]

Book V starts with a love song.** It is kind of cute Adam singing to Eve. Adam and Eve actually spend a lot of time singing to each other in Paradise. Cue Paradise Lost the musical!  I can’t wait to watch Satan sing and dance as he tries to take over heaven and earth. Come on, it would be awesome.

After they’re through singing, Eve tells Adam about a nightmare she had. She watches as an guy who looked like an angel but wasn’t disobeyed God and ate from the Tree of Knowledge, oh my. And what is worse, he offered her the fruit and she was going to eat it, but woke up first. How scary.

Satan, disguised as a toad, actually give Eve that dream by whispering it in her ear.

Eve is very worried that the dream tells the future…smart woman.

Adam basically says “No way! You are too perfect; love of my life, the dream is nothing. Let’s go pick some fruit.”

God see this and send Archangel Raphael to warn Adam and Eve about Satan. Now you would think God does this because he wants to stop Adam and Eve from listening to frogs and snakes, but really he doesn’t want anyone to think that Satan tricked them. This is really important to Milton. He constantly emphasizes the fact that it is Adam and Eve’s choice to turn away from God. God has given them and thus by extension us all the tools for salvation.

Adam sees Raphael in the Garden and tells Eve, “It looks like we are going to have an angel for dinner!! Hurry, get some food from our stores and make more for dinner.”

Eve says, “Honey, we live in Paradise, we don’t have stores. We get our food directly from the trees, but I’ll go pick some extra fruit for you.” (Even Milton can make a joke)

The Dinner Party

Raphael joins Adam and Eve for dinner. Like all good dinner parties, first they talk about the food (delicious, but different from what they eat in Heaven). The Raphael comments on how lovely their home is (wonderful plants and all that). Then Raphael gets serious and tells Adam about the substance in all things and oh, be careful not to disobey God, there is this creepy guy lurking about.

Adam is very confused. Can you disobey God?

Opps, Raphael has said more than he probably should, but what the hell, it wouldn’t be a dinner party without a little gossip.

Then Raphael tells the story of the war in Heaven and how Satan got cast into Hell. This fits with epic tradition which usually has moments of long back story as one character catches another character up on the plot. This is important since most epics aren’t told linearly.

Milton is also making a really radical claim here. According to Raphael’s story, the Son is not eternal in the same way God is. He is born and ascends to the throne, he wasn’t always there.

Raphael finishes his story and the Book ends. It is also important to note, that Eve leaves before Raphael starts his story. In Milton’s time it was common, no it was proper, to split the conversation after dinner between men and women. The woman would all leave and talk about darning their socks or something and the men would talk about politics (stupid I know). However, I think it is really interesting that Eve is the one interested in knowing more about the world and she is the one who is going to be tempted by Satan, but she is not the one who gets the information.

**Interesting fact, Adam’s song is a variation of the Song of Solomon.

[theparadiselostproject-blog]

Okay, I promise, this will be the last post about Book IV. Can you tell it is one of my favorite parts? This is another moment where you can laugh at my new heights of nerdiness.

However, I would be remiss if I moved on to Book V without talking about poetic form. As I have already noted, Milton loves to play with epic convention. In Book IV he adds an element of pastoral poetry; making Paradise Lost one of the only pastoral epics ever written.

Pastoral poetry has a long standing tradition. It dates from the 3rd century B.C. and was made popular during the Italian Renaissance by Petrarch among others. Many English poets also become enamored with the genre including Edmund Spencer and Philip Sidney, just to name two in a very long list. Virgil also wrote pastoral poetry, and since Milton really wanted to the English Virgil, he wrote “Lycidas” in the same style.

Anyways, now that you have some wonderful pastoral poetry trivia you can try to put into casual conversation at your next office party, let’s talk about how it relates to Paradise Lost.

Traditionally pastoral works were written from the point of view of a romanticized shepherd who spends his days herding sheep, writing poems to his love, and being a rather sophisticated guy all around. They were usually written by urban poets bemoaning the loss a Golden Age or a simpler and idealized time. They present a romanticized view rather than a realistic one about rural life. Often the topics include the tension between actual and the mythical, love and seduction, death, corruption by the city or aristocracy, and the importance of purity and a simple life.

In Paradise Lost Adam and Eve embody this type of ideal. When Adam and Eve speak they use pastoral conventions. Adam in particular dwells on the beauties of Paradise and the joy he gets from simple honest work and pastoral harmony.

Milton utilizes pastoral poetry to show the loss of innocence of Adam and Eve. As the story continues the pastoral conventions destabilize and by the time Adam and Eve are expelled from Eden, the pastoral ideal has become a thing of the past instead of the present.

As I have already noted, in many ways Satan is the hero of the epic and his story really embodies epic tradition. However, Adam’s story is told through a different lens. His life is not a battle to be fought like Satan’s but an effort to get back to an ideal.

[theparadiselostproject-blog]

Where we meet Satan, the Peeping Tom

Let me apologize in advance if this post makes you feel like you are stuck on a Mobius strip, constantly circling around the same idea, but never actually reaching any conclusion. I am not as smart as Milton and while the subtle difference between sin and grace is obviously clear to him; it makes my brain hurt.  

You see, Paradise Lost is more than just an epic poem; it is an excuse for Milton to try and suss out and explain theological paradoxes. Itis supposed to be the story behind the Bible. The story that makes everything make sense. The story to “justify the ways of God to men” (Book I).     

There is a lot of debate (a debate that can never be solved btw) about Adam and Eve’s relationship in Paradise. It is important because it influences what we think of as sin. Did they have sex? Were they married? What is pure love? The problem is Man is created twice in the Bible. The first time, God creates male and female in his image and tells them to multiply (Gen 1:27-8). The second time, he creates Adam from dust and Eve from Adam’s rib (Gen 2:7, 2:21-22). It is this second creation that might imply that Adam and Eve were chaste in Paradise but not so much once they were kicked out of the Garden of Eden. Milton takes the view God told Adam and Eve to multiply which must mean there was sex in Paradise. He then has the sticky task of trying to figure out what is now sinful about their relationship and what do clothes have to do with it.

Likewise, what is so sinful about knowledge? Remember Milton was an obsessive scholar. There is no way he thought ignorance was divine.

Book 4 sets up these questions and even starts to answer them. We see how Adam and Eve existed in Paradise and the subtle differences between sin and goodness exposed. At the same time Milton foreshadows the fall which provides answers to how two people who cannot sin turn away from God and eat the forbidden fruit.

Milton roots his answers in character. After all, he believed Heaven and Hell were existential.

Eve’s story about waking up and looking at her beautiful reflection show he has a predisposition for vanity, even if she cannot be vain yet. The scene is reminiscent of Satan waking up in Hell and she might have stayed looking at herself in the water if God hadn’t come along to take her to Adam, at which point she sees how wonderful he is and the correct hierarchy is restored (again feminists feel free to throw something).

There are a lot of parallels between Eve and Satan, but Eve’s thoughts and responses are not sinful and Satan’s are. The differences expose what Milton would define as sin.

While Adam and Eve love each other, are married, and have sex in Paradise, it is not lustful. Milton is very specific about it. As a matter of fact he goes off on a little rant about the sanctity of sex. My favorite part is:

“Whatever hypocrites austerely talk

Of purity and place and innocence,

Defaming as impure what God declares

Pure, and commands to some, leaves free to all.” 4.745-50

However, he also includes Satan’s comments on the act. He hates how happy they are and reacts with “neither joy nor love, but fierce desire” (4.509).  What I get from this is that sex is great, but lust will send you straight to Hell. Also, don’t be a Peeping Tom, unless you want to be like Satan.

Now onto the sin of knowledge? (This will addressed even more later in the book)

As I noted last time, Eve is always differential, but she questions everything. This shows that having an active curiosity and being intelligent are not sins. The bit where she questions why they sleep at night when the world is so beautiful is stunningly written.

While Eve seeks knowledge and asks a million questions, she does not really question God. She asks questions to get answer and once she has the answer she moves onto the next question. She doesn’t doubt the answer. Satan on the other hand says gets angry that the Tree of Knowledge if forbidden, saying:

“One fatal tree there stands of Knowledge called,

Forbidden them to taste: Knowledge forbidden?

Suspicious, reasonless. Why should their Lord

Envy** them that?” 4.514-17

**(In this case envy means deny)

He goes further blaming God saying that it was “invented with design / To keep them low whom knowledge might exalt / Equal with gods” (4.524-6). Eve is curious about the world, but she doesn’t want to compete with God nor does she believe that God is denying her anything. Much of the subtle differences between goodness and sin are intent.

[theparadiselostproject-blog]

[commehither]

Frustrated in marriage and finding that his conservative religious society allowed no exit from his plight, Milton, unlike the many mutely suffering spouses, advocated for legalising divorce. His divorce pamphlet being suppressed by the government, he, unlike the many mutely suffering writers,...

[theparadiselostproject-blog]

No one can say Milton was quiet.