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Portrayal of eve in miltons paradise lost
Satan as a hero in the paradise lost book 1 by john milton
Milton's Paradise Lost to Satan
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Eve’s Speech to the Forbidden Tree in Milton’s Paradise Lost
In Book IX of Milton’s Paradise Lost, Eve makes a very important and revealing speech to the tree of knowledge. In it, she demonstrates the effect that the forbidden fruit has had on her. Eve’s language becomes as shameful as the nakedness that Adam and Eve would later try to cover up with fig leaves. After eating the forbidden apple, Eve’s speech is riddled with blasphemy, self-exaltation, and egocentrism.
The first part of Eve’s speech contains the most blatant blasphemy. In it, she turns the forbidden tree into an idol, or a false god. She promises that “henceforth [her] early care, / Not without song each morning, and due praise / Shall tend [the tree]” (ln 799-801). The long sounds of the spondees in “not without song each morning, and due praise” add to the deliberateness of Eve’s blasphemy. The tree replaces God in her eyes, and begins to receive the praise that she had formerly reserved only for God. Besides being blasphemous, this is also ironic. In her foolishness, Eve ends up praising the very thing that will ultimately prove to be her undoing.
Eve considers the tree a great gift. However, because of the influence of the serpent, she does not consider it a gift from God. The serpent has caused her to believe that God did not give the tree to Adam and Eve because it was not his to give. Therefore, Eve supposes that God must “envy what [he] cannot give: / For had the gift been [his], it had not here / Thus grown” (ln 805-7). In other words, she argues that if God had had possession of this tree, he would not have left it where it is. Therefore, according to Eve’s manipulated reasoning, God must not have the knowledge that the tree bestow...
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The last two lines of this speech are very dramatic. Eve has such a great love for Adam that she could endure anything as long as he would be by her side, but she would be nothing without him. However, this creates a paradox. One may ask, if Eve loves Adam as much as she professes to, then why put his life in jeopardy just to make her own suffering more bearable? The answer, of course, goes back to the selfishness that has pervaded her entire speech. These lines stand out because of the spondees at the end of both of them.
Eve’s language is drastically altered when she partakes of the forbidden fruit. It becomes permeated with blasphemy, self-praise and selfish words.
Works Cited:
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. in The Norton Anthology of English
Literature, M. H. Abrams, ed. New York: W. W. Norton and Company,
1993. 1594-5.
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In Paradise Lost, one of the differences God is aware of the betrayal his creations unlike Frankenstein. There is a point where Adam desires a companion to share the world with, thus God creates Eve from one of Adam’s ribs. He is in a predicament now, due to there are now two beings to love now, but who deserves the more affection. He “can neither love himself adequately nor love Eve as himself unless have love God adequately – and so make his love for Eve, the unity of their shared self, an expression of that higher love” (Gross 95). This scene displays one of Adam’s limitations of his free will. Thus creating her in being the submissive which eventually became her downfall, Adam’s and the rest of humanity. Eve is flawed, she has the inclination of self-love, a quality she should not be capable of possessing or acting upon. The only love that she should be expressing is her love for Adam in a way also loving God. This becomes their weakness. Satan learns about this weakness and exploits it as his advantage to enact his scheme. He influences a susceptible Eve, by coercing her into eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge. He claims to Eve about the fruit “By the fruit? It gives you life To knowledge by the threat’ner? Look on me, Me, who have touched and tasted; yet both live” (Book 9 l. 686-688). Satan is able to persuade them to consume the fruit that provides them
As Book VIII of John Milton’s Paradise Lost begins, the “new-waked” human Adam ponders the nature of the universe and the motion of the stars (ll. 4-38). When Adam has finished his speech, Milton takes the opportunity to describe Eve, who is listening nearby. We find Eve reclining in the Garden, but with grace, not laziness: “she sat retired in sight,/With lowliness majestic from her seat” (41-42). This “lowliness majestic” is the central phrase to understanding Eve’s character—she is both humble and glorious. Everything that beholds her is captivated by her “grace that won who saw to wish her stay” (43). Even in this paradise, every other beautiful creation is drawn to Eve. She walks among the “fruits and flow’rs,” and they all light up in her presence (44-47). In line 44, Milton replaces “the” with “her” to describe these fruits and flowers, indicating that they belong to her--she is like a mother to all things that “bud and bloom” (45). He even uses the term “her nursery” to describe Eve’s relationship with the Garden, signifying that Eve nurses the growing things like she would her children (46). As their mother arrives, the plants all perk up: “they at her coming sprung/And touched by her fair tendance gladlier grew” (46-47). Eve is beyond beautiful—not only does all creation adore and marvel at her, in her presence, each created thing is renewed. Her glory is found in her outward appearance and her ability to bring things to life, while her humility is in her character. Contrast Eve to the witch-queen Jadis in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. Both are exceptionally beautiful and possess a sort of magic—Eve to bring things to life and Jadis to destroy them. However,...
Many cancer diagnoses have high percentage of survival rate with proper treatment including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. However, there is one considerable cancer diagnosis that ultimately has a very low percentage of survival. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States and the fifth leading cause of cancer death worldwide. By 2020, pancreatic cancer is estimated to be the second leading cause of cancer death (Pancreatic Cancer Network, 2014). Pancreatic cancer accounts for a very small percentage of the cancers diagnosed each year; however has a less than 5% five-year survival rate. This is greatly due to the demographics of the pancreatic cancer diagnosis.
Pancreatic Cancer is also caused by damage to DNA, which can be inherited from parents or from aging. Smokers double their chances of developing Pancreatic Cancer versus if they did not smoke. The reason that smokers double their chances of developing this type of cancer is because smoking directly affects the pancreas. Not only does smoking actual cigarettes cause an increase in the risk of being diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer, but also smokeless toba...
General testing in today's school systems has a negative effect upon the actual learning of the students. Standardized testing narrows school curriculum, labels children as failures at a young age, and uses money that could possibly be used in a more productive manner.
Standardized testing shows that it takes more than just giving students test to see who has the higher grade. Students must be allowed to grow and take an interest in education by guiding them and not forcing them to have higher test grades. Taking standardized testing is like how Stephanie Schneider puts it, its “like checking if a plant was growing by ripping it out and checking” (Schneider, and Christison 30-32). The United States used to be a country of originality, but now they have swapped it out to have a competition on who can have a higher score.
The serpent even states to Eve that “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (NIV, Gen 3:5). The next few lines are completely different from what is shown by Milton. It says that when Eve saw that the fruit was good and she began to desire wisdom she took some and ate it. Then she game some to Adam who was with her. This is a very large contrast from Milton’s work because this shows that Adam was present the whole time of the serpent and Eve’s discussion. In the poem “Verses for Madonna of humility with the temptation of Eve” Lynn Powell takes a very graphic and almost nostalgic look at the story of Adam and Eve. Her poem states “Eve 's lying at eye level, propped up on an elbow./And never has abyss been so good to pink,/ the void a perfect foil for her foreground flesh./She fits into the black like a woman/ ready to be skewered in a vaudeville act./ You can tell the painter loves her, the way/ You can tell the painter loves her/ he 's touched her every place he can with paint./ And he 's noticed what she 's thinking:/ holding the pear, as Hamlet did the skull,/ while gazing up at someone who 's got everything to lose./ Eve 's about to make the choice Mary has to live with./
Is this an apology or blame? In the beginning, God tells Adam not to eat the forbidden fruit. Adam disobeys God by doing so, but most people put the blame on Eve. In the poem, “Eve’s Apology,” Eve expresses her feelings toward the entire situation and shows how she is not to blame. She blames Adam for the pain we endure today. Eve eats from the forbidden tree out of curiosity. She wants to share it with Adam, so he can feel like she feels. Eve gives the fruit to Adam out of love, but she does not force him to eat it. Adam has control of his mind, so he disobeys God on his own. “Do not the thing that goes against thy heart” (Lanyer 424). Aemilia Lanyer, the author of the poem, “Eve’s Apology,” lived in the mid 1500’s and 1600’s. Living in this time period, had much influence on her writing. She published her landmark book, Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum, the same year that the King James Bible and three of Shakespeare’s plays were published (Wilhelm 424). Lanyer brings out the life of this poem with the poetic devices, irony, and unusual language.
All in all the actions of Eve were neither good nor evil, but instead necessary. Through her actions she brought to light the evils of the world, and as a result man is able to appreciate that which is good. Moreover one cannot blame Eve for what she did because although as we have seen God did instill upon mankind free will, he used his threats as a means of manipulating this gift. Although there were many trees in the Garden of Eden, having the tree of knowledge of good and evil forbidden created mystery for Eve, and therefore drew her to it over the tree of life. And once both Adam and Eve choose with their own free will to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil immortality is no longer an option. Now that man is knowledgeable enough to appreciate immortality, God removes it as an choice. In a way this story shows us the flaws of both man and God. Man in that he is tempted by that which is forbidden and does not always respect the orders of those in a position of authority; And God is shown to be somewhat devious and perhaps even malicious at times.
Eve is enamored by the Tree of Knowledge and how much more beautiful it looks in the dark, “That brought me on a sudden to the tree of interdicted knowledge: fair it seemed, much fairer to my fancy than by day (V.51-53).” The reference to the tree looking better at night than in the day tells the reader that Eve is already distant from God and does not have the ability to be in “God’s light” to see the faults in her situation. This is one of the main reasons why Eve falls to the temptation. Throughout lines 82-87, Milton describes in detail the temptation that Eve undergoes. He uses phrases like, “the pleasant savory smell,” and “so quickened appetite,” to relay to the reader on why she gave in to the urge. The use of imagery and diction helps the audience understand just how convincing Satan was and how her quick disobedience to God is a sign of
In Book IV, Eve recalls awakening to consciousness but she is uncertain of her identity and of her place in the Garden of Eden. Eve's first thoughts are of “where and what [she] was, whence thither brought, and how” (Paradise Lost, IV.451-52), and it is this curiosity about her identity that leads Eve to disobey God eventually. From the moment of her conception, Eve is already distant from God because she awakens in the shade and not in God’s light. Throughout Paradise Lost, Eve is identified with reflections, shadows, and dreams. Representing the “otherness” of Eden, Eve is an outcast and she seeks to find meaning in her life. At the moment of her awakening, Eve is engrossed by her reflection in the water, which she thinks is another being. This watery, wavering image of Eve extends throughout Milton’s poem, and this further puts Eve in a weak position, for Eve is merely a ref...
God made a tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the tree had a fruit that was forbidden. God said not to eat the forbidden fruit, but the serpent on the tree persuaded Eve to eat the forbidden fruit and Adam tasted the forbidden fruit too. Adam and Eve lost their innocence immediately, and they became ashamed of their nakedness and they covered themself with leaves, when God saw they had not listened to him he kicked Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.