The poem Paradise Lost by John Milton tells the epic story of Satan's demise and the fall of Adam and Eve. Satan, disgraced and in hell after a war between his devils and God's angels, works to destroy the purity and good of God's newly created Earth. As he schemes, Adam and Eve live in perpetual peace and happiness in the Garden of Eden as rulers of the Earth. Throughout the progression of the epic, it becomes evident that Eve and Satan contain many similarities. The correlations between these two characters help the reader understand why they act the way they do but also see the devastating consequences of those actions. Eve and Satan are both tempters and use the same arguments to persuade their victims; they also hold subordinate positions and want to elevate their statuses.
Eve and Satan both tempt their victims using the same arguments. Once Satan finally corners Eve, and after all of his flattery, he suggests that she eat the fruit of the Tree of Forbidden Knowledge, saying,
Queen of this universe, do not believe those rigid threats of death; ye shall not die: How should ye? The fruit? it gives you life To knowledge: by the threatner? 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. Shall that be shut to man, which to the beast is open. (Milton, 226).
Satan explains to Eve that eating the fruit of the tree does not cause death but, better yet, gives life. He uses himself as an example, showing how he can speak now and has risen about his own king. The snake is more perfect than he, himself, ever was. Satan also says that the fruit has given his knowledge; the knowledge and perfection that comes with the fruit appeals hig...
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...eaven, 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. (Milton, 267).
Eve is genuinely sorry for her sin and wants to take the blame for both her and Adam. Satan, however, once fallen, continues to sin and shows no remorse. It is important that Eve and Satan's ends are different because it shows the reader that humanity will be saved while Satan will live eternally in hell.
In Paradise Lost, Eve and Satan show many similarities that help the reader understand the reasons behind their actions and the consequences that they have to deal with. The way Satan and Eve tempt their victims and the measures they take to elevate themselves from their subordinate statuses are used by the author to convey the message that they are similar and that those similarities are reasons for their fall.
This epic simile portrays shockingly disgusting imagery of war and death, which are both consequences of eating the fruit of knowledge. Sin and Death, Satan’s daughter and son (who is also his Grandson) take full advantage of the Fall of Man and construct a bridge between Hell and Earth through Chaos, constructed of anything ‘Solid or slimy’. This allowed death, sin and disease to enter the world, similar to the great Greek Myth of Pandora’s box, where a woman named Pandora unleashed all the negative emotions from their captivity inside a box. Thus, showing both Milton’s classical influences and education at Christs College, Cambridge and how attitudes to women have remained constant through many centuries, from the period of the Ancient Greeks to the 1600s. Man’s disobedience would be the sole point of blame for all the wrongs in the world to Milton’s audience, not only was this a story but the events transpired. This was an easy way for the Church to explain the mass destruction caused by the Great Plague from 1665
Eve does exactly what God commanded her to not do. Now that I have explained the main things a bout both stories I will continue by discussing the main themes and symbols that are existent in both stories.
The seat of faith resides in the will of the individual and not in the leaning to our own reasoning, for reasoning is the freedom of choosing what one accepts as one’s will. In considering the will was created and one cannot accuse the potter or the clay, Milton writes to this reasoning, as “thir own revolt,” whereas the clay of humankind is sufficient and justly pliable for use as a vessel of obedience or disobedience (3.117). The difficulty of this acceptance of obedience or disobedience is inherent in the natural unwillingness in acknowledging that we are at the disposal of another being, even God. One theme of Paradise Lost is humankind’s disobedience to a Creator, a Creator that claims control over its creation. When a single living thing which God has made escapes beyond the Creator’s control this is in essence an eradicating of the Creator God. A Creator who would create a creature who the Creator would or could not control its creation is not a sovereign God. For who would not hold someone responsible for manufacturing something that could not be controlled and consider it immoral to do so? To think that God created a universe that he has somehow abdicated to its own devices is to accredit immorality to the Creator. Since the nucleus of Milton’s epic poem is to “justifie the wayes of God” to his creation, these ‘arguments’ are set in theological Miltonesque terms in his words (1. 26). Milton’s terms and words in Paradise Lost relate the view of God to man and Milton’s view to the reader. Views viewed in theological terms that have blazed many wandering paths through the centuries to knot up imperfect men to explain perfect God.
In John Milton’s epic, Paradise Lost, the author establishes Satan as the most complex and thought-provoking character in the tale through his depiction of Satan’s competing desires. Throughout the first four books of Paradise Lost, Satan repeatedly reveals his yearning both for recognition from God and, simultaneously, independence from God. The paradox that prevents Satan from achieving his desires may be interpreted as a suggestion of Milton’s establishment of a sympathetic reading for this character, as he cannot truly find happiness. In actuality, the construction of Satan’s rivaling aspirations evince Satan’s repulsive depravity to Milton’s audience and encourage readers to condemn his character.
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
The words, good and evil, and right and wrong, have been interpreted with ambiguity over the course of generations by humanity, and the finer details of their ethics are still obscured to even the most intelligent of minds, leaving us to often stay with the few basic tenants that seek to preserve humankind’s further existence. Throughout John Milton’s Paradise Lost we encounter this constant struggle between good and evil, as the enigmatic and eternal Satan—a character who is perhaps the chief hero, and protagonist of the epic poem—wages vain war against God’s tyranny in heaven. Satan, like all angels, is acutely aware of the differences that separate the abstract philosophies of what is considered to be right and wrong. And much like the theologians before him, Milton suggests that mankind, much like the angels of heaven, has also always possessed the ability to discern good from evil. However, Milton’s humanity—unlike the angels of heaven—has been given the opportunity of disobedience through the cursory act of consuming the fruit grown from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. This brings to question whether mankind’s choice of damnation was illusory, and that Eve was destined to eat the fruit of the tree, to be untouched by all but the divine hand of God, or that all beings under heaven must answer to God for the actions they took. While human views on fatalism are open to interpretation, Milton suggests throughout his work that all beings under God’s domain possess the ability to choose their fates, and govern their own destiny. This coincides with the views of the Rabbi Maimonides, and the dialogue of the angel Raphael.
Milton’s Satan in Paradise Lost is a complex character meant to be the evil figure in the epic poem. Whenever possible Satan attempts to undermine God and the Son of God who is the true hero of the story. Throughout the story Milton tells the readers that Satan is an evil character, he is meant not to have any redeeming qualities, and to be shown completely as an unsympathetic figure. Satan’s greatest sins are pride and vanity in thinking he can overthrow God, and in the early part of the poem he is portrayed as selfish while in Heaven where all of God’s angels are loved and happy. Satan’s journey starts out as a fallen angel with great stature, has the ability to reason and argue, but by Book X the anguish and pain he goes through is more reason for him to follow an evil path instead. Even so, Milton uses literal and figurative imagery in the description of Satan’s character to manipulate the reader’s response to the possibility that Satan may actually be a heroic figure. As the plot of the story unfolds there are moments where the reader can identify with Satan’s desires and relate to his disappointments.
In Paradise Lost, the consequences of the fall and the change in relations between man and nature can best be discussed when we look at Milton's pre-fall descriptions of Eden and its inhabitants. Believing that fallen humans could never fully understand what life was like in Eden and the relationships purely innocent beings shared, Milton begins his depiction of Paradise and Adam and Eve through the fallen eyes of Satan:
In episode IX of Paradise Lost by John Milton, Milton begins Adam and Eve’s act of disobedience towards God. The story begins with Satan’s return to the Garden of Eden the night after Raphael’s departure. Satan considers what disguise he should take on, and chooses to become a snake. Satan thinks that Earth is more beautiful than Heaven ever was, and becomes jealous of Adam and Eve. The next morning, Adam and Eve are preparing for their usual work load. Eve suggests that they work separately, Adam does not necessarily like the idea. He fears that if they are alone they can be more easily tested by Satan. Eve, however, wants to have her strength tested. Adam finally agrees. Satan, finds Eve alone and begins flattering her. Eve is amazed that
When discussing the fate of the fallen, be them angel or man, it is important to become acquainted with Sin and Death, the offspring of Satan. In Paradise Lost, Book 2, from lines 746 to 814, Milton offers what it is to sin and the price of sin with descriptive imagery through Sin’s words. Both Sin and Death embody and characterize their names as both allegories and personifications. With close inspection of the passage, the ideas of sin and death come to life and they live dark and tortuous lives. Milton uses Sin to describe their monstrous tale and further shows how Sin is sinful, but also how she too is fallen through the use of her language and figurative speech. Death is also described as a never
“Dream not of other worlds,” the angel Raphael warns Adam in Miltons’s Paradise Lost (VIII.175). Eve, however, dreams of another world in which she will gain knowledge and power, a wish that is superficially fulfilled when she succumbs to Satan’s temptation and eats from the Tree of Knowledge. Awakening in the Garden of Eden as though from a dream, Eve searches for her identity and her place in Paradise. Satan provides Eve with a chance to gain knowledge and to become god-like. As Eve is not an equal companion for Adam, she seeks independence from her husband. Shifting her loyalty away from God and Adam and towards Satan and the Tree of Knowledge, Eve strives to find her identity in the Garden of Eden, gain knowledge and godliness, and obtain independence from her unequal partnership with Adam.
Gardner, Helen. “Milton’s ‘Satan’ and the Theme of Damnation in Elizabethan Tragedy.” Milton: Modern Essays in Criticism. Ed. Arthur E. Barker. New York: Oxford University Press, 1965. 205-217. Print.
Satan, can be viewed as the protagonist of this poem, because he deals with the constant struggle of overcoming one of his biggest enemies, himself. HE must come to terms with his doubts and weaknesses in order to become his own hero. Milton creates a character in Satan, one so seductive, that it causes us to resonate with him, sympathize his mistakes, even if it is against our own ideals. Milton’s creation of Satan is a metaphor for evil’s abilities to lure us in, even when we don’t realize it. He does however possess a complex character, a reflection of ourselves, making his role in the epic understandable and much more relatable. Satan represents human error, and his character embodies our own feelings of envy and despair. Satan is a dynamic individual that requires a closer look at ourselves, in order to begin his evaluation. Now Milton’s God, in Paradise Lost, is a underdeveloped character, simply a bundle of vast ideas. He is not a character that can be related to, lacking emotion. He is Flat, a 2 dimensional static individual with no depth whatsoever. He narrates, explains why things occur the way they do. God allows the bad to exist by offering his Son as sacrifice. The son is the connection between God and Milton’s
Good and evil are central themes in Paradise Lost. Classic symbols of both extremes are in the book: God and Satan, good and evil personified, respectively. In spite of the seeming dichotomy of either pure evil or total goodness, for much of Paradise Lost the distinction between good and evil is not very clear. The goodness of Man overcome by sin and the fall of God’s holy angels to hell are examples of the overlap of both good and evil within characters. This inherent potential for evil in Adam, Eve and Lucifer ****. Further, the relationship between good and evil and their relative dependence on each other is brought into question by the roles they play in Paradise Lost.
Milton uses this deceptive notion of the truth in Paradise Lost in order to construct a theory of morality that is based upon the individual doing the action rather than the action itself. With the character of Satan, Milton offers many instances of deception, only one of which is the temptation of Eve by Satan. Many of the events in the poem to show how easily we are deceived. Eve's temptation of Adam is only one example. Her ulterior motive of having Adam eat the fruit, and thus die, so that he would never be with another woman, is questionable at best. Yet her attempt at deception fails, since Adam takes the apple for different reasons. This example suggests that deception, no matter to what end, is immoral. The many examples of Satan's deception not working adds to this idea. Like Dr. Evans says, Satan turns into a serpent for the sole purpose of it being discreet. Yet the fact that he turns into a talking serpent is precisely the thing that grabs Eve's attention and would have foiled Satan's plans if it were not for what Dr. Evans called Satan's improvisational work. Throughout the book, Satan's "infernal logic," as we call it in section, appears in his speeches. Two examples are, "The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven" (Milton 240) and, "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven" (Milton 240). As Dr. Evans said, Milton is taking the position of a moral extremist. He is saying that evil beings can only do evil things; conversely, good people can only do good things. Morality, then, is shaped by the individuals doing the action rather than a coherent philosophical ideology.