Thinking Activity: Paradise Lost Book Ⅸ

This post is in reference to the questions asked here:
 http://dilipbarad.blogspot.in/2014/09/human-perspective-vs-divine-perspective.html

          Paradise Lost is about Adam and Eve, how they were created and how they lost their place in the garden of Eden also called Paradise. It's the same story we find in the first page of Genesis, explained by John Milton into a very long, detailed, narrative poem (epic). It also includes the story of Satan. Originally, he was called Lucifer, an angle in heaven who led his followers in a war against God and was ultimately sent with them to Hell. Thirst for revenge led him to cause man's downfall by turning into a Serpent and tempting Eve to eat the forbidden fruit.

Q.1    Write a critique on the character of Eve.

Ans.   

       Here we can see that Eve is the central character of the Paradise Lost Book Ⅸ. Eve is the first woman created by God from Adam's rib as his help-meet or companion for him. Eve is a simpler character than Adam. She is beautiful, wise and able, she is superior to Adam only in her beauty, but not as strong physically or intellectually. When Satan as the Serpent saw her for the first time he also praises her beauty and for a while he forgets about his revenge. Even Eve also fall in love with her reflection when she looks in the water for first time. Before the fall, Eve is generally presented as submissive to Adam and, to some extent dependent on him.

       Eve does have a tendency now and then to question Adam, but she does so in a rational, respectful manner. In book Ⅸ, such questioning leads to temptation. Eve tells Adam at the starting of book Ⅸ...

                 "Let us divide our labours

                   thou where choice

                  Leads thee, or where most 

                  needs, whether to wind."

       

She says that they can do more work if they work separately. Adam knows that Eve is more likely to be tricked by Satan if she is alone and argues against separation. His love for Eve, though, allows her to be persuaded and against his better judgement, he lets her go. Eve wins the argument by knowing using her advantages over Adam. Eve sets herself up for the fall and is not equal to the task of dealing with Satan by herself.

       Eve is certainly not a feminist heroine. Like so many characters in the epic, she has assigned role in the hierarchy of the universe. Milton does not denigrate women through the character of Eve; he simply follows the thought of his time as to the role of women in society. Eve has as many important responsibilities as Adam, but in the hierarchy of universe, she falls just below him.


Q.2    Whose argument did you find more convincing?
Ans.   

       I find Satan's / Serpent's argument more convincing because he convince Eve to eat the "Fruit of Knowledge" from the garden of Eden. God had strictly told that not to eat the fruit but somehow Eve is trapped in words of Serpent eats the fruit. Eve is also intellectual and a rational thinker and after a lot of arguments with Serpent she eats the fruit. Serpent uses his words very wisely and calmly to convince Eve and take the revenge from God and at last he is succeeded in achieving his goal.

       The presentation of Satan makes him seems greater than he actually is then Adam, Eve and God. Milton spends more artistic energy on the development of Satan so that throughout the poem, Satan's character maintains the reader's interest. 

       For Milton, Satan is the enemy who chooses to commit an act that goes against the basic laws of God that challenges the very nature of the universe. Satan tries to destroy the hierarchy of Heaven through his rebellion. Satan commits this act not because of the tyranny of God but because he wants what he wants rather than what God wants. His interest always turn on his personal desires. Satan sees everything in terms of what will happen to him.

       Serpent's soliloquy when he forgets for a while his revengeful ideas and lost in the beauty of Eve:

If chance with nymph- like step fair virgin pass,

What pleasing seemed for her now pleases more,

She most, and in her look seems all delight:

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

At a first glance Serpent seduced by Eve's beauty and forgets his Goal for a while and that too, why he has came to garden of Eden? Now he pushes his mind not to divert and to concentrate on his revenge. Then he tempts Eve by attacking on her weakness 'vanity'. He praise for her beauty more and more. Here we find Satan's 'power of word', which he uses for calm course of revenge against God and seduces her to eat that fruit from forbidden tree. His words have that much affection that one cannot resist to accept. Eve is also trapped by Serpent's words and eats the fruit of knowledge.

Q.3    How do you look at Divine Perspective in the Genesis of the Holy Bible and Human Perspective in John Milton's Paradise Lost Book Ⅸ?

Ans.   

       Before the Renaissance and Reformation there was a God centric world and people had a blind faith in God. In most of the story plot God was at the center and the story revolves around God, but after the Renaissance period God was not seen as a center but it was replaced with human. At this time all the stories were re-scripted which earlier were told from divine perspective, now all were retold from human perspective and human was at the center of universe. At this period people had started to think more logically and rationally and all this reflection we can see in the works of Renaissance period, it is also known as the age of Reformation.

       Milton also tells the story from Bible with human perspective and he also tries to justify the ways of God to man. While in the 'Genesis', the fall of man is narrated from God's perspective. In Genesis Eve was punished for her disobedience and God also cursed her by multiplying her pain in childbearing. Adam and Eve both are equally guilty for it but than even Adam seems in God's good book. He is not punished for eating the fruit. If we see in Milton's Paradise Lost the character of Eve is portrayed with human perspective. Although Eve is responsible for man's downfall, but she eats the fruit out of her curiosity because she wants to gain knowledge and wants to be equal to God. Here Adam does not remain in God's good book like Genesis but he is also driven by human emotion and also gets punished by God. We can also see that the character of Satan is also being driven by human emotions like 'ambition', 'envy', 'revenge' and 'spiteful' which Satan represents are quite human.