Over the course of Book Four, we see Satan’s character become even more complex as he interacts with the realm which, once his rightful environment, is now opposed to his entire being. I found myself wondering: is his character already set in stone, and simply being revealed to us as it comes into contact with new scenarios? Or is he undergoing true development, reacting to those scenarios in ways that even he did not expect?
To give a concrete example: the hate and despair he evinces in his soliloquy, the emotion with which he declares that “All good to me is lost. / Evil, be thou my good” (108-109)–is this resignation something he felt before, or something he just comprehended for the first time? Is he a product of fate, destined to act the way he does from the moment of his fall? Or is he a dynamic, changing figure who learns about himself in a way much like we do?
While I think the answer likely lies somewhere in the middle, Book Four in particular paints a picture of Satan that is very human in its development. Could we really imagine, for instance, that he expected he would feel so attracted to Adam and Eve, whom “[his] thoughts pursue / with wonder and could love” (362-363)? Or did he really expect, when facing Gabriel and his angelic cohort, that he could defeat them, before God makes it clear that he couldn’t by placing “in heav’n His golden scales” (997)?
On the whole, if Paradise Lost is written as an epic, it must have a protagonist who fits the epic conventions: one who embarks on an ambitious quest, who sojourns far and wide to fulfill it, and who learns quite a bit about himself in doing so. With each book, it is becoming more and more clear that Satan is that protagonist.
I was fascinated by Milton’s repeated description of the belief hierarchy that exists in Paradise. “He for God only, and she for God in him,” he writes, referring to Adam and Eve (Book 4, 298-299). Adam, Milton seems to be saying, is closer to God than Eve is. This is emphasized again, when Eve speaks to Adam later in book 4, saying, “My author and disposer, what thou bidst/unargued I obey: so God ordains./God is they law, thou mine. To know no more is woman’s happiest knowledge and her praise” (365-368). Adam knows God, Adam sees God, Adam follows God’s law. Eve, on the other hand, is a step removed. Adam is her “law,” her “author.” Adam is Eve’s God. Milton tells us that Eve’s innocence of any knowledge of God is “women’s happiest knowledge.” If Eve were to know–if she were to eat the fruit of knowledge, let’s say–she wouldn’t just lost her innocence. She would gain knowledge of a God beyond Adam.
This, I think, complicates Satan’s first attempt at temptation of Eve. Eve tells Adam that Satan calls her, “fair angelic Eve” (Book 5, 73). He tempts her, saying “taste this and be henceforth among the gods/Thyself a goddess” (Book 5, 77-78). If Adam is Eve’s God, than she is already a goddess of sorts. Eve can only “aspire to godhead” if she understand what God is (Book 3, argument). Milton, however, has made it clear that she doesn’t understand God. Already we see the unraveling of traditional narratives, an unraveling that I think will continue as the story snakes onwards.
In Book 5 of Paradise Lost, Milton writes about the struggle between temptation and reason. Eve has a dream in which a voice followers her to the Tree of Knowledge and tempts her to eat the fruit. This dream frightens Adam and her because they know that eating the fruit from the tree is truly forbidden and therefore are frightened by the subconscious enticement experienced in her dream. At this point, I wonder whether this is a subtle commentary by Milton? Is he presenting Adam and Eve with a prediction to evoke an even more enhanced feeling of gravity and disappointed over Adam and Eve’s actual fall to temptation? We all know as readers that Eve does actually taste the fruit and that this prediction does not warn her or stop her from making the terrible decision she does. By giving them such a large amount of knowledge about Satan and his “lure”, it adds to the severity of their downfall and almost makes it look foolish and irresponsible. I feel as though this scene comments on the absurdity of the situation and the personal beliefs that Milton has over the topic of Adam and Eve and how they brought about their own downfall.
I was drawn towards the end of Book 4. Satan takes the form of a toad while he is in heaven. During Medieval times toads were thought to be related to evil. The ztoad’s blood was thought to carry poison. This cultural association of toads is defiantly reflected through Milton’s decision to make Satan disguise himself into a toad. While hidden under a false form, Satan extracts sinful information into Eve. The transfer of poison as sin can be compared. What other possible reasons does Satan take on the form of a toad? If toads really were considered evil wouldn’t seem strange to have a toad in heaven?
It is not until an angle taps Satan does his true form become reveled. It is there the angles demand Satan revel his identity because they are unable to identify him. Satan responds, “Know ye not then said SATAN, filld with scorn,
Know ye not me? ye knew me once no mate For you, there sitting where ye durst not soare; Not to know mee argues your selves unknown, The lowest of your throng”(827-830). Satan is personally offended that the angles are unable to recognize him. Milton uses this scene to highlight the engulfing affect of pride on one’s identity. Rather than concern for his own wellbeing or fear of punishment, Satan is more concerned with his pride. I found it important to note that Satan’s pride causes him to blame others, such as reasoning that the angles are of such a low rank for the reason they are unable to recognize him. Satan seems to be more childish in this scene. Is there any possible chance Satan is related to immaturity?
good work–the toad imagery is interesting, though remember it is only a simile–“squat like a toad”. Notice too that the question of whether he manages to inject any poison into Eve remains unclear…
Eve meeting Adam is not as simple as girl meets boy. As we are first exposed to Eve’s dangerous vanity in Book 4, we also see a sort of unwillingness to be Adam’s partner. When “a Voice” takes Eve away from the pond and leads her to Adam, Eve asks, “What could I do/But follow straight, invisibly thus led?” (Book 4, Lines 475-6). It seems that she has no choice in the matter, even the “gentle hand” of Adam “seized” Eve’s, as if she has to be seized to be kept (488-9).
This could be due to her vanity, she does in fact see Adam as “less winning soft, less amiably mild” (479) as her reflection, but I think it may go further than that and express Eve’s dissatisfaction with not being given a choice in the matter, with being a mere creation and “claim” of man (487). Adam, however, is “in delight/Both of her beauty and submissive charms” (497-8), and doesn’t see anything wrong with having dominion over this woman. But she does, and given the language he uses, Milton possibly does as well…
Good! I agree that this first meeting raises a lot of questions, as does Eve’s memory of her origin. Be sure to go back to this when we listen to Adam recounting the same event–it sounds interestingly different…
I was particularly taken by the final scene in Book 4. Gabriel and his squadron of angels are surrounding Satan and trying to make him return to Hell. Satan, refuses, and tensions build. The two sides are about to face off in a battle when suddenly God’s golden scales appear. One side of the scale reflects Satan fleeing, while the other side reflects him staying and fighting. Ultimately, Satan looks up and sees that the scales are not in his favor, so he flees. I find this scene to be a bit confusing. Why does God show Satan that he is doomed if he fight? Why not just let the angels and Satan duel it out? Isn’t god doing Satan a favor by showing him he is better off if he flees? I really don’t understand God’s motive for aiding Satan in this case. Also, hasn’t God already resigned Adam, Eve, and Paradise to the fact that Satan will eventually bring about the fall of mankind? His Son has already sacrificed himself for man’s eventual sin, and God is okay with that, but he prolongs the fall? Why not just let Satan get it over with? Gabriel says that “[he] know [Satan’s] strength and [Satan] thou know’st mie:/ Neither our own, but giv’n” (IV,1006-1007), If he is saying that God gives strength to both of them, why can’t God just take away Satan’s strength? So many things in this scene just don’t make sense to me.
These are great questions. I think this image of the scale is just that–an image to show us the overarching power of God to determine outcomes. Unlike an ordinary epic battle where the strength of each adversary would determine the outcome, here Gabriel points out that they are neither of them anything without God’s gifts–“thine no more/Than Heav’n permits, nor mine.” I think it is important that although God has foreseen the fall, that doesn’t in milton’s theodicy prevent the reality of choice at every moment.
In Book 4, I was struck by the presentation of Eve’s identity because she seems explicitly connected to Adam, yet undefined. For example, when Eve addresses Adam she says, “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) Eve is clearly stating the depth of her connection to Adam, she knows that she was created for him and part of him was used to make her, therefore a part of him is always with her. She goes further to establish that without him, her existence would end. Additionally, when she calls him her guide and her head, she immediately reveals the power hierarchy between her and Adam and the dynamic that he guides and she follows. Additionally, the reference to the “head” alludes to a line from the Bible, “the head of every man is Christ; and the head of every woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.” (1 Corinthians 11:3) Therefore, Eve establishes a worshiper-worshiped relationship between her and Adam respectively, taking their power hierarchy to a higher level and implying that he is her God. I found that this moment where Eve has seemingly clear self-awareness contrasts starkly when she is looking at her reflection in the water. She does not know that it is her own reflection and therefore needs to be told by a voice, “What thou seest,/ What there thou seest, fair creature, is thyself:/ With thee it came and goes.” (4.467-469) Eve’s inability to recognize her own reflection (or to logically understand that it’s her own reflection after noticing that the reflection moves when she moves) seems to imply a lack of self-awareness, at least on the visual level that is inconsistent with the previous scene. Eve has to be told by some voice the truth, which could parallel her relationship with Adam, thus establishing Eve as a character who has to be directed by external forces, as opposed to self-directing. Eve’s lack of self-conviction and reliance could foreshadow her susceptibility to be tempted and influenced, which we know will ultimately lead to her fall.
Excellent–these are real problems in Milton’s representation of Eve, and I look forward to discussing them today. He evidently does have a hierarchical view of the sexes, and yet it would counter his purposes to make Eve too frail to withstand temptation.
I found Satan’s second soliloquy on lines 358-392 especially interesting. In this passage Satan gets his first look at Adam and Eve enjoying Paradise. We’ve talked about how Satan is a complex character and not just a representation of pure evil, and that is born out in this section. The Devil almost feels sorry that he has to use Adam and Eve for his revenge. He acknowledges Man’s perfection, really heaping on the praise of their “divine resemblance”. Satan looks upon Adam and Eve “with grief” because he knows he must bring about their downfall, and the fact that the thought of destroying Paradise saddens Satan is another reason why the reader can feel sympathetic to the Devil. Again Satan reiterates that he has no qualm with Adam and Eve but must use them for revenge against God (“yet no purpos’d foe To you” – lines 373-374). On the other hand, I was frustrated with Satan because again he refuses to take responsibility for his actions. The Devil says, “Thank him who puts me loath to this revenge On you, who wrong’d me not, for him who wrong’d” (386-387). Satan made the choice to subvert God, and now is making the choice to attempt revenge. But in Satan’s eyes, his fall was God’s fault, because as the Creator God knew that Satan was destined to fall and bring down Man with him. Here is the crux of the issue of predestination. If free will exists, then Satan’s choice to destroy Adam and Eve is his own. But if God is the Creator of all and aware of the past, present and future, why did he create Satan in the first place?
Exactly–you note the most important aspects of this scene here. Satan both shows the capacity for pity and more honorable feelings, but at the same time tries to throw out his own real potential to choose by calling his actions “necessity, ” and blaming God for them. Let’s talk about that last question of yours in class…
It’s sort of impossible to miss the idea that, in the eyes of God, Milton, and apparently Eve herself, Eve is not a whole person. She is an extension of Adam, created only to be his companion and the mother of his children. She says her of relationship to Adam that he is the man “for whom/And from whom I was form’d flesh of thy flesh,/And without whom I am to no end” That is to say, without Adam, Eve would have no other purpose. But even this early in the narrative, Milton begins to plant the seeds that Eve is in some ways not entirely linked with Adam. When Eve first becomes aware of herself—by looking at herself in a pool of water—Adam informs her who she is and why she exists, but Eve herself immediately makes a judgment of Adam: he is less beautiful than the face she sees in the pond. Though the narrative returns to Eve’s docility and wholehearted servitude to Adam after this episode, Eve’s sentience is confirmed. She can think for herself.
We all know what happens to Eve. I find it somewhat interesting, then, that so much attention is paid to asserting Eve’s origin as a part of Adam and her role as his “other half.” In a genesis story so full of paradoxes (why did God create an Eden he knew would be corrupted, why does he allow evil to exist where he has the power to stop it?), the introduction of Adam and Eve presents yet another: if Eve is inseparable from and destined to serve Adam, why, in the scheme of things, does she make her fateful decision independently? And she is so part of Adam, isn’t he as responsible as she is for the Fall? I suppose this represents some confusion on my part: Is Eve independent or isn’t she? As a servant of Adam, is her will truly her own?
Great questions. In some ways, Milton’s depiction of Eve is the crux of PL. She does seem secondary to Adam, and her secondariness seems to suggest insufficiency. I think Milton would defend against that, but her memory of her origin certainly complicates her relationship with Adam, which initially was slightly reluctant…
The section in book four when Gabriel discusses the entrance of the devil into paradise with Uriel stood out to me as a particularly interesting comment on Milton’s perception of sin and evil. Since Satan entered by a means other than the door, Gabriel says, “If spirit of other sort / So minded have o’erleaped these earthy bounds / On purpose, hard thou know’st it to exclude / Spiritual substance with corporeal bar” (4. 582-585). I read this reaction as recognition of the limits of attempts to keep thoughts of sin from entering the mind. Just as Satan leaps into paradise, so too can sinful thought leap into the mind of even the most devout person. This is, of course, in spite of all the barriers that should keep these things out (the “corporeal bar”).
Although corporeal refers to the physical body – and the statement that Satan cannot be physically kept out of paradise is true – I also took the corporeal bar to have a metaphorical meaning. I took it to mean that the protections God puts up (the wall, the angels) cannot and will not keep sin out of the minds of humans. This seems to be directly related to free will, since the incompleteness of the wall indicates that God is not controlling every aspect of Adam and Eve’s life. This is an interesting interpretation of God’s power, since it allows humanity to be tested before God intervenes on their behalf.
As Gabriel’s remarks continue, he says, “But if within the circuit of these walks, / In whatsoever shape he lurk of whom / Thou tell’st, by morrow dawning I shall know” (4. 586-588). What is interesting about this is the fact that Gabriel has to wait for light to reveal Satan. Given God’s association with light, it seems like evil can only be recognized through God’s grace. Gabriel also seems confident in his ability to find Satan, which speaks to the ability of the divine to discern evil, even if they do not actively destroy it right away.
Very good–this idea that the spiritual can enter in spite of corporeal bars helps to explain the odd sequences of descriptions we get of Satan easily entering Paradise. It is interesting to think of Paradise as in this sense a figure for the unfallen yet vulnerable mind.
After completing Book Four, I am still struck by Satan’s soliloquy from pages 78-80 which we went over briefly in class. This is a much more heavy-handed description from Milton of what Hell actually is. Before, Milton had given us a wholly metaphorical Hell that had been described in detail as a burning underworld. Here, Satan openly recognizes that he, himself, is the embodiment of Hell. “Which way I fly is Hell, myself am Hell,” claims Satan (4.75). Hell is not a static world; wherever Satan is, Hell is. This realization is really what drives Satan to choose not to repent or bow down to God. Instead, his other option is to continue his life of sin and evil. This realization and the choice that follows it, to me, is a very interesting portrayal of Satan’s evils. Milton is not characterizing Satan as a truly evil figure here. Satan essentially sees himself as backed into a corner with no way out, and he relies on what he knows as his only choice going forward. Does Milton sympathize with Satan? Is this a known part of the Bible, that Satan doesn’t necessarily like sinning and committing acts of evil? Is Milton trying to say that Satan doesn’t really want to live his life as Satan? It seems as if given an easy option, Satan would gladly repent and join God in Heaven. It will be interesting to see the angle from which Milton describes Satan’s actions and feelings going forward, because he certainly seems to be garnering a level of sympathy for Satan at this point in the poem.
This characterization of Satan certainly isn’t from the Bible, where the serpent appears briefly and more or less inexplicably to tempt Eve. This is all Milton’s own…his imagining of what hell really means, and it does seem clear that he is most interested in a pscyhological explanation of that state.
In this reading I was fascinated by the contradictory characterization of Eve. This was introduced in the reading for Tuesday, when God exclaims that he made mankind “just and right/ Sufficient to have stood though free to fall (Book 3, Lines 98-99). Yet, from man comes Eve, whose hair Milton describes as “[d]ishevelled but in wanton ringlets” (Book 4, Line 306). This suggests already that Eve is not really able to follow rules; there is something in her being that cannot copy the strict order of Adam. In addition, Eve is obedient. She obeys Adam, as she knows she must and seems to enjoy, but her automatic obedience also leads her to obey more questionable voices. When she wakes she hears a Voice which leads her to Adam, which is presumable that of God, yet she obeys it without knowing this. Her obedience to the nameless voice, to me, foreshadows her obedience to Satan’s murmurs later on. Lastly, the most problematic part of Eve to me is her relationship with God. She says to Adam, “God is thy law, thou mine” (Book 4, Line 637). Though she does serve God, she does it through Adam. I think that Milton included this line to show the crack in Eden, and how Satan was really able to bring about the fall of man. Eve is removed from God, only indirectly worshipping him. Though, God did create her from Adam’s rib, indicated that He created her to worship Adam first. This contradictory image of Eve complicates this work for me, and I wonder if Milton will unify her at any point.
Great observations–and we’ll certainly go to these passages today. Just the description of Eve’s hair as “disheveled” and “wanton” requires interpretation, as we’ll see…
In Book IV of Paradise Lost, we receive an insight into the mind of Satan that makes into a much more complicated and multidimensional character than previously witnessed. Satan’s soliloquy from lines 32-113 reveals the wide range of emotions that this character is capable of feeling. Milton represents Satan in this passage as incredibly human, which helps to answer the question we spoke of in last class of why we find Satan to be a partially likeable character despite his clear flaws and sinful nature. Though he is inwardly conflicted, Satan reveals the inescapable link between himself and Hell, yielding repentance and forgiveness impossible.
The experience of traveling so close to heaven overwhelms Satan, and he demonstrates profound nostalgia for his previous home. Begins his soliloquy “in sighs” (IV. 31), he expresses longing to the sun—hating its “beams / That bring to [his] remembrance from what state / he fell” (IV. 37-9). Recognizing the recompense and praise he ought to pay to God his creator, he simultaneously acknowledges his psychological flaw in that he was “lifted up so high / [he] sdained subjection” (IV. 49-50). This internal contradiction plagues Satan, as he struggles with the notion that he should repent while knowing that his repentance would be only “feigned submission” and “vows made in pain” (IV. 96-7). Furthermore, God knows this of Satan. This illustrates the point that not only God but also Satan and presumably others fully understand God’s omnipotence and omniscience—reminding us of the narrative’s central question: how can evil exist if God is both omnipotent and good?
For Satan, he realizes his own contradictory nature and in doing so justifies his own claim: “Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell” (IV. 75). The glimpses of humanity and remorsefulness that he demonstrates in this passage, however, make us feel sorry for his inescapable state as a figure that not only rules over hell but also unequivocally embodies it. This passage is crucial in understanding Satan’s motives for his actions and his relationship with God.
Very good–I think you are especially right about the internal contradictions that make up milton’s representation of Satan–he is not a figure entirely or originally “bad,” but has become bad through a series of choices–freely made, Milton would argue. In making these choices he has begun to change his own mind.
Whether tyrannical, or perhaps just all-powerful, God is undoubtedly omniscient so far in Paradise Lost. Despite His desire that His will be done, God steps back and allows His children both the freedom and the ability to make decisions for themselves, yet never forces them in a certain direction. Having created Adam, and eventually Eve, in His own image, followed by the Son below him, God clearly makes an initial point to display the existing hierarchy in the story of man’s divine creation. “Now had th’ almighty Father from above,/ from the pure empyrean where He sits/ High throned above all heighth, bent down His eye,/ His own works and their works at once to view.” (III. 56-58) Bending down to speak to his “only begotten Son,” God makes it evidently clear who is in command as he discusses the inevitability of Man’s fall. Very much aware that Adam and Eve will succumb to the one existing temptation in Paradise, God continues to harp upon his providing of free will explaining that “Freely they stood who stood and fell who fell.” (III, 103)
If God already knows the outcome, though, is the human existence really… free? Yes, just because God knows what will ultimately happen does not mean that he forces action upon anyone or anything in the interim. And even though human submission may please God, Milton’s idea of free will seems to be rooted in the existence of choices and the freedom to make them, not in God’s requirement that His will be done. Therefore, Milton initially depicts God in a purposefully strategic way for though He will allow sin to take place, His ultimate goal is to create a system of forgiveness and redemption.
Good. Your central question is a good one–if God knows what will happen, in what sense are Adam and Eve’s choices free at any particular moment? In milton’s poem these two things are held in a kind of radical balance–God’s knowledge is on a different temporal scale from Adam and Eve’s narrative decision making, and we need to accept (according to the poem) that there is nothing predisposed about their actions.
I found Milton’s initial description of Eve very confusing, specifically his declaration her “golden tresses” imply subjection. He describes the hair as “wanton,” “dishevelled” and “unadorned,” seemingly suggesting its wildness. How can her uncontrollable hair represent her ability to be controlled?
In analyzing this passage, I found the image of Eve’s hair as a “veil” to be informative to Milton’s overall point. A veil presupposes that she is sheltering or hiding some aspect of herself, or that there is some part of her that cannot be observed. This seems an interesting juxtaposition to the fact that this initial character sketch of her comes from Satan’s observation, his masculine gaze. Maybe, then, the conflicting descriptions of her hair as both a protective veil and an uncontrollable mess serve to emphasize the fact that Eve has a tendency towards wildness that is only subtly discernible to the observing eye.
In addition, Milton goes on to compare her hair to a vine, suggesting the connection between Eve’s body and the garden itself. Just the garden eventually loses its capacity to be controlled (the foliage becomes overgrown and wild) when Adam and Eve are exiled and unable to prune it, Milton may be noting that Eve also has a possibility of becoming uncontrollable.
The vine image has further contradictory implications that would be interesting to discuss. A vine is a strong base to a plant, possibly indicating Eve’s potential to be guiding. A vine is stronger than a branch- it is the origin of, say, a grape- and thus powerful and life-giving. At the same time, it must have a host to cling to, (potentially Adam?) and can become parasitic and overgrown if left untended, suffocating the host. Again, this imagery carries multiple possible meanings, both positive and negative, that influence our initial perception of Eve.
I am curious how others viewed this passage, and whether our first ideas about Eve will change as the narrative progresses.
Very good observations–you are led here to a passage that has puzzled and exercised a lot of critics. Your observation that this description is focalized through the gaze of Satan seems important–he is the one observing and assessing her; at the same time, the narrator chooses words like “wanton” and “disheveled,” and we will need to look at what that means.
April 16, 2015 at 9:13 am
Over the course of Book Four, we see Satan’s character become even more complex as he interacts with the realm which, once his rightful environment, is now opposed to his entire being. I found myself wondering: is his character already set in stone, and simply being revealed to us as it comes into contact with new scenarios? Or is he undergoing true development, reacting to those scenarios in ways that even he did not expect?
To give a concrete example: the hate and despair he evinces in his soliloquy, the emotion with which he declares that “All good to me is lost. / Evil, be thou my good” (108-109)–is this resignation something he felt before, or something he just comprehended for the first time? Is he a product of fate, destined to act the way he does from the moment of his fall? Or is he a dynamic, changing figure who learns about himself in a way much like we do?
While I think the answer likely lies somewhere in the middle, Book Four in particular paints a picture of Satan that is very human in its development. Could we really imagine, for instance, that he expected he would feel so attracted to Adam and Eve, whom “[his] thoughts pursue / with wonder and could love” (362-363)? Or did he really expect, when facing Gabriel and his angelic cohort, that he could defeat them, before God makes it clear that he couldn’t by placing “in heav’n His golden scales” (997)?
On the whole, if Paradise Lost is written as an epic, it must have a protagonist who fits the epic conventions: one who embarks on an ambitious quest, who sojourns far and wide to fulfill it, and who learns quite a bit about himself in doing so. With each book, it is becoming more and more clear that Satan is that protagonist.
April 16, 2015 at 9:13 am
I was fascinated by Milton’s repeated description of the belief hierarchy that exists in Paradise. “He for God only, and she for God in him,” he writes, referring to Adam and Eve (Book 4, 298-299). Adam, Milton seems to be saying, is closer to God than Eve is. This is emphasized again, when Eve speaks to Adam later in book 4, saying, “My author and disposer, what thou bidst/unargued I obey: so God ordains./God is they law, thou mine. To know no more is woman’s happiest knowledge and her praise” (365-368). Adam knows God, Adam sees God, Adam follows God’s law. Eve, on the other hand, is a step removed. Adam is her “law,” her “author.” Adam is Eve’s God. Milton tells us that Eve’s innocence of any knowledge of God is “women’s happiest knowledge.” If Eve were to know–if she were to eat the fruit of knowledge, let’s say–she wouldn’t just lost her innocence. She would gain knowledge of a God beyond Adam.
This, I think, complicates Satan’s first attempt at temptation of Eve. Eve tells Adam that Satan calls her, “fair angelic Eve” (Book 5, 73). He tempts her, saying “taste this and be henceforth among the gods/Thyself a goddess” (Book 5, 77-78). If Adam is Eve’s God, than she is already a goddess of sorts. Eve can only “aspire to godhead” if she understand what God is (Book 3, argument). Milton, however, has made it clear that she doesn’t understand God. Already we see the unraveling of traditional narratives, an unraveling that I think will continue as the story snakes onwards.
April 16, 2015 at 8:20 am
In Book 5 of Paradise Lost, Milton writes about the struggle between temptation and reason. Eve has a dream in which a voice followers her to the Tree of Knowledge and tempts her to eat the fruit. This dream frightens Adam and her because they know that eating the fruit from the tree is truly forbidden and therefore are frightened by the subconscious enticement experienced in her dream. At this point, I wonder whether this is a subtle commentary by Milton? Is he presenting Adam and Eve with a prediction to evoke an even more enhanced feeling of gravity and disappointed over Adam and Eve’s actual fall to temptation? We all know as readers that Eve does actually taste the fruit and that this prediction does not warn her or stop her from making the terrible decision she does. By giving them such a large amount of knowledge about Satan and his “lure”, it adds to the severity of their downfall and almost makes it look foolish and irresponsible. I feel as though this scene comments on the absurdity of the situation and the personal beliefs that Milton has over the topic of Adam and Eve and how they brought about their own downfall.
April 16, 2015 at 7:03 am
I was drawn towards the end of Book 4. Satan takes the form of a toad while he is in heaven. During Medieval times toads were thought to be related to evil. The ztoad’s blood was thought to carry poison. This cultural association of toads is defiantly reflected through Milton’s decision to make Satan disguise himself into a toad. While hidden under a false form, Satan extracts sinful information into Eve. The transfer of poison as sin can be compared. What other possible reasons does Satan take on the form of a toad? If toads really were considered evil wouldn’t seem strange to have a toad in heaven?
It is not until an angle taps Satan does his true form become reveled. It is there the angles demand Satan revel his identity because they are unable to identify him. Satan responds, “Know ye not then said SATAN, filld with scorn,
Know ye not me? ye knew me once no mate For you, there sitting where ye durst not soare; Not to know mee argues your selves unknown, The lowest of your throng”(827-830). Satan is personally offended that the angles are unable to recognize him. Milton uses this scene to highlight the engulfing affect of pride on one’s identity. Rather than concern for his own wellbeing or fear of punishment, Satan is more concerned with his pride. I found it important to note that Satan’s pride causes him to blame others, such as reasoning that the angles are of such a low rank for the reason they are unable to recognize him. Satan seems to be more childish in this scene. Is there any possible chance Satan is related to immaturity?
April 16, 2015 at 8:19 am
good work–the toad imagery is interesting, though remember it is only a simile–“squat like a toad”. Notice too that the question of whether he manages to inject any poison into Eve remains unclear…
April 16, 2015 at 12:24 am
Eve meeting Adam is not as simple as girl meets boy. As we are first exposed to Eve’s dangerous vanity in Book 4, we also see a sort of unwillingness to be Adam’s partner. When “a Voice” takes Eve away from the pond and leads her to Adam, Eve asks, “What could I do/But follow straight, invisibly thus led?” (Book 4, Lines 475-6). It seems that she has no choice in the matter, even the “gentle hand” of Adam “seized” Eve’s, as if she has to be seized to be kept (488-9).
This could be due to her vanity, she does in fact see Adam as “less winning soft, less amiably mild” (479) as her reflection, but I think it may go further than that and express Eve’s dissatisfaction with not being given a choice in the matter, with being a mere creation and “claim” of man (487). Adam, however, is “in delight/Both of her beauty and submissive charms” (497-8), and doesn’t see anything wrong with having dominion over this woman. But she does, and given the language he uses, Milton possibly does as well…
April 16, 2015 at 8:20 am
Good! I agree that this first meeting raises a lot of questions, as does Eve’s memory of her origin. Be sure to go back to this when we listen to Adam recounting the same event–it sounds interestingly different…
April 15, 2015 at 11:53 pm
I was particularly taken by the final scene in Book 4. Gabriel and his squadron of angels are surrounding Satan and trying to make him return to Hell. Satan, refuses, and tensions build. The two sides are about to face off in a battle when suddenly God’s golden scales appear. One side of the scale reflects Satan fleeing, while the other side reflects him staying and fighting. Ultimately, Satan looks up and sees that the scales are not in his favor, so he flees. I find this scene to be a bit confusing. Why does God show Satan that he is doomed if he fight? Why not just let the angels and Satan duel it out? Isn’t god doing Satan a favor by showing him he is better off if he flees? I really don’t understand God’s motive for aiding Satan in this case. Also, hasn’t God already resigned Adam, Eve, and Paradise to the fact that Satan will eventually bring about the fall of mankind? His Son has already sacrificed himself for man’s eventual sin, and God is okay with that, but he prolongs the fall? Why not just let Satan get it over with? Gabriel says that “[he] know [Satan’s] strength and [Satan] thou know’st mie:/ Neither our own, but giv’n” (IV,1006-1007), If he is saying that God gives strength to both of them, why can’t God just take away Satan’s strength? So many things in this scene just don’t make sense to me.
April 16, 2015 at 8:25 am
These are great questions. I think this image of the scale is just that–an image to show us the overarching power of God to determine outcomes. Unlike an ordinary epic battle where the strength of each adversary would determine the outcome, here Gabriel points out that they are neither of them anything without God’s gifts–“thine no more/Than Heav’n permits, nor mine.” I think it is important that although God has foreseen the fall, that doesn’t in milton’s theodicy prevent the reality of choice at every moment.
April 15, 2015 at 11:09 pm
In Book 4, I was struck by the presentation of Eve’s identity because she seems explicitly connected to Adam, yet undefined. For example, when Eve addresses Adam she says, “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) Eve is clearly stating the depth of her connection to Adam, she knows that she was created for him and part of him was used to make her, therefore a part of him is always with her. She goes further to establish that without him, her existence would end. Additionally, when she calls him her guide and her head, she immediately reveals the power hierarchy between her and Adam and the dynamic that he guides and she follows. Additionally, the reference to the “head” alludes to a line from the Bible, “the head of every man is Christ; and the head of every woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.” (1 Corinthians 11:3) Therefore, Eve establishes a worshiper-worshiped relationship between her and Adam respectively, taking their power hierarchy to a higher level and implying that he is her God. I found that this moment where Eve has seemingly clear self-awareness contrasts starkly when she is looking at her reflection in the water. She does not know that it is her own reflection and therefore needs to be told by a voice, “What thou seest,/ What there thou seest, fair creature, is thyself:/ With thee it came and goes.” (4.467-469) Eve’s inability to recognize her own reflection (or to logically understand that it’s her own reflection after noticing that the reflection moves when she moves) seems to imply a lack of self-awareness, at least on the visual level that is inconsistent with the previous scene. Eve has to be told by some voice the truth, which could parallel her relationship with Adam, thus establishing Eve as a character who has to be directed by external forces, as opposed to self-directing. Eve’s lack of self-conviction and reliance could foreshadow her susceptibility to be tempted and influenced, which we know will ultimately lead to her fall.
April 16, 2015 at 8:27 am
Excellent–these are real problems in Milton’s representation of Eve, and I look forward to discussing them today. He evidently does have a hierarchical view of the sexes, and yet it would counter his purposes to make Eve too frail to withstand temptation.
April 15, 2015 at 10:09 pm
I found Satan’s second soliloquy on lines 358-392 especially interesting. In this passage Satan gets his first look at Adam and Eve enjoying Paradise. We’ve talked about how Satan is a complex character and not just a representation of pure evil, and that is born out in this section. The Devil almost feels sorry that he has to use Adam and Eve for his revenge. He acknowledges Man’s perfection, really heaping on the praise of their “divine resemblance”. Satan looks upon Adam and Eve “with grief” because he knows he must bring about their downfall, and the fact that the thought of destroying Paradise saddens Satan is another reason why the reader can feel sympathetic to the Devil. Again Satan reiterates that he has no qualm with Adam and Eve but must use them for revenge against God (“yet no purpos’d foe To you” – lines 373-374). On the other hand, I was frustrated with Satan because again he refuses to take responsibility for his actions. The Devil says, “Thank him who puts me loath to this revenge On you, who wrong’d me not, for him who wrong’d” (386-387). Satan made the choice to subvert God, and now is making the choice to attempt revenge. But in Satan’s eyes, his fall was God’s fault, because as the Creator God knew that Satan was destined to fall and bring down Man with him. Here is the crux of the issue of predestination. If free will exists, then Satan’s choice to destroy Adam and Eve is his own. But if God is the Creator of all and aware of the past, present and future, why did he create Satan in the first place?
April 16, 2015 at 8:29 am
Exactly–you note the most important aspects of this scene here. Satan both shows the capacity for pity and more honorable feelings, but at the same time tries to throw out his own real potential to choose by calling his actions “necessity, ” and blaming God for them. Let’s talk about that last question of yours in class…
April 15, 2015 at 9:28 pm
Oh, Milton.
It’s sort of impossible to miss the idea that, in the eyes of God, Milton, and apparently Eve herself, Eve is not a whole person. She is an extension of Adam, created only to be his companion and the mother of his children. She says her of relationship to Adam that he is the man “for whom/And from whom I was form’d flesh of thy flesh,/And without whom I am to no end” That is to say, without Adam, Eve would have no other purpose. But even this early in the narrative, Milton begins to plant the seeds that Eve is in some ways not entirely linked with Adam. When Eve first becomes aware of herself—by looking at herself in a pool of water—Adam informs her who she is and why she exists, but Eve herself immediately makes a judgment of Adam: he is less beautiful than the face she sees in the pond. Though the narrative returns to Eve’s docility and wholehearted servitude to Adam after this episode, Eve’s sentience is confirmed. She can think for herself.
We all know what happens to Eve. I find it somewhat interesting, then, that so much attention is paid to asserting Eve’s origin as a part of Adam and her role as his “other half.” In a genesis story so full of paradoxes (why did God create an Eden he knew would be corrupted, why does he allow evil to exist where he has the power to stop it?), the introduction of Adam and Eve presents yet another: if Eve is inseparable from and destined to serve Adam, why, in the scheme of things, does she make her fateful decision independently? And she is so part of Adam, isn’t he as responsible as she is for the Fall? I suppose this represents some confusion on my part: Is Eve independent or isn’t she? As a servant of Adam, is her will truly her own?
April 16, 2015 at 8:30 am
Great questions. In some ways, Milton’s depiction of Eve is the crux of PL. She does seem secondary to Adam, and her secondariness seems to suggest insufficiency. I think Milton would defend against that, but her memory of her origin certainly complicates her relationship with Adam, which initially was slightly reluctant…
April 15, 2015 at 8:50 pm
The section in book four when Gabriel discusses the entrance of the devil into paradise with Uriel stood out to me as a particularly interesting comment on Milton’s perception of sin and evil. Since Satan entered by a means other than the door, Gabriel says, “If spirit of other sort / So minded have o’erleaped these earthy bounds / On purpose, hard thou know’st it to exclude / Spiritual substance with corporeal bar” (4. 582-585). I read this reaction as recognition of the limits of attempts to keep thoughts of sin from entering the mind. Just as Satan leaps into paradise, so too can sinful thought leap into the mind of even the most devout person. This is, of course, in spite of all the barriers that should keep these things out (the “corporeal bar”).
Although corporeal refers to the physical body – and the statement that Satan cannot be physically kept out of paradise is true – I also took the corporeal bar to have a metaphorical meaning. I took it to mean that the protections God puts up (the wall, the angels) cannot and will not keep sin out of the minds of humans. This seems to be directly related to free will, since the incompleteness of the wall indicates that God is not controlling every aspect of Adam and Eve’s life. This is an interesting interpretation of God’s power, since it allows humanity to be tested before God intervenes on their behalf.
As Gabriel’s remarks continue, he says, “But if within the circuit of these walks, / In whatsoever shape he lurk of whom / Thou tell’st, by morrow dawning I shall know” (4. 586-588). What is interesting about this is the fact that Gabriel has to wait for light to reveal Satan. Given God’s association with light, it seems like evil can only be recognized through God’s grace. Gabriel also seems confident in his ability to find Satan, which speaks to the ability of the divine to discern evil, even if they do not actively destroy it right away.
April 16, 2015 at 8:33 am
Very good–this idea that the spiritual can enter in spite of corporeal bars helps to explain the odd sequences of descriptions we get of Satan easily entering Paradise. It is interesting to think of Paradise as in this sense a figure for the unfallen yet vulnerable mind.
April 15, 2015 at 4:18 pm
After completing Book Four, I am still struck by Satan’s soliloquy from pages 78-80 which we went over briefly in class. This is a much more heavy-handed description from Milton of what Hell actually is. Before, Milton had given us a wholly metaphorical Hell that had been described in detail as a burning underworld. Here, Satan openly recognizes that he, himself, is the embodiment of Hell. “Which way I fly is Hell, myself am Hell,” claims Satan (4.75). Hell is not a static world; wherever Satan is, Hell is. This realization is really what drives Satan to choose not to repent or bow down to God. Instead, his other option is to continue his life of sin and evil. This realization and the choice that follows it, to me, is a very interesting portrayal of Satan’s evils. Milton is not characterizing Satan as a truly evil figure here. Satan essentially sees himself as backed into a corner with no way out, and he relies on what he knows as his only choice going forward. Does Milton sympathize with Satan? Is this a known part of the Bible, that Satan doesn’t necessarily like sinning and committing acts of evil? Is Milton trying to say that Satan doesn’t really want to live his life as Satan? It seems as if given an easy option, Satan would gladly repent and join God in Heaven. It will be interesting to see the angle from which Milton describes Satan’s actions and feelings going forward, because he certainly seems to be garnering a level of sympathy for Satan at this point in the poem.
April 16, 2015 at 8:34 am
This characterization of Satan certainly isn’t from the Bible, where the serpent appears briefly and more or less inexplicably to tempt Eve. This is all Milton’s own…his imagining of what hell really means, and it does seem clear that he is most interested in a pscyhological explanation of that state.
April 14, 2015 at 11:31 pm
In this reading I was fascinated by the contradictory characterization of Eve. This was introduced in the reading for Tuesday, when God exclaims that he made mankind “just and right/ Sufficient to have stood though free to fall (Book 3, Lines 98-99). Yet, from man comes Eve, whose hair Milton describes as “[d]ishevelled but in wanton ringlets” (Book 4, Line 306). This suggests already that Eve is not really able to follow rules; there is something in her being that cannot copy the strict order of Adam. In addition, Eve is obedient. She obeys Adam, as she knows she must and seems to enjoy, but her automatic obedience also leads her to obey more questionable voices. When she wakes she hears a Voice which leads her to Adam, which is presumable that of God, yet she obeys it without knowing this. Her obedience to the nameless voice, to me, foreshadows her obedience to Satan’s murmurs later on. Lastly, the most problematic part of Eve to me is her relationship with God. She says to Adam, “God is thy law, thou mine” (Book 4, Line 637). Though she does serve God, she does it through Adam. I think that Milton included this line to show the crack in Eden, and how Satan was really able to bring about the fall of man. Eve is removed from God, only indirectly worshipping him. Though, God did create her from Adam’s rib, indicated that He created her to worship Adam first. This contradictory image of Eve complicates this work for me, and I wonder if Milton will unify her at any point.
April 16, 2015 at 8:36 am
Great observations–and we’ll certainly go to these passages today. Just the description of Eve’s hair as “disheveled” and “wanton” requires interpretation, as we’ll see…
April 13, 2015 at 9:38 pm
In Book IV of Paradise Lost, we receive an insight into the mind of Satan that makes into a much more complicated and multidimensional character than previously witnessed. Satan’s soliloquy from lines 32-113 reveals the wide range of emotions that this character is capable of feeling. Milton represents Satan in this passage as incredibly human, which helps to answer the question we spoke of in last class of why we find Satan to be a partially likeable character despite his clear flaws and sinful nature. Though he is inwardly conflicted, Satan reveals the inescapable link between himself and Hell, yielding repentance and forgiveness impossible.
The experience of traveling so close to heaven overwhelms Satan, and he demonstrates profound nostalgia for his previous home. Begins his soliloquy “in sighs” (IV. 31), he expresses longing to the sun—hating its “beams / That bring to [his] remembrance from what state / he fell” (IV. 37-9). Recognizing the recompense and praise he ought to pay to God his creator, he simultaneously acknowledges his psychological flaw in that he was “lifted up so high / [he] sdained subjection” (IV. 49-50). This internal contradiction plagues Satan, as he struggles with the notion that he should repent while knowing that his repentance would be only “feigned submission” and “vows made in pain” (IV. 96-7). Furthermore, God knows this of Satan. This illustrates the point that not only God but also Satan and presumably others fully understand God’s omnipotence and omniscience—reminding us of the narrative’s central question: how can evil exist if God is both omnipotent and good?
For Satan, he realizes his own contradictory nature and in doing so justifies his own claim: “Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell” (IV. 75). The glimpses of humanity and remorsefulness that he demonstrates in this passage, however, make us feel sorry for his inescapable state as a figure that not only rules over hell but also unequivocally embodies it. This passage is crucial in understanding Satan’s motives for his actions and his relationship with God.
April 16, 2015 at 8:38 am
Very good–I think you are especially right about the internal contradictions that make up milton’s representation of Satan–he is not a figure entirely or originally “bad,” but has become bad through a series of choices–freely made, Milton would argue. In making these choices he has begun to change his own mind.
April 13, 2015 at 8:13 pm
Whether tyrannical, or perhaps just all-powerful, God is undoubtedly omniscient so far in Paradise Lost. Despite His desire that His will be done, God steps back and allows His children both the freedom and the ability to make decisions for themselves, yet never forces them in a certain direction. Having created Adam, and eventually Eve, in His own image, followed by the Son below him, God clearly makes an initial point to display the existing hierarchy in the story of man’s divine creation. “Now had th’ almighty Father from above,/ from the pure empyrean where He sits/ High throned above all heighth, bent down His eye,/ His own works and their works at once to view.” (III. 56-58) Bending down to speak to his “only begotten Son,” God makes it evidently clear who is in command as he discusses the inevitability of Man’s fall. Very much aware that Adam and Eve will succumb to the one existing temptation in Paradise, God continues to harp upon his providing of free will explaining that “Freely they stood who stood and fell who fell.” (III, 103)
If God already knows the outcome, though, is the human existence really… free? Yes, just because God knows what will ultimately happen does not mean that he forces action upon anyone or anything in the interim. And even though human submission may please God, Milton’s idea of free will seems to be rooted in the existence of choices and the freedom to make them, not in God’s requirement that His will be done. Therefore, Milton initially depicts God in a purposefully strategic way for though He will allow sin to take place, His ultimate goal is to create a system of forgiveness and redemption.
April 16, 2015 at 8:40 am
Good. Your central question is a good one–if God knows what will happen, in what sense are Adam and Eve’s choices free at any particular moment? In milton’s poem these two things are held in a kind of radical balance–God’s knowledge is on a different temporal scale from Adam and Eve’s narrative decision making, and we need to accept (according to the poem) that there is nothing predisposed about their actions.
April 13, 2015 at 12:36 pm
I found Milton’s initial description of Eve very confusing, specifically his declaration her “golden tresses” imply subjection. He describes the hair as “wanton,” “dishevelled” and “unadorned,” seemingly suggesting its wildness. How can her uncontrollable hair represent her ability to be controlled?
In analyzing this passage, I found the image of Eve’s hair as a “veil” to be informative to Milton’s overall point. A veil presupposes that she is sheltering or hiding some aspect of herself, or that there is some part of her that cannot be observed. This seems an interesting juxtaposition to the fact that this initial character sketch of her comes from Satan’s observation, his masculine gaze. Maybe, then, the conflicting descriptions of her hair as both a protective veil and an uncontrollable mess serve to emphasize the fact that Eve has a tendency towards wildness that is only subtly discernible to the observing eye.
In addition, Milton goes on to compare her hair to a vine, suggesting the connection between Eve’s body and the garden itself. Just the garden eventually loses its capacity to be controlled (the foliage becomes overgrown and wild) when Adam and Eve are exiled and unable to prune it, Milton may be noting that Eve also has a possibility of becoming uncontrollable.
The vine image has further contradictory implications that would be interesting to discuss. A vine is a strong base to a plant, possibly indicating Eve’s potential to be guiding. A vine is stronger than a branch- it is the origin of, say, a grape- and thus powerful and life-giving. At the same time, it must have a host to cling to, (potentially Adam?) and can become parasitic and overgrown if left untended, suffocating the host. Again, this imagery carries multiple possible meanings, both positive and negative, that influence our initial perception of Eve.
I am curious how others viewed this passage, and whether our first ideas about Eve will change as the narrative progresses.
April 16, 2015 at 8:41 am
Very good observations–you are led here to a passage that has puzzled and exercised a lot of critics. Your observation that this description is focalized through the gaze of Satan seems important–he is the one observing and assessing her; at the same time, the narrator chooses words like “wanton” and “disheveled,” and we will need to look at what that means.