Innocence

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One of the major themes in the both books Perelandra and Paradise Lost is innocence. In one story, innocence remains intact and is never lost in all of eternity. The other story takes a different spin and innocence is lost forever. Both stories are based on one decision that effects the fate of the entire races. Innocence is a state that only begins upon the initial creation of a being; consequently, it can only be lost once, never to be regained by man's own doing, or it can remain in place, never to be lost.
According to Webster's New World College Dictionary, innocence is the “freedom from sin or moral wrong” (737). Yet, if the Bible teaches that all man is sinful (see Romans 3:23), how could someone be innocent? C.S. Lewis, John Milton, and the Bible all teach that man was created in a perfect state of existence - something unfathomable in view of man's current state. Milton describes Adam and Eve as “living Creatures new to sight and strange” (Milton, 287). This statement implies that Adam and Eve were created pure and knowledgeable of sin. In Perelandra, the Green Lady, who...

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