Eve in the Garden of Eden
The most important characters in the epic poem, “Paradise Lost”, are Satan and Eve. These two characters are most responsible for the development and progression of events within the poem. Satan is the main figure throughout the vast majority of the plot. “Paradise Lost” follows Satan’s ultimately successful attempt to destroy God’s perfect creation, humanity, by forcing Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. In creating humanity, God set expectations and put in place boundaries for Adam and Eve, yet they were not particularly restrictive.
Adam and Eve had free reign within the boundaries of the Garden, and free will to make their own decisions, though there were few necessary. Milton writes in Book 3, “I made him just and right/Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall” (3.97-99). Adam and Eve were able to make their own future together. All that was required of them was to take care of the land in Eden, which would not be harsh labor, as fruit was produced easily. In both the Bible story of the Garden of Eden and the expounded version by John Milton, Satan tricks Eve into eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Just as is true today, Milton’s audience in the eighteenth century would have been familiar with the story of Adam and Eve’s downfall. Readers know that Eve will ultimately be tricked by Satan and convince Adam to eat the fruit. Given that, the audience waits in anticipation for the moment when Eve is manipulated. Greenblatt et al. (2008) write of Adam and Eve, “Their relationship exhibits gender hierarchy, but Milton’s early readers may have been surprised by the fullness and complexity of Eve’s character and the centrality of her role”. This statement accuratel...
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...cide to take the Fall together. This continues through the remaining books of the poem. After hearing God’s punishment, the two “...hand in hand with wandering steps and slow/Through Eden took their solitary way” (12.648-49). Adam and Eve would never return to Eden, but they retained their free will.
Milton does not make it clear throughout the early books that the story will include Eve and Adam eating of the Tree of Knowledge, or even include the Fall. God mentions on multiple occasions that the two humans have free will to make their own decisions and determine their own futures. The two humans ultimately do have the freedom to Fall, and succumb to the power of Satan and curiosity.
Works Cited
Greenblatt, Stephen, and Meyer Howard Abrams. The Norton anthology of English literature. Stephen Greenblatt & Meyer Howard Abrams. WW Norton &
Company, 2012.
In Genesis 3, the Fall of human beings is described. The serpent asked Eve if there were any trees that Adam and Eve could not eat from in the garden. Eve told the serpent that God said that they could not eat the fruit from the tree or touch the tree in the middle of the garden. The serpent told Eve that they would not die, but they would be open to the knowledge of good and evil like God. When Eve and Adam ate from the tree in the middle of the garden, they were opened to the knowledge of good and evil (The New Oxford Annotated Bible: With the Apocrypha...
...to mankind in Paradise Lost - one of the fundamental concepts in Christianity and vital to Milton's objective to "justify the ways of God to men" (1, 26) - the gods in the Aeneid are continually reminding Aeneas that he cannot afford to be distractive by the temptresses that are women because the future of Rome lays in his hands. Milton's God, on the other hand, allows Eve to fall and her blatant transgression caused the loss of paradise and all of creation has to experience the consequences of original sin. In Paradise Lost Eve was expected to submit to her ultimate authority, Adam. Rather, it is Adam in Book IX who submits to Eve's unreasonable discourse on separation. Indeed, the implication of a man (as a superior being) succumbing to feminine wiles and passion is an intense concept which - for both Virgil and Milton - threatened the very basis of their society.
The “Fall of Man” story in The Bible, better known as the “Garden of Eden “story or “Adam and Eve”, is the story of how sin entered the perfect world that God had created.According to the Genesis 3, the book and the chapter in which the story is located, God gave Adam and Eve, the only two humans ever to be created at the time, a perfect place to dwell, a paradise called the Garden of Eden . This garden contained everything they needed and it was good. They had only one condition, they could not eat from the tree that was in the center of the garden, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, because God said that if they ate it the would “ surely die”. Well one day a snake came along, or should I say Satan disguised as a snake, to tal...
People hold many differing opinions about Genesis 1-3. Some people believe that God didn't want Adam and Eve to have the knowledge of good and evil because it would make them as gods. The purpose of this essay is to show that Adam and Eve caused the downfall of mankind.
Milton’s depictions do not necessarily conflict with the Bible so much as add to or stray away from what the original text offers. By allowing Satan more power and more position in the story as well as painting Eve as the higher culprit, a very different feel is given off to the reader. The bible offers a much more balanced view of man and woman. By attributing more culpability to Eve, this may lead to many viewing women as the weak links, or the truly sinful ones, since Adam is portrayed as the stronger, wiser, and more selfless individual. Although Milton seems to believe that Eve is the one at fault, the question of who is to blame is an ongoing search, and perhaps it is in
The loss of innocence for Adam and Eve is connected to the notion of truly "knowing" and "seeing." Before eating the forbidden fruit, they were in blindly living; abiding by the commands of God without question. It is the serpent who tempts them, and challenges God's authoritative power. Curiosity and knowledge are what lead Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. Once they do, they realize the difference that exists between them and the creatures around them, between the physical bodies of Adam and Eve; difference exists everywhere around them. When Adam and Eve eat from the Tree of Knowledge, they then think and see for the first time.
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 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./
God knew that since both Adam and Eve had now gained knowledge of both good and evil they would soon learn to really appreciate life and all it has to offer. And for this reason the couple was expelled from paradise. Had Eve ignored the serpent and refused to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil perhaps civilization would still exist as nirvana. However happiness and in effect perfection is relative. A beautiful spring day is only as beautiful as the worst s...
Paradise Lost is an epic poem portraying John Milton’s theological standpoints. The theme is knowledge and the fall of man. Milton uses his poem to state some of his theological beliefs and his personal reflections. Milton wrote Paradise Lost in the 17th century but uses influence from classic poets. Milton’s epic is an extremely important piece of literature. The excerpt used in this commentary takes on the subjects of sin and the punishment with regards to the atonement from God’s point of view. Milton’s states many of his own theological opinions but wants the reader to know that God is justified in everything that he does, and also wants them to know that man has free will.
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.
As the story shows, Adam and Eve while in the Garden had everything they would ever need. When Eve let the serpent talk her out of listening to God, we see the punishment sequence take place. They both were banished from the Garden, in which Adam had to work on cursed land, where it would be hard to grow food and take care of the family. Eve was punished my having the pains of child birth and the role of the mother. The punishments that God gives both Adam and Eve are equal and because they did not obey God’s command they would have to suffer outside of the Garden and therefore have a harder life. This part of the story explains why it is important to do the right thing, so in the end things do not get harder for
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 question of whether Satan is the hero or the villain of John Milton’s Paradise Lost has been largely debated by scholars over the centuries. The ones who believe Satan is the villain of the epic, more commonly known as the Anti-Satanists, tend to argue that Satan is too foolish to be considered a hero, as his “hostility to Almighty power” is ultimately a futile endeavour (as God’s power is omnipotent) (Carey, 135). C.W. Lewis, also an anti-Satanist, goes as far as to claim that to “admire Satan, then, is to give one’s vote not only for a world of misery, but also for a world of lies and propaganda, of wishful thinking” (Lewis, 203). The ones who claim Satan is the hero of the epic, the Satanists, perceive him as the rebellious angel who rises up and defies God’s monarchy and “the tyranny of Heav’n” (174).They choose to focus on Satan’s “nobler qualities, his loyalty in leadership, fortitude in adversity, unflinching courage and splendid recklessness” (Satan/Promo, 3). While these two positions are both valid, this paper will be focusing on a third position; the individuals who believe that Satan is neither the hero nor the villain of the epic. Helen Gardner addresses this notion, claiming how “Satan is, of course, a character in an epic, and he is no sense the hero of the epic as a whole. But he is a figure of heroic magnitude and heroic energy, and he is developed by Milton with dramatic emphasis and dramatic intensity” (Baker/Helen, 208). Satan is without a doubt the antichrist, or “villain” in the biblical scriptures, however one must take into consideration his alternative and more ambiguous portrayal in Paradise Lost. In this paper, I will analyze Satan’s actions, physical portrayal and speeches in Book I of Paradise Los...
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...