5 -6 page paper on paradise lost

Student’s name: Instructor’s name: Gregory TAGUE Course: Milton Date: April 30, 2010 Temptation: a Process in Paradise Lost Milton’s Paradise Lost presents temptation as something that has its roots inside of the character. Whether it is Satan, Adam or Eve, the tempted “person” is described as passing through stages of inner thoughts and questioning before getting to the point where he or she succumbs to temptation. The question is to be asked: is God responsible for the rebels angels’ fall? Is Satan the first to be blamed for Adam’s and Eve’s fall? Some important elements of this epic poem suggest many reasons why those characters succumb to temptation. While reading Paradise Lost, one realizes that temptation is more complex than it seems. It follows a process from the vision of what is forbidden to the point of rebellion passing by the emergence of multiple desires; everything happening within the character itself and predisposing him or her to fall. To better understand Milton’s conception of temptation, it might be interesting to discover where temptation comes from, what the consequences of temptation are and finally, what can human beings do to resist temptation.

Temptation, in Milton’s point of view, comes from the senses. The sight appears to be the first of the senses to get involved in temptation. One can easily understand that the fallen characters have to see first before they covet. In book one, the reader meets Mammon, one of the rebel angels, who “for even in Heaven his looks and thoughts / Were always downward bent, admiring more / The riches of heaven's pavement, trodden gold, / Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed / In vision beatific” (Book 1, 680-684). Two words in these verses confirm the idea that temptation comes from seeing: looks and admiring. They even go gradually in intensity because when one starts admiring, it means he or she is looking intensely and for a relatively long time. Thus, instead of keeping his eyes on God whom all angels are supposed to adore, which is the “beatific vision”, Mammon was looking down. No wonder why he ended up cast from heaven. Eve, right after her creation, acted similarly: “As I bent down to look, [says she] just opposite, / A shape within the watery gleam appeared / Bending to look on me, I started back, / It started back, but pleased I soon returned, / Pleased it returned as soon with answering looks / Of sympathy and love; there had I fixed / Mine eyes till now, and pined with vain desire” (Book IV, 460-466). It is important to notice that at that moment, Eve was gazing at herself to the point of worship almost. By doing that, she reveals how proud of herself she was; and pride, in Milton’s period, still was considered the first of the seven deadly sins. In both Mammon’s and Eve’s scenes, the character is looking down which, in a sense, prefigures his and her fall. Satan also gives us more reasons to think that sight matters a lot in term of temptation. It can lead to good or evil actions. Satan, in Book 4 of Paradise Lost, sees Eden and God’s new creatures. This sight makes him rethink of his life in heaven and somehow encourages him more to go after humankind in order to take revenge of God: “Sight hateful, sight tormenting!  Thus these two / Imparadis’t in one another’s arms / The happier Eden, shall enjoy their fill / of bliss on bliss, while I in Hell am thrust, / where neither joy nor love, but fierce desire”(Book 5, 505-509). The reader will observe that the view of Adam and Eve has inspired or rather revived bad feelings such envy and jealousy in Satan. Later, Eve will live almost the same experience. In Book 9, she will “gaze” to the fruit which she describes as “alluring”. One can remark that the adjective “alluring” describes how Eve sees the apple.

Temptation will go from the sight to Eve’s other senses: “When from the boughs a savoury odour blown, / Grateful to appetite, more pleas'd my sense / Than smell of sweetest fennel, or the teats / Of ewe or goat dropping with milk at ev'n”. Her sense of smell is also attracted and that will lead, as the reader already knows, to the satisfaction of her sense of touch and taste as described in the following verses: “An eager appetite, rais'd by the smell / So savoury of that fruit, which with desire, / Inclinable now grown to touch or taste, / Solicited her longing eye” (Book 9, 739-743). Earlier, the reader saw how her hearing was also engaged in the process of temptation with Satan whispering into her ears in her dreams. Furthermore, the temptation scene in Book 9 reports Satan’s persuasive speech to convince Eve to eat the apple. Temptation has definitely a lot to do with senses.

The sight is indisputably among all the senses the one that communicates more to the mind and the heart in Paradise Lost. While reading the poem, one should not forget that Milton himself was blind. No one values vision more than a blind person; vision that goes beyond what one can see with physical eyes. In the first Book of Paradise Lost, Milton will remind the reader that he is blind. However, his blindness does not limit him because he “may see and tell / of things invisible to mortal sight” (Book 1, 55). He is able to be the “first” to write the greatest epic poem of man’s “first disobedience”. The reader might conclude that there is another type of vision, inside of people, greater than the physical one. This vision propels them into achieving higher goals which are not necessarily better goals. Like Milton, Satan has a determined vision: his mission to establish his throne higher than God’s throne. In order to accomplish that, he had to form the idea inside of him. He might be doing things that the reader disagrees with but one can’t help to sometimes admire his determination in realizing the vision he has conceived in his mind. Consequently, seeing isn’t not only physical it is also mental and in both sense it generates feelings and desires that lead to the fall inside of the characters.

Temptation does not come only from the senses it also comes from feelings and desires that someone feeds in his or her heart. Throughout Paradise Lost, the reader is exposed to the character’s desires. He is first exposed to Satan’s feelings and desires. Satan was full of negative pride, jealousy, envy and ambition “he it was, whose guile stird up with Envy and Revenge, deceiv’d The Mother of Mankind, what time his Pride had cast him out from Heav’n, with all his Host of Rebel Angels…”. His desire was to be equal to God violating this way the hierarchy that God Himself has established: “To set himself in glory above his peers, / He trusted to have equaled the Most High, If he opposed; and with ambitious aim / Against the throne and monarchy of God, / Raised impious was in Heaven and battle proud / With vain attempt” (Book 1, 34-44). Those feelings and desires were nourished by the fact that Satan saw God appointing the Son as second in command instead of Satan himself and also by the view of Eden Paradise that God created for Adam and Eve. The sight indubitably inspires feelings and desires.

Satan is not the only one to have desired to rise higher. Eve also expressed the desire to be elevated. According to Milton, she was created secondly and to be second to Adam: “Whence true autority in men; though both / Not equal, as thir sex not equal seemed; / For contemplation he and valour formed, / For softness she and sweet attractive Grace, / He for God only, she for God in him; / His fair large front and eye sublime declared / Absolute rule” (Book IV, 295-300). One has to take note of the fact that in this quote, Eve’s description put the emphasis on her physical appeal whereas Adam’s description seems to accentuate his role as superior. The reader can recall Raphael talking to Adam about heaven but not to Eve. He can also remember that Adam was the one to have direct communication with God not Eve. This is the hierarchy that God has established: vegetables and animals are at the bottom of the pyramid, man is superior to woman, the angels are superior to human beings and God is on top of everyone and everything. All those facts confirm Eve’s lower position and give a hint on the kind of thoughts that were in her mind. As a matter fact, just like Satan, she nourished the desire to become equal and even superior to Adam by acquiring knowledge. The serpent incarnated by Satan has certainly given a push to Eve but she was already predisposed to be disobedient to God. After Eve’s fall, the narrator reveals to the reader her true motives for eating from the Tree of Knowledge. “But keep the odds of Knowledge in my power / Without Copartner? so to add what wants / In Female Sex, the more to draw his Love, / And render me more equal, and perhaps, / A thing not undesireable, sometime / Superior: for inferior who is free?” says Eve to herself after the fall” (Book 9, 820-825). It becomes obvious in the expression “A thing not undesireable” that Eve has a low opinion of herself. It explains why she obviously was seeking knowledge for the sake of being free and superior. And when the serpent says “reach then and freely taste”, he pronounces out loud Eve’s inner thoughts which is to rise up (reach) and to attain freedom (freely taste).

Adam, on the other hand, was seeking knowledge for the sake of knowledge itself. Since the beginning, the reader sees Adam eager to know. This eagerness is almost irresistible. In book V, the reader has a demonstration of Adam’s desire to know: “Thus when with meats and drinks they had sufficed, / Not burdened nature, sudden mind arose / In Adam, not to let the occasion pass / Given him by this great conference to know / Of things above his world, and of their being / Who dwell in Heaven” (Book 5, 451-456). Adam, in Raphael’s company, is burning to know more. He is not interested in only feeding his flesh but also and mostly in feeding his mind. However, if food can suffice his flesh, what Raphael is telling him never seems enough; Adam always has more questions. Then, Raphael advises him not to seek to know more than what God allows him to know: “Solicit not thy thoughts with matters hid, / Leave them to God above, him serve and fear" (Book 8, 167-168). Raphael knew that Adam’s burden for knowledge could predispose him to fall. The same Adam was already questioning the order instituted by God. In his mind, he saw Eve as “wisest, vertuousest, discreetest, best”; higher that himself as opposed to what Raphael taught him. Wasn’t Eve almost like a god to Adam? Consequently, the reader is not surprised to see Adam receiving the apple from Eve’s hands and sharing it with her despite God’s interdiction. Finally, everything from his desire to know to his perception of Eve was preparing Adam to succumb to the temptation of eating the forbidden fruit.

Adam and Eve knew that they would die if they decided to eat the apple. However, in Milton’s point of view, they did not know the full consequences of their action. Those consequences are numerous, physical and mental, immediate and gradual, affecting them as well as their offspring. Just like the Angels lost their “blissful state in Heaven” to go in the “utter darkness” of hell, Adam and Eve lost “their happy seat”. As soon as Eve started eating the apple: “Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat, / Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe / That all was lost” (Book 9, 780-784). Eden Paradise experiences changes in weather and appearances and the first man and woman had to be expelled. The transformations did not only occur in Eden but also within human beings themselves. According to Milton, even their ability to talk was altered. They lost communication with God and did no longer have the same kind of exchange between themselves. "They sat them down to weep, nor only tears/ Rained at their eyes, but high winds worse within/ Began to rise, high passions, anger, hate,/ Mistrust, suspicion, discord, and shook greatly/ Their inward state of mind." Imitating Satan, Adam will qualify himself as “miserable” after the fall. Their disobedience to God also produces solitude: solitude from God and solitude within them although together: “The world was all before them, where to choose / Their place of rest, and Providence their guide; / They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, / Through Eden took their solitary way” (Book 12) Moreover, Sin and Death entering the world because of Adam’s and Eve’s fall, all humankind will be “cursed”. Using the same sense which has served to lead Adam to fall, Michael will make him see all the consequences of his disobedience such as the flood that destroys the earth. To the view of such negative future, Adam who was so eager to know wished he never knew.

However, Michael did also use vision to show Adam that all is not forever lost. They will regain Paradise but within them. Just like temptation started inside to make them lose Eden, they will have something inside of them to regain Paradise. In order for that to happen, the Son will incarnate as Jesus-Christ and will die for humankind. Then, he will send God’s spirit who will show human beings how to resist temptation and keep the paradise within themselves: “But from Heaven / He to his own a Comforter will send, / The promise of the Father, who shall dwell / His Spirit within them; and the law of faith, / Working through love, upon their hearts shall write, / To guide them in all truth; and also arm / With spiritual armour, able to resist / Satan's assaults” (Book 12, 485-492). God’s order to not eat the fruit of the tree of Knowledge was given orally. Later, Moses wrote God’s laws on table stones. With the Son coming to earth and through His spirit, God will write His law in human beings’ hearts. They will be able be obedient to Him and that is what Jesus-Christ the Son incarnated will teach men and women in Paradise Regained. Just like Adam and Eve, Jesus-Christ will be tempted by Satan. The “tempter” will use everything that can attract his senses to make him succumb: food, wealth, glory etc. Jesus will always resist showing human beings that they can resist too. Adam and Eve will be given the opportunity to rise from their fall. The image of God spirit giving birth to the world or the image of the Feminine Muse inspiring Milton foreshadows God’s spirit who will inspire human beings. In the scene of Jesus Christ’s baptism in the Bible, God’s spirit ascends on him under the form of a dove. Jesus then was capable of resisting the temptation that came shortly after. The same way, God’s spirit given to human beings will make them capable of resisting temptation and will help them keep the paradise inside of them.

In conclusion, it is evident that, in Paradise Lost, temptation does not come primarily from a “tempter” outside. It has its origin inside of each one of the fallen characters who has fed it until the point to commit disobedience. The tempter was clever enough to take advantage of the right occasion where his victims were weaker thus more incline top fall. Senses, especially the sight and desires play a major role in people’s fall. That is why in the second covenant, God insufflates His own spirit inside of human beings. In a sense, it is like they start having God Himself within themselves. Although the consequences of the fall are numerous, Milton defends the idea of “happy fault” or “fortunate fall” in Paradise Regained. This last book announces a rebirth. God proves how much he cares about humankind when He sends His Son by whom Satan will totally be defeated. A new heaven and a new hearth will appear where men and women will live happily ever after. It seems to be like a fairy tale where it always ends well. However, some questions come to mind that are difficult to answer: first of all, was it really worth all the suffering throughout human generations? Secondly, isn’t Milton as guilty of pride as Satan, Eve and Adam by pretending to write the greatest epic ever and to be able to “justify the ways of God to man”? What kind of God would need a vindicator?