Paradise Lost: Thinking Activity

Highlighting "Man's first disobedience", and his consequent fall from heaven, John Milton's Paradise Lost, is and always will be one of the greatest epics of English literature. Milton's epic provides the readers with a human perspective to the original Biblical narrative of the incident, with God at the center. Not only does Milton place Adam and Eve at the center but also tries to argue that they themselves were responsible for their fall (specially Eve). Whereas, Satan is only a medium, believing that they could have avoided his words, and in the process blames Eve, since she was the one who was charmed first, for mankind's fall from heaven. Book 9 of the work highlights the argumentative skill of Milton. It is his artistic skill which gives intellectual arguments to the two usually marginalized characters, Eve and Satan. This instance itself leads a lot of scholars as well as students to analyze Milton's epic, from a lot of new perspectives, instead of the usual religious one.

 Eve is, in my opinion, the central character, of Book 9. It is important to note here that, instead of emphasizing her argumentative skills, her way of thinking, Milton gives more time highlighting her beauty and tenderness. She is someone who thinks practically, as the "Empress of the world" [as she is addressed by the serpent (Satan)]. She is courageous enough to act against God. She is curious to know new things and above all rational in her thinking as well as arguments. Something common between her and Satan is the ability to convince someone. Milton, uses this faculty of hers in a somewhat negative light. These faculties become useless when she is charmed by the serpent. It is her curiosity which leads her to the Forbidden tree. Thus, applying  feminist perspective would reveal many loopholes in the characterization of Eve. Her directness in expressing her thoughts, is portrayed as her fault or as something she shouldn't do, something which is against her virtues. These shades of Eve's character which Milton portrays in his work, also reflect the notions of his time, about the kind of virtues a woman must possess. Thus, though she has a say of her own here, in contrast to the Biblical narrative, where she doesn't have her voice at all, Milton's epic still tries to refer that her voice doesn't matter. She is still blamed for the Fall. The reason is her disobedience to both the male figures, Adam and God. Satan or Adam's rationality or practicality is something which would usually get appreciated whereas Eve's practical decisions are not something which people would like to appreciate. Especially Satan, because Milton tries to raise his character through this entire work, providing the other side of the story. This clearly is the reason why we have Eve asking, "if there is fear, what is freedom?" The work is full of generalizations about the nature of a woman, her duties, her virtues, etc. Both Satan and Adam are attracted to Eve because of her beauty. For Satan her beauty becomes a distraction, whereas for Adam it is one of the reasons to love her.

All the three characters, in a way, can justify their arguments by the way they are portrayed and the circumstances they are put into. If we consider Adam a lover, we may understand the reason of his weak arguments. If we can understand Satan's guilt, jealousy as well as his revenge motive, we may as well relate with his arguments. However, when it comes to Eve, we can see that, it is the situation which plays an important role for her actions. We can observe that right from the beginning, she is someone who is, somewhat dissatisfied by the way, "The Maker" has organized the things he has created. She questions the constant fear of God(The Maker) which is somewhat normalized in Adam's mind. She believes in the law but not the fear which results from it. Thus, Eve is the first character, whose arguments appear credible. Carolyn Heilbrun's feminist analysis of Gertrude's character in Hamlet, can be taken up for interpreting the credibility of Eve's arguments as well. Heilbrun says,". If there is one quality that characterizes her speeches, it is her "ability to see reality clearly, and to express it," even when turned upon herself." Though the statement is about Gertrude, we can consider it for Eve as well. We see her expressing her ideas clearly, throughout the book. Even when she is lead to the Forbidden Tree by the serpent(Satan), she instantly tells him, about the restrictions put on her and Adam. As mentioned earlier, Satan is also someone who is able to convince someone easily for their means. But, we see Eve asking questions to him as well, instead of just accepting whatever he says, even though she ultimately gets tempted, she time and again tries to rethink the serpent's words, which makes her more rational.

The human versus divine perspective is the point which gives Milton's epic credulity. These two perspectives help in understanding the multilayered nature of the text. I would not recommend someone to use either of them in isolation since, both of them equally provide various interpretations. The divine perspective is often questioned for not being real or something which is always questionable and is full of loopholes. But, we can say that the reason for the ambiguity of the divine perspective, in some way, lies in the human perspective. The questions raised by one are answered by the other. Thus, in divine perspective, there are no concrete reasons for the happening incidents. On the other hand, we also can observe that humanist perspective is faulty as well. It may happen that one becomes too much attached to the characters believing them a fellow human being!😅 Thus for the analysis of a text one frame is not enough, we should try out different frames and keep the one which appears appealing to us, and yet we must not deny the existence of the other.