Paradise Lost KnowledgeNotes, Study notes of English Literature

Download Paradise Lost KnowledgeNotes and more Study notes English Literature in PDF only on Docsity! Printed from Literature Online Paradise Lost John Milton (1608-1674) New York: Macmillan 1957 OVERVIEW Author: John Milton John Milton was born into a family with a history of religious controversy. His father, John Milton, Sr., had been kicked out of his own father's house after converting to Protestantism, and John, Jr. would, in his turn, support civil and religious reform in England. The senior Milton was a scrivener, a combination of notary public and moneylender. He was also a musician, and he instilled his love of the arts in his son. Young Milton received his early education at St. Paul's School in London, and was privately tutored by Thomas Young, a radical clergyman who became an important friend and mentor. Among his academic achievements, Milton mastered several languages, including Latin, Greek, Italian, and Hebrew. Milton attended Christ's Church College at Cambridge University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1629. In that same year, he wrote his first major poem, "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity." Milton remained at Cambridge until 1632, eventually receiving a Master of Arts degree. He then spent six years at Horton, a country house owned by his father, continuing his studies and accruing the fund of knowledge that served him well in his later political and poetic careers. Touring Europe in 1638, Milton traveled through France, Italy, and other continental locations. He cut his tour short, as he says in his 1654 tract The Second Defense of the English People, because of "the melancholy intelligence which [he] received of the civil commotions in England," which made him think it "base to be traveling for amusement abroad, while my fellow-citizens were fighting for liberty at home." The commotion referred to here was the early manifestation of what would become the English Civil War. By the time Milton had returned to England in 1638, it had already begun. Working as a tutor, Milton eventually entered the contemporary debate over the proper form of church government. His tracts Of Reformation, The Reason of Church Government, and An Apology Against a Pamphlet launched Milton's public career. In them, he argued against a church government based on bishops, and, generally, for a less Catholic form of church organization. Milton's personal life had its ups and downs. He married three times. His first wife, Mary Powell, was the daughter of a staunch Royalist whose politics were in direct opposition to Milton's own. The young Mrs. Milton was only about half her husband's age and used to a boisterous, active household, whereas Milton's home was a quiet place devoted to the kind of study he had made a lifetime's habit. Very soon after her marriage in 1643, Mrs. Milton left her new husband to see her family; she refused to return from her visit. In response to his young wife's recalcitrance, Milton wrote four tracts arguing for the right of divorce, a position so radical in his day that he was vilified by the very clergymen whose side he had so energetically supported in earlier church government debates. These pamphlets earned Milton the reputation of a libertine.     Finally reconciled in 1645, the Miltons had four children, one of whom, the only son, died in infancy. Mrs. Milton died in 1652 while giving birth to their third daughter. In 1656, Milton married Katherine Woodcock, who, fifteen months later, also died in childbirth. His third wife, Elizabeth Minshull, whom Milton married in 1663, remained with and cared for Milton until his death eleven years later. Milton's first book of poetry was published in 1645. The volume included "A Masque . . . Presented at Ludlow Castle" (often referred to as "Comus"), "Lycidas," and the companion pieces "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso." During the next fifteen years, however, Milton wrote very little poetry, as his time was consumed by political matters. He served as Latin Secretary to the Council of State in the government of Oliver Cromwell, who had replaced the deposed (and beheaded) King Charles I. In this position, Milton undertook all foreign correspondence and a good deal of international propaganda for the Cromwell regime. Milton's eloquent defense of the Commonwealth against Royalist accusations earned him international fame. He was so essential to the government that an effort to resign, due to increasing blindness, was refused; Milton continued to serve the Commonwealth until it was dissolved. The monarchy was reinstated with the return of Charles II in 1660. Some weeks before the Restoration began, Milton had published The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth, a move that put him in jeopardy. He went into hiding and, after intervention from powerful friends, and perhaps due to the desire of the new monarch to avoid making a martyr of an author now internationally famous, Milton was pardoned. He spent the remainder of his life writing the poetry for which he is remembered. Bibliography Poetry Poems (1645) Poems (1673-added material) Paradise Lost (ten-book edition, 1667; twelve-book edition, 1674) Paradise Regained (1671) Samson Agonistes (1671) Prose Of Reformation Touching Church Discipline in England (1641) Of Prelatical Episcopacy (1641) Animadversions Upon the Remonstrants Defense (1641) The Reason of Church Government Urged Against Prelaty (1641) An Apology for Smectymnuus (1641) The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1st ed. 1643; 2nd ed. 1644) The Judgment of Martin Bucer, Touching Divorce (1644) Tetrachordon (1645) Colasterion (1645) Of Education (1st ed. 1644; 2nd ed. 1673) Areopagitica (1644) The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649) Eikonoklastes (1649) The First Defense of the English People (1651) The Second Defense of the English People (1654) Defense of Himself (1655) History of Britain (1666; first published in 1670) Christian Doctrine (1640-1673?) A Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes (1659) from Adam-is also overridden. The manipulation of Eve here is similar to the manipulation of Eve by Satan in the temptation scenes in Book 9. Obedience is a constant theme. The fallen angels refuse obedience to the Son when the Father exalts. The faithful angels continue their obedience to the Father. Alone among Satan's troops, Abdiel refuses obedience to Satan, preferring to remain obedient to the Father. Adam and Eve disobey the "one restraint" (1.32) placed on them when they eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Raphael even hints to Adam that the newly created pair might ascend to heaven itself if they "be found obedient" (5.501). In Book 2, the rebel Satan demands obedience, appealing to the very system of "Orders and Degrees" that "Jar not with liberty" (5.792, 793) that he had rebelled against in Heaven, when he tells his fellow fallen angels that the "just right and the fixt Laws of Heav'n / Did first create [me] your Leader" (2. 18, 19). Rebellion and confrontation: Some critics-such as William Empson-claim that the Father deliberately provoked Satan's rebellion through his elevation of the Son (See 5.600-615). Certainly, the Father's rhetoric sounds like a challenge. The Son, while he does not rebel against the Father, does confront the Father in Book 3 over the issue of mercy for Adam and Eve. It is especially interesting to note that the Son paraphrases Abraham's confrontation with Yahweh at Genesis 18:25. In each instance, the confrontation is a matter-quite literally-of life and death. HIGHLIGHTS  Take home point Take Home Point: draws attention to key images, word choices, and events in the text  Exploration point Exploration Point: has the potential for an essay or paper, or for further research  Theme alert Theme Alert: provides insight on the theme's emergence at a particular point in the narrative  Quotable Quotable: identifies passages that merit close stylistic or narrative analysis Book 1 As in the epics of Homer (the Iliad, the Odyssey) and Virgil (the Aeneid), Milton's epic poem begins with a statement of his theme-man's first disobedience-and a call to the Muse.  Theme alert Note the immediate introduction of the theme: obedience to, and the justice of, God. The reference to man's first disobedience implies subsequent acts of disobedience.  Take home point An epic deals with a single heroic figure (or a group of heroic figures) and concerns war, conquest, or a mythical event or achievement that is somehow central to the culture to which the epic belongs. Epic heroes are often semi-divine beings (Achilles, Hercules, Gilgamesh, etc.) and their struggles are often struggles with the gods.  Take home point Milton frequently mixes so-called "pagan" elements into what may at first glance appear to be a straightforward Christian story. The use of traditional epic devices is an example of such mixing, since these devices originated in pre-Christian literature. Milton's narrator goes on to declare that his purpose is to "assert Eternal Providence, / And justify the ways of God to men" (24, 25). The narrator then makes a quick shift from the justice of God to the "cause" of man's first disobedience, "the infernal serpent" (34).  Take home point It is important to note that "Providence" is deliberately opposed to fate here. The assertion of Providence is an assertion that God is completely in control of his universe. This makes it even more important to "justify" the ways of God. If a God completely in control of the universe is unjust, there is no court of appeal. When we first meet Satan, he is chained to the burning lake-floor of Hell. He sees Beelzebub, and addresses him in the kind of grand and high-spirited language that immediately places him in the role of classical epic hero.  Take home point The classical epic hero is someone for whom the supreme virtue is courage in battle, the desire to gain a kingdom or empire, or the quest for honor or immortality. The earliest epic hero known to world literature is Gilgamesh; this hero of ancient Sumeria and Babylonia fought, but failed, to gain immortality from the gods. Later epic heroes such as Achilles and Odysseus fought for military honor, riches, and even the simple privilege of returning home. One thing these heroes have in common is their struggle with and against the gods. With this in mind, it is easy to see how Satan fits the pattern of classical epic hero. Satan's themes in his opening speech are the glory of the failed attempt to overthrow God, his determination "never to submit or yield," and his declaration that it is "Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven" (263).  Take home point Satan's determination to resist God, whom he refers to as holding the "Tyranny of Heaven" (124), is often considered a textbook example of Satan's perversity. The confrontation between the Son and the Father in Book 3, however, complicates such a view. It is not necessarily resistance per se but the kind of resistance that is the problem. Just as many readers are too quick to identify Satan as an uncomplicated hero, others are too quick to seize upon everything that Satan does or says and simplistically turn it into an example of evil. Satan rallies his troops, asking them if they have chosen to maintain an "abject posture" (322) in order to "adore the Conqueror" (323). At this, the fallen angels spring immediately to their feet. A presentation of a procession of fallen angels follows (392-543).  Take home point This procession follows another epic convention, that of Homer's catalog of the Greek ships and warriors in the second book of the Iliad. The names are taken from the Bible, and from Greek and Egyptian mythology. The explanation given in the poem is that the pagan gods were, in fact, nothing more than fallen angels trying to seduce mankind away from the true God. After the procession, Satan addresses his gathered troops (622-662). His speech reinforces the glory of the rebels' failed attempt and introduces the idea that the "Monarch in Heaven" (638) "tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall" (642). Finally, in a flourish of bravado, Satan delivers the quintessential line expressing the sentiments of anyone who has been defeated by overwhelming force: "he no less / At length from us may find, who overcomes / By force, hath overcome but half his foe" (647-649). Satan then declares that "War / Open, or understood" (661, 662) is the path he and his troops must follow. This determination made, the "great Seraphic Lords and Cherubim" (704) retire to further debate the course of action they must soon follow. Book 2 The debate in Hell begins with a description of Satan "High on a throne of royal state." With this image of Satan as Hell's king, the debate begins over just exactly how to pursue "War / Open, or understood." Suggested by four remarkably different personalities, the debate shapes up as a choice among four options: 1) Moloch-a desperately brave warrior who simply cannot comprehend the fact that he has been defeated in battle. "Rather than be less / [he] Cared not to be at all; with that care lost / Went all his fear" (47-49). Moloch counsels open war. "What can be worse," he asks, "Than to dwell here, driven out from bliss, condemned / In this abhorred deep to utter woe?" (85-87). Moloch advises war even if-and perhaps especially if-war is simply suicide. 2) Belial-a smooth-tongued orator who can "make the worse appear / The better reason" (113, 114). Belial assures the gathered throng that he is "not behind in hate" (120), but immediately gets to the heart of Moloch's suicidal bravery. "He who most excels in fact of arms, / In what he counsels and in what excels / Mistrustful, grounds his courage on despair / And utter dissolution" (124-126). Belial prefers not to make a bad situation worse: "What if the breath that kindled those grim fires / Awaked should blow them into sevenfold rage / And plunge us in the flames? [ . . . ] this would be worse" (170-172, 186). Belial argues against war either open or understood, suggesting that they just might get used to their new environment "If we procure not to ourselves more woe" (225). asks, "[S]hall the Adversary thus obtain / His end, and frustrate thine, shall he fulfill / His malice, and thy goodness bring to naught [ . . . ] and to Hell / Draw after him the whole Race of mankind, / By him corrupted?" (156-159, 162). The Son's monologue (3.144-166) echoes Abraham's confrontation with God at Genesis 18:25. The Son tells the Father "that be from the far, / That far be from thee, father, who art judge / Of all things made, and judgest only right" (153-155).  Take home point In the King James Bible, Abraham argues with God over the eventual destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah: "That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked [ . . . ]. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Placing Abraham's words in the Son's mouth suggests that this means life and death for mankind. Taking the position of Abraham before God, the Son attempts to turn aside the Father's wrath to prevent that wrath from being inflicted upon his own creation. This scene may be interpreted as intercession by the Son before a Father who already intends mercy for mankind, or it may be interpreted as a genuine attempt by the Son to ensure that the Father does not lose his temper and act rashly and destructively toward mankind, in the way that Satan has already acted. The narrative now returns to Satan. When last seen, Satan had just glimpsed the newly created Earth. Now, as Satan alights "upon the firm opacuous globe / Of this round world" (418, 419) (by round world, what is meant is the physical, created universe, not planet Earth), the reader is reminded of the life-and- death danger to the first human pair. Disguising himself as a low-ranking cherub, Satan approaches Uriel (650), stationed as guard over the Earth. Satan wants information: "tell / In which of all these shining orbs hath man / His fixed seat" (667-669). Because Uriel has no experience with "Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks / Invisible, except to God alone" (683, 684), Uriel unwittingly directs Satan straight to Adam and Eve. Book 3 ends with Satan alighting on "Niphates top" (742).  Take home point Another feature of the epic is the epic journey. The classical epic hero encounters various obstacles or "guardians of the gate." The hero must somehow either trick, overpower, or enlist the aid of such guardians. Gilgamesh, for example, on the way to the island where he will find the secret to immortality, encounters creatures that are half-human and half-scorpion that guard the gate to a mountain passage through which Gilgamesh must pass; he does so without fear. Next, he encounters Shamash, the sun god, who tells him that he will never find immortality. Gilgamesh presses on anyway. Gilgamesh then meets Siduri, the ale-wife. She also tells him that he will never find what he is looking for, and tempts him to give up his quest, to eat, drink, and be merry and forget about immortality. But Gilgamesh will not be dissuaded, so Siduri tells him the secret of how to reach the island he is looking for. Satan follows a similar pattern in the opening books of Paradise Lost. Both the scene with Sin and Death near the end of Book 2, and the scene with Uriel at the end of Book 3, are such "guardian of the gate" scenes. Satan passes through the gate in each instance. Book 4 Book 4 begins with Satan's monologue. Torn with passion and regret, he both wishes he had never rebelled and realizes the futility of such a wish. Ultimately, he hardens his determination to never turn back or seek forgiveness. Satan's famous "Evil be thou my good" (110) signals his final and irreversible break with Heaven.  Take home point Interestingly, it is Satan's emotional response during this monologue that finally convinces Uriel that he has been deceived. Uriel sees Satan "disfigured, more than could befall / Spirit of happy sort" (127, 128). Satan explores the garden.  Take home point Adam and Eve have not yet appeared. In a poem whose subject is "man's first disobedience," this may seem odd. But this is an important part of the structure of a poem ultimate aimed at justifying God's ways, not man's. Adam and Eve are not the central characters of the universal drama played out in Paradise Lost.  Take home point Note that we first glimpse the garden through Satan's eyes, not God's or the Son's or Adam and Eve's. The fact that this first glimpse belongs to Satan has led some critics to suggest that we should distrust our first sight of Eden, but such an interpretation may perhaps be an example of what Empson refers to "the modern duty of catching Satan out wherever possible" (74). Though Satan may be the father of lies, nowhere does the poem imply that Satan's perceptions of Paradise are dishonest or unreliable. A human voice is heard for the first time at line 411. In a monologue that describes "the power / That made us" (412, 413) as "infinitely good" (414), Adam refers to Eve as "Sole partner and sole part of all these joys." The pair live under only one prohibition: "This one, this easy charge, of all the trees / in Paradise that bear delicious fruit / So various, not to taste that only tree / Of knowledge" (421-424). Adam tells Eve, "God hath pronounced it death to taste that tree" (427).  Take home point A monologue is an epic feature, first appearing in Gilgamesh, in which the hero expresses his joy or despair in a lengthy formal speech that does not serve to advance the plot in any immediate way. The monologue later became an established feature of Greek drama and much European drama thereafter.  Theme alert Free will: Do Adam and Eve know enough to have truly free choice in the matter of the forbidden tree? Or does the fact that God has already said that man shall fall (Book 3) render Adam and Eve unable to choose to not eat from the tree?  Exploration point Consider the intersection of free will and divine foreknowledge at work in Paradise Lost. Note the many examples, charted here by means of the thematic tips that point to this issue. In Christian doctrine in general, questions arising from the coexistence of free will and divine foreknowledge form a complicated argument with a long history. One source that might prove helpful here is the book God, Foreknowledge, and Freedom, edited by John Martin Fischer (see Works Consulted below). Adam tells Eve that death is the price for disobedience to the "easy charge." Yet, neither Adam nor Eve appears to have any real idea what death means. Adam expresses his ignorance clearly: "what e'er death is, / Some dreadful thing no doubt" (425, 426). Eve refers to Adam as her "guide / And head" (442, 443), and seems to denigrate herself in telling Adam that she enjoys "So far the happier lot, enjoying thee / Pre-eminent by so much odds, while thou / Like consort to thyself canst nowhere find" (446-448).  Take home point Note the relative positions of Male and Female.  Exploration point Eve's response to Adam disturbs many feminist critics. In her essay "The Genesis of Gendered Subjectivity in the Divorce Tracts and Paradise Lost," Mary Nyquist speaks of Milton as "English literature's paradigmatic patriarch" (Nyquist 101). Other scholars, for example, Barbara Lewalski and Joan M. Webber, defend Milton as a relatively enlightened figure on the gender issues of his time. Also, see Milton's Eve, by Eve McColley, which focuses entirely on Eve in Paradise Lost, and her article "Milton and the Sexes." This article's bibliography is an especially useful reference. Eve is compared to Narcissus (a figure from Greek mythology who fell in love with his own reflection in the waters of a spring, wasted away there, and died) when she gazes at her reflection: "there I had fixed / Mine eyes till now, and pined with vain desire, / Had not a voice thus warned me" (465-467). Eve suffers the "weakness" of vanity.  Theme alert Does Eve have free will? In Book 3, the Father insists his creations are free to choose whether they will stand or fall. Yet, at every turn, Eve's freedom of choice seems curtailed. Eve tells Adam she was "invisibly" led, and asks, "what could I do, / But follow straight [ . . . ]?" (475, 476). These lines imply that Eve's choice might have been different if she had been left to her own devices. In the following passage, Eve expands on this: "I espied thee, fair indeed and tall, / [ . . . ] yet methought less fair, / Less winning soft, less amiably mild, / Than that smooth watery image; back I turned, / [ . . . ] thy gentle hand / Seized mine, I yielded" (477-480, 488, 489). harm / Already done, to have dispeopled heaven / My damage fondly deemed, I can repair / That detriment [ . . . ] / [ . . . ] and in a moment will create / Another world" (150-155). Raphael tells Adam the creation stories found in Genesis. He describes fish, fowl, and animals in all their diversity, then describes Adam's own creation by combining the creation narratives from Genesis 1 and 2. As in Genesis 1, God makes man in "our image, man / In our similitude, and let[s] them rule" (519, 520). Yet Raphael also tells Adam that God "formed thee [ . . . ] / Dust of the ground, and in thy nostrils breathed / The breath of life" (524-526), as recounted in Genesis 2.  Theme alert The relative position of Male and Female: What effect does the mixing of Genesis 1 (in which male and female are created equally in the image of God) and Genesis 2 (in which the female is clearly subordinated to the male) have on the portrait of Adam and Eve in Paradise Lost? Book 8 Raphael's conversation with Adam continues in Book 8, moving from the creation of Earth and mankind to the construction of the rest of the visible universe. Adam's questions regarding the nature of the universe take on a critical edge, as he wonders, "How nature wise and frugal could commit / Such disproportions" (26, 27). This question troubles Raphael. He warns Adam to "Solicit not thy thoughts with matters hid, / Leave them to God above, him serve and fear" (167, 168).  Take home point Remember that the narrator declared that his intent is to "justify the ways of God to men." Is God just in keeping secrets about his creation from his creation? Satan earlier observed that the Father seems to wish to reserve knowledge for himself alone: "Why should their Lord / Envy them that? Can it be sin to know, Can it be death?" (4.516-518). Note how both Satan and Adam question "God's ways." Would it be better for Adam to "be lowly wise" (173)? Adam relates to Raphael what he can remember of his own creation, which turns out to be nearly everything. He describes his first moments as a kind of waking "from soundest sleep" (253), then describes how he immediately turns his eyes "Straight toward heaven" (257), and "By quick instinctive motion" (258) sprang up from the ground. He inspects his surroundings, his own body "limb by limb / Surveyed" (267, 268), and begins to speak. His first words are the names of the objects he sees: the sun, the earth, hills, dales, rivers, wood, and plains. This is exhausting, so he lies down to sleep but sleep makes him think he is "passing to [his] former state / Insensible, and forthwith to dissolve" (290, 291). In a dream of his own, Adam sees a figure "of shape divine" (295) who commands him to rise. The dream- figure identifies himself as "Author of all this thou seest / Above, or round about thee or beneath" (317, 318). The dream-figure-now identified as God-gives Adam the fruit of every tree in the garden, except one. "But of the tree whose operation brings / Knowledge of good and ill, which I have set / The pledge of thy obedience and thy faith, Amid the garden by the tree of life, / Remember what I warn thee, shun to taste, / And shun the bitter consequence: for know, / The day thou eat'st thereof, my sole command / Transgressed, inevitably thou shalt die" (323-329).  Take home point This dream is in contrast to Eve's dream in Book 5.  Take home point What is the significance of dreams in this epic poem? God and Satan favor the same form of communication. Adam is in his first moments of life, and asleep at that, when he receives the prohibition he will eventually transgress. Without knowing what it is, he is warned of death. He apparently still does not know what death is when he is repeating the prohibition to Eve in Book 4. Does Adam understand what the dream-figure is telling him? Adam expresses to the dream-God a desire for companionship. God responds by asking Adam why solitude is unsatisfactory, since God himself has no companion or equal. He relents, however, telling Adam he is merely testing him. Adam confesses to Raphael that his weakness is that he is powerless before Eve's beauty: "when I approach her loveliness, so absolute she seems / And in her self complete, [ . . . ] / All higher knowledge in her presence falls" (546-548, 551). Raphael warns Adam that he must maintain mastery over his passion (561-594). Book 8 ends with an exchange about angelic sex. Adam asks Raphael how the angels do it: "Love not the heavenly spirits, and how their love / Express they [ . . . ]?" (615, 616). Raphael blushes as he answers, telling Adam that angels "obstacle find none / Of membrane, joint, or limb, exclusive bars; / easier than air with air, if spirits embrace, / Total they mix, union of pure with pure / Desiring" (624-628). Book 9 Book 9 begins with mourning. The poem has now turned from epic subjects to tragic events. Urania, the muse addressed in Book 7, is the nightly visitor who has inspired the writing of this poem since its beginning. To finish this tale, one "more heroic than the wrath / Of stern Achilles" (14, 15) the narrator asks the help of she "who brings it nightly to my ear" (47). Following Raphael's departure, and eight days after being confronted by Gabriel at the end of Book 4, Satan returns. He enters the Garden by diving into the Tigris river, rising from it as a mist into Eden. He finds "The serpent subtlest beast of all the field" (86), and chooses the snake to be his guise. Before he enters the serpent, Satan delivers another monologue about what he perceives to be the superiority of Earth to Heaven. Realizing that he is excluded from this new world just as he is now excluded from Heaven, Satan stiffens his resolve to wreak destruction upon Adam and Eve. His triumph will be glorious: "To me shall be the glory sole among / The infernal powers, in one day to have marred / What he almighty styled, six nights and days / Continued making" (135-138). After complaining of the indignity of being "constrained / Into a beast" (164, 165) Satan enters the serpent and waits until morning. As Adam and Eve begin their day's work, Eve proposes they work separately. The gardening is too much to keep up, Eve reasons, unless they double their efforts by working in separate areas (205-225). Recalling Raphael's warning, Adam opposes Eve's wish (226-269). Eve wins (270-384) and they part. Satan sees his opportunity. In his serpent guise, he approaches Eve. Her "celestial beauty" (540), he says, should "be seen / A goddess among gods, adored and served / By angels numberless, thy daily train" (546-548). After marveling that the serpent can speak, Eve initially resists the suggestion to eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree: "[ . . . ] of this tree we may not taste nor touch" (651); but soon she is won over. Called a "Goddess humane" (732) by the serpent, Eve "Forth reaching to the fruit" (781) plucked and ate. Instantly "Earth felt the wound, and nature from her seat / Sighing through all her works gave signs of woe, / That all was lost" (782-784). Eve debates whether to share with Adam. At first, she considers keeping the fruit from him to "render me more equal" (823). The she recalls the penalty of death and that she "shall be no more, / And Adam wedded to another Eve" (827, 828). When Eve carries the fruit to Adam (856-885), he is horrified. "How art thou lost" (900), he wails. However, his attachment to Eve proves stronger than his determination to obey God's command. Telling Eve "with thee / Certain my resolution is to die" (906, 907), Adam eats. For the first time, the couple knows lust. They enjoy "their fill of love [ . . . ] / The solace of their sin" (1042, 1044). Then, overcome with shame, they argue (1067-1189). Adam bemoans that Eve failed to heed his warning not to work apart. He blames her for the evil that has now embraced them both. As if to hide "Their guilt and dreaded shame" (1114), they create clothing. Eve protests that something "might as ill have happened thou being by, / Or to thy self perhaps: hadst thou been there" (1147, 1148). The two continue to bicker, "And of their vain contest appeared no end" (1189).  Theme alert Several themes introduced in earlier books culminate in the Fall. Eve's vanity appears beside the pool in Book 4. In Book 8, we learn that Adam is helpless in the face of Eve's beauty. How do these weaknesses set us up for of the Fall? As the Father insists in Book 3 (99), are Adam and Eve "Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall"? Book 10 The guardian angels desert the human pair and return to God, who tells them they could not have prevented Satan from succeeding (34-47). He reminds them that the Son has volunteered (in Book 3) to redeem fallen mankind (56-62). The Son "descended straight" (90) to Eden. As found in Genesis 3, he delivers Judgment on Adam and Eve (97-208). Now Satan heads toward Hell to tell the assembled hosts of his successful mission. Death and Sin leave the gate of Hell to meet him. Satan delegates them to be his vice-rulers on the now-fallen planet (325- 409). Satan 's entrance to Hell is as subtle as mist. "At last as from a cloud his fulgent head / And shape star- bright appeared [ . . . ]" (449, 450). Yet when he announces his success "beyond hope" (463), rather than the cheers he expects he is greeted with "A dismal universal hiss, the sound / Of public scorn" (508, 509). He and his compatriots are turned (temporarily) into serpents. Trees "like that / Which grew in Paradise" (530, 531) appear before the transformed angels of Hell, but instead of fruit, they "Chewed biter ashes [ . . . ] / Till their lost shape, permitted, they resumed" (566, 574). Sin and Death then celebrate the end of their "eternal famine" (597), as they "betook them several ways / Both to destroy, or unimmortal make / All kinds" (610-612) and prepare to feast on now-fallen plant and animal life while waiting for their human banquet to mature. Sin tells her son Death to feed first on "these herbs, and fruits, and flowers" then to move on to "each beast [ . . . ] and fish, and fowl" (603, 604). With the fall of Adam and Eve, the earth and all its creatures are doomed. Adam's response here is an example of felix culpa, or "happy fault." This theological idea proposes that the Fall is good because it makes necessary the redeeming sacrifice of Jesus. Is Milton here summarizing his thesis-that good emerges from evil-or is this simply Adam's "fallen" reasoning? After Michael finishes his story, Adam is at peace. "Henceforth I learn, that to obey is best" (561), says Adam. Michael responds, "This having learned, thou hast attained the sum / Of wisdom" (575, 576). Michael takes Adam back down the hill, and Adam returns to Eve, who has been sleeping. Together, they look once last time at Paradise, then "hand in hand with wandering steps and slow, / Through Eden took their solitary way" (648, 649).  Theme alert Obedience: Obedience is the final thematic note sounded in the poem. Is this Milton's ultimate message? Has the poem justified God's treatment of man? RESOURCES Works Consulted Achinstein, Sharon. Milton and the Revolutionary Reader. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1994. Crump, Galbraith M. The Mystical Design of Paradise Lost. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell UP, 1975. Danielson, Dennis Richard. Milton's Good God: A Study in Literary Theodicy. 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