Thinking Activity: Paradise Lost

Welcome Readers!

This blog is created on the grounds of a ‘Thinking Activity Task’ assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad Sir on Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’- Book IX. In this task, all students including me were given two questions to think deeply on the concept of the questions and to reflect our ideas, perspectives by writing blog.

HUMAN PERSPECTIVE VERSUS DIVINE PERSPECTIVE:

MILTON'S PARADISE LOST BOOK IX

Literature is usually a subject of human experiences and sometimes it also has a deep connection with myths. A work of literature aims to make us see life accurately and inform us about the pretty perspectives as well as important ideas. Milton’s “Paradise Lost” is one such work of art which deals with a biblical subject of a fall of Man in an epic form in blank verse. It is a classic narrative which portrays the cosmos as the author- John Milton and his culture conceived in those days.

The cosmological structure of ‘Paradise lost’ is same as it is in the bible with a strong impact of hierarchy – God at the top of the tower and man at the lowest level. The below-attached picture very wonderfully states the spatial hierarchy with reference to ‘Paradise Lost’.

Caption- the story study of hierarchy with reference to Paradise Lost

Source- Angel/Demon Hierarchy

Click on the link to view Sir’s blog on 'the Human Perspective and the Devine Perspective.'

A man reaching to God
(Human to Divine)

Question 1. What is your understanding of human perspective and divine perspective? Give illustrations to support your understanding.

While referring to any myth or religious scriptures, our mindsets while reading or watching are shaped from the narrator’s perspective; that always has a God-Centric world. The larger than life characters play a very vital role in constructing a supernatural figure which shapes our minds in such a way that it rarely seems easy to question their miracles. These voices later become the ‘divine voices of divinity’ resulting in divine perspectives which thoroughly ignores other rational ideology of common entities and goes with the flow of monopolistic notions. The world of the Bible is the perfect illustration of divine perspectives where the flow of narration goes with a sole and divine perspective of God. Theologically, if we read the bible it interprets stories glorifying the divine acts of God and making men understand the importance of praying and worshiping God in different ways. Contrary some chapters were also narrated in different style by not considering God as the ultimate creator. The main thing is a man’s character, in the study of theology, is expected to be obedient and should remain faithful as well as loyal to God.

The ‘Genesis’ of the Bible narrates the “Fall of Men” from God’s perspective. The central figure in the Bible is God and the peripheral characters of say puppets are Adam and Eve. They have a suppressed voice. God punished the two because they disobeyed, in temptation, they ate the fruit of the ‘tree of knowledge of good and evil’ for which he had denied,

“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying,

Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest

thereof thou shalt surely die.”

(Genesis)

When God punishes for disobedience, he very cruelly punishes Eve and the entire female race, supposedly by being a hater of woman and as observed in the bible-

“And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life”

Hence, the two identities are silent in bible. But John Milton gives a beautiful and rational voice to the two. As it is rightly said that,

“Everything except God has some natural superiority”

So Milton’s “Paradise Lost” has penned this case with enthusiasm and had extended the story over ten books. Milton’s God is far from the God of popular belief or even far from theology. He is no Creator external to His Creation. He is ‘utterly non-manifested: as soon as the narration begins, the world of Milton speaks of the Son and no longer of the God, His descriptions and his voice to Eve reveals his pure human touch to the story. He portrays the character of Eve in such a way that Eve asks every question which normal human being has. As soon as the narration begins Milton speaks of Son and no longer continues the tradition of the Bible of glorifying God. By this Milton seems to convey that Son is the agent of creation which indirectly tells us that he writes in human perspectives and not in divine perspective.

There are various illustrations which support that Milton has not only tried to justify the ways of God but he also retold the story from a human perspective by giving the human touch to the character of God too.

Here are detailed illustrations-

The character of Eve by Milton is a kind of inquisitive, both curious to know and also gets tempted easily by Satan.

Milton initially portrays Eve as a free soul who argues for the barriers of God and then eats the forbidden fruit for which she receives the knowledge of good and bad. She has the innate curiosity to know the world. Angel Raphael warns Adam not to “dream of other worlds” but Eve dreams of another world where she will gain knowledge and power. Though it seems easy to say that she gets tempted by Satan but her thirst for knowledge like simple beings cannot be ignored but appreciated. This can be observed in the narration-

“Of Knowledge, knowledge both of Good and Evil;
Forbids us then to taste. But his forbidding
Commends thee more, while it infers the good
By thee communicated, and our want;

For good unknown sure is not bad, or, had
And yet unknown, is as not had at all.
In plain, then, what forbids he but to know?
Forbids us good, forbids us to be wise!
Such prohibitions bind not. But, if Death
Bind us with after-bands, what profits then
Our inward freedom?”

(-Paradise Lost)

Adam, on the other hand, has the human quality of love, he loves Eve and so he like a true lover of Eve eats the forbidden fruit as because he contemplates on his life without Eve and even if God will make another Eve, Adam won’t be able to love and admire her as much as he loves his Eve. Hence, a human touch is presented by the narrator in the portrayal of Adam with a human perspective which can be observed through the following lines-

“How can I live without thee? how forgo
Thy sweet converse, and love so dearly joined,
To live again in these wild woods forlorn?
Should God create another Eve, and I
Another rib afford, yet loss of thee
Would never from my heart. No, no! I feel
The link of nature draw me: flesh of flesh,
Bone of my bone thou art, and from thy state
Mine never shall be parted, bliss or woe."

(-Paradise Lost)

Similarly, Satan also possesses some human traits in ‘Paradise Lost’ which justifies the text as being rightly told from a human perspective. Satan is a magnificent and dynamic character. He has an amazing quality of convincing with valid arguments. According to me, he should be a hero of the work as he displays heroic behavior in true sense. Initially, he gets mesmerized by the beauty of Eve as well as Eden but soon brings to awareness his “hell” qualities. As it can be observed in the following lines-

“She most, and in her look sums all delight:
Such pleasure took the Serpent to behold
This flowery plat, the sweet recess of Eve
Thus early, thus alone. Her heavenly form
Angelic, but more soft and feminine,
Her graceful innocence, her every air
Of gesture or least action, overawed
His malice, and with rapine sweet bereaved
His fierceness of the fierce intent it brought.
That space the Evil One abstracted stood
From his own evil, and for the time remained
Stupidly good, of enmity disarmed,
Of guile, of hate, of envy, of revenge.

But the hot hell that always in him burns,
Though in mid Heaven, soon ended his delight”

This kind of perspectives changes both our views and attitudes towards everything through narration. Milton seems to make alive the dead scriptures of the Bible by writing ‘Paradise Lost’.

In a nutshell, it can be said that ‘Paradise Lost’ differs to a great deal from the Bible in terms of its narration, poetic qualities and most importantly the liveliness of its perspectives.

The below gif makes it clear for the reader that if Adam and Eve are peripheral characters or mere puppets in the Bible then they are the main or central characters in Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ as they continuously argue the nature of God. God seems to be lost from the mind while deeply reading the epic poem.

Question 2. How do you read the character of Eve as transgressor and yet defendable?

The character of Eve is an important figure in Book 9 of ‘Paradise Lost’. She plays a very vital role as a strong character to comprehend the courage and bringing out not only Adam but the entire human race from the dark sphere of God and his narrow chains.

“Milton has colored Eve with a rational brush as well as with the fine and sharp border of curiosity.”

The Misogynist God has not only punished Eve severely and the entire women race but also blamed her solely for the Fall of Men. Milton can also be blamed as an antifeminist as he also has not defended Eve and instead revealed her as the transgressor in his work.

It can be securely said that,

“If Hamlet can be considered as an everyman than

Eve can be considered as everywoman”

Eve was expected as a one who represents the absolute obedience not only from God but from Adam also- such a patriarchal fantasy was supposed to be followed by Eve.

Please click here to view certain objections-

It can be to some extent agreed that Eve is a transgressor- disobeying God, Crossing the boundaries, usually seen as committing sin or crime, Now it becomes a matter worthy to take note of that Eve is regarded as inferior to Adam and is always told to follow Adam’s instructions. So here Eve argues with these kinds of notions. She argues with her free will and with the help of reason. She is right at her place. Her arguments are valid and rational. But as the age is governed by darkness, she is seen as the transgressor.

So, theologically if we read the character of Eve in ‘Paradise Lost’, at some point we can agree that she has, out of curiosity, disobeyed the command of God. But the very contrasting perspective of this objection defends Eve from the attacks of transgressing is the Modern reading of the text. The modern reading of the text says that Eve, like every natural woman, is inquisitive and possesses a rational mind who believes in choice and free will. If she had eaten the forbidden fruit as she wanted to know the knowledge of good and evil, it can be securely said that it was her will, her choice to eat the fruit. But if she alone is blamed with attacks of transgressing than I have objections with the views/ mentality of people who think her the one who transgressed. Adam was also having a choice if he wouldn’t have eaten an apple than he could have stayed in the Garden. But as he also ate the forbidden fruit so he must also be blamed for a transgression but he is not! Her accusing of the Maker Wise is appropriate.

In a nutshell, it can be assumed that as she has argued with God, she has doubted God’s wisdom, she has questioned the nature of God’s world, so she has been blamed for transgressing but the modern reading of ‘Paradise Lost’ can very well become a shield to defend Eve as a transgressor.

The below mentioned poem from Eve's perspective can give us an ample understanding to defend Eve's character.