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The following is a rather lengthy response to my reading of Paradise Lost. As usual, I went way over the required number of words for the class assignment--I wrote 1800 for a required 350-450 words...
Milton’s epic, Paradise Lost, is a creative tale outlining the fall of Satan from Heaven and his subsequent attempt to bring about the fall of man on earth. The story is filled with a wide range of characters and concepts known from the Bible and non-Judeo-Christian religions and mythologies. Though the primary focus of the work is to give attention to the birth of sin among man and his exile from Paradise on earth, the reader is delivered the tale through the use of several interwoven subplots; first focusing on Satan, then the Godhead and Trinity, Man and his recognition of the Lord God, Satan’s influence on Man, and finally Man’s recognition of sin against the Father—the latter including foreshadowing of days to come with a paradise in Heaven.
Milton wrote his characters in such a way that the reader can easily relate to any individual and/or all characters or creatures in the tale—including the Father, the Son, Man and even Satan himself; of all these characters this reader found himself connecting and sympathizing with Satan more than any other until the very end when Milton allowed for feelings to realign with empathy toward the devil and sympathy for Man.
Before God had created the earth He had His Heavens filled with followers of some subordinate design; then one day, God decided that He would have a Son who would sit beside Him and share His reign as He too would be of Him. This declaration upset the angel who would then become known as Satan as he had felt feelings that God was unfairly giving higher attention to another spiritual being without thought to those with whom He already shared company—Satan felt as if he was being overlooked for a promotion of sorts. In his disgust, Satan had challenged His throne and recruited an army of angels who felt the same. Ultimately this battle in Heaven was won by His Angelic army and Satan along with the lesser angels and spirits were banished to Hell.
While in Hell, Satan gathered his followers and called council for a plot to attempt another battle or some other direction in which they might be able to live a “good” life of some sort as they were no longer capable of living a “Good” life in Heaven. The council gave many differing opinions, but eventually settled on the idea of overtaking God’s next planned creation; earth and Man. As no one in the council had enough gall or power left to lead this charge, Satan volunteered himself for the mission and “secretly” made his way from Hell to Heaven’s ethereal edge to watch the Creation and plot an attack on Man.
Meanwhile, God created His new world of and for Man, and showed his creation to the Son. While proudly looking over the world, God pointed out to the Son where Satan was hiding, and told Him how Satan would have Man challenge His authority and thus leave this Paradise forever. The Son spoke to the Father and asked forgiveness of Man in the future if He were to join Man on earth and live with him only to face eventual persecution and death on earth by Man’s hand. God agreed, and this future was set to become history.
During his viewing of earth and his travels among His creations thereon Satan did experience moments of second thought. Satan viewed His glory, and remembered days on High where which he sat with Him and fellow Angels in Heaven. Still, Satan’s feelings of anger and hatred for the Father’s actions and subsequent banishment of him to Hell for his adversity overcame him and he continued with his plan. Satan visited Eve, taking the form of a sentient serpent, and told her of the glorious wonders that were unlocked through the tasting of fruit from the tree that He had forbade them to go near. Satan persuaded Eve to partake in the eating of the fruit, raping her of the life she had just come to know. Satan left and returned to Hell feeling accomplished, yet still having an echo in the back of his mind asking Him what he had done.
Eve, beginning to feel the effects of the fruit was introduced to the feelings of doubt and shame and questioned whether she should include Adam or leave him be. Eve’s feelings of love for Adam eventually led him to confess to him. This confession served multiple purposes: through her confession Eve attempted to clear her newly born conscience; by confessing Eve hoped that she would stay with Adam, as he might partake of the fruit as well, and she would not be replaced by a more responsible creature; and if Adam were to eat of the fruit he would be equal in sin and they would face this concept of death together.
Eve told Adam, and gave him the fruit which he shared in with reluctance at first and sinful delight following the initial taste. The two had felt “alive” for the first time in their short lives having gone against their Father and seemingly coming away unharmed. They celebrated this feeling through a long round of intercourse followed by a nap induced by the gratifying drug of sexual rapture. Adam and Eve awoke afterward with newfound feelings of shame, remorse, and fear.
Satan having “won” his battle on earth returned to Hell seeing the path that had been laid by his incestuous children, Sin and Death—that had existed prior, yet were born of this moment. As any proud father would, Satan beamed with delight to see the work that he—that his children—had done; in his delight all second-guessing had been washed away and he was now satisfied in raping the earth and stealing from the Father. Upon entry into his council chambers he boasted of his success and proclaimed that they had won against their battle with God. Once he was finished he opened his eyes to those before him to notice that the last laugh belonged to the Heavens above, as his minions had in his absence been turned to serpents.
The tale closes with Adam and Eve being visited with a messenger of our Host. The couple is told that with their being given will to do as they chose there wasn’t a way to prevent them from exile; they would, however, have to pay the price as they had gone against His word. The couple would have to forever live with the knowledge of sin, feelings of shame and remorse; they would forever have to work hard, sometimes without reward, to survive. The couple would now have to eventually face Death, though their death would come eventually in a manner of expiration and not as an instant penalty. They were also given the knowledge that in the future the Son would come and that his earthly presence would derive from one part of their long-lineage of man—and in this Satan and Sin would be defeated. Feeling now more secure—yet still ashamed—Adam and Eve left what had been their Paradise on earth, never to return.
Satan had seen what he thought to be a wrong in God’s plans—in essence, Satan felt as if God should be an equal opportunity employer that believes in tenure and length of service as a basis of promotion. If we were to replace the names God and Satan in this situation, and make Heaven a modern business, we would easily understand the argument and see that the placing of a family member in a junior executive position by a senior executive is nepotism; there would then rightfully be an angered outcry from a mass of people within the organization. This, however, was not a publicly traded company—this was the Kingdom of Heaven. Still, it is possible for us to sympathize with Satan in this matter. Satan, banished to Hell, rallied his troops once more, and established a council—like some congress or parliament—and asked what should next be done. This turn of events can give us connection again to Satan, as these actions are somewhat human—political debate on policy is something that we have done for centuries, and how we attempt to resolve conflict. Once a decision was made the question of who would take leadership then came to the floor, and not one member of the organization volunteered; something many of us have seen in our own little groups and cliques.
Satan, the bruised, beaten and exiled, then sighs and takes the initiative to take action for the cause again; while taking the lead Satan questions whether what he is doing is right. Many of us have shared in these feelings—the constant weighing of pros and cons, the incessant doubt that somehow manages to eke through our passionately felt arguments. Still, Satan presses on, and somehow becomes a hero of sorts in that he his fighting for a cause that he sees as right; though it must be noted that his fight has turned away from a battle of what may or may not be right and into a battle of vengeance—a concept which many of us are very well aware of. Satan—the antagonist, the hero, the vengeful; here—with this combination of feelings and attitudes—Satan creates evil as we know and feel it. Satan then shares this evil with man and—perhaps unwittingly—helps to make man more human through his birth and introduction of sin.
Satan’s gift of sin to man unlocks a myriad of feelings in Adam and Eve; making their characters more human and less divine, less ideal, less perfect. Man now becomes the underdog in the story, and Satan the evil that has led him there. Satan thusly becomes less of a character to attach to—even one that we may wish to shun—and man is now the one with which we relate.
The tale is most definitely an epic by many definitions. In a literary sense we are given a long struggle of good and evil that has a basis on religious characters. We are given the opportunity to travel great distances and see the journey that has shaped not one, but many characters with internal struggle and outward battles. Through these elements, the work exemplifies the definition of an epic. In more modern Internet related terms, the poem may also be deemed epic; the delivery of the story is quite awesome—or epic—in how it establishes the ability to connect with a range of characters and emotions. There is, of course, the fact this the tale shares three “epic fails”—Satan’s battle in Heaven and on earth, and man’s loss of Paradise.
Tags: #American Public University, #APUS, #college, #LITR210, #school
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