Man and Nature after the Fall in John Milton's Paradise Lost

Dated back to the 10th century B.C., the story of Adam and Eve is told in Genesis chapters 2 and 3 of the Christian Bible. The creation is the main focus of chapter 2 and their fall and punishment is the main focus in chapter 3. God creates Adam in his image from mud, he blows to his face and gives him life. God presents all of the animals of the land to Adam and he is not satisfied, so God created Eve out of Adams rib as a companion and helper for him, and he is satisfied with Gods work. God commands Adam and Eve to not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But, the serpent persuades Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, and she persuades Adam to do so as well. After they eat the forbidden fruit they realize they are naked

The book is then further continued with the exploration of creation and desecration. When it comes to the creation of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden a so-called set of guidelines were put in place for Adam and Eve to live by. A part of those rules were that could only eat from the tree of life and not from the tree of knowledge. Adam and Eve violated that which resulted in the breaking of the covenant and ate from the tree of knowledge because Satan tempted them. Although the couple had gone entirely against God’s words, God promised them a savior from Satan. However a curse was inflicted on Adam and Eve by God to show the love he had for them. In Hahn’s novel he explains why God would inflict the suffering that he imposed on Adam and Eve:

The gap created because of original sin between God and man is rightly depicted in the pose and expression of Adam. The elements of light and shadow have many sharp projections. There are deep cavities with dark shadows that greatly effect the realism of the surface of the figure. Being unable to stay longer in paradise, Adam portrays intense guilt and seems to look like he is just about to

Select a novel, play, or epic in which a character experiences such a rift and becomes cut off from “home,” whether that home is the character’s birthplace, family, homeland, or other special place. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the character’s experience with exile is both alienating and enriching, and how this experience illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. You may choose a work from the list below or one of comparable literary merit. Do not merely summarize the plot. (2010 AP Literature and Composition)

Just as the earth seems to have turned against Man after the fall, so do the animals. The special relationship Adam shared with the animal kingdom is dissolved, the animals ceased to stand “much in awe/Of Man but fled him or with count'nance grim/Glared on him passing.” (X.712-714) Animals were now not only scared of Man but more importantly began to actively menace him, whereas Man knew no physical menace in his prelapsarian state. This is because the concept of death has been introduced to the postlapsarian world, starting with the lower animals. In addition to threatening Man, animals began to see each other as predator and prey. This new predatory relationship between animals also portends a predatory relationship between people, when Milton compares those who eventually take over the Church to “grevious Wolves” (XII.508) who prey on the faithful and subvert God's word. After eating the forbidden fruit, Man

When John Milton decided to write, he knew from the start he wanted his creation to be that of an epic. Paradise Lost is just that. It is Milton's own take on the biblical story of Satan's fall from grace as well as man's fall. Milton was not only armed with an extensive knowledge on the Bible, but in everything a man of his time could learn. With his wisdom he emersed himself into his work, making Paradise Lost not only a tale of epic perportions, but one that would "Justify the ways of God to Man." (I 26)

Both Adam and Eve were tricked into believing that the fruit will present them with a more fulfilling existence, but instead it proved lacking and disappointing. Furthermore, the narrator soon after says, “ Thousands of greedy individuals abandoned their sweet native hexagons and rushed upstairs and downstairs, spurred by their vain desire to find their Vindication.” (Borges 115) The “greedy individuals” the narrator speaks of are a symbol of humankind’s dissatisfaction with its existence, and its constant need to search for something more divine. Thus, the narrator describes Adam and Eve’s fall from Grace, which was “spurred by their vain desire to find their Vindication.”

Consequences of Disobedience     John Milton’s Paradise Lost, is centered on the reoccurring theme of obedience versus disobedience. The climax of the book, when Eve eats the apple, demonstrates how easily humankind can be tempted into disobedience. Amidst the theme of obedience versus disobedience is another theme of desiring something greater. Satan first displays the ease of disobedience when he rebels and pridefully wants to be God, and then later, Adam and Eve demonstrate it when they eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, wanting knowledge. Their sin, coming wanting something more, results in Satan being forced to leave Heaven and Adam and Eve being forced to leave Paradise.

The story of Paradise Lost by John Milton details disobedience and the fall of mankind from God’s grace. God preordained all that was and all that will be following his creation. The poems major themes are the obedience to God, the nature of the universe and ultimately the fall of mankind. These themes will be further explained thru Milton’s explanation of light and darkness. Milton’s conversations between Satan, Beelzebub, Adam and Eve illustrate the difference between their conflicting views on good and evil. Milton displays his hubris for stating he attempts something that has never been done before in writing this poem he requests the help of his muse.

Adam was the image and glory of God, Eve the glory of a man. While Eve may have been created inferior, she is well developed within the poem. When Eve is created, her first action is to follow a stream and “...to look into the clear/Smooth lake, that to me seemed another sky” (4.458-59). This action has been interpreted as vanity, but it is perhaps more of an innocent action. It is not unreasonable to assume that looking at a reflection of yourself for the first time would be captivating. Eve had no way of knowing that the figure was herself so it is less of a vain action.

Paradise Lost, a book by John Milton describes the fall of angels, defeat of Satan and the story of Adam and Eve. It portrays the power craving Satan and how his rebellion and negligence and disobedience to God, not only lead to his fall and defeat but also the fall of humans and the reason behind Eve eating the apple, and exiting paradise. In Paradise Lost, Satan displays many qualities throughout the book; however, the outstanding quality that accounted for his defeat was his excessive arrogance.

In his epic poem titled Paradise Lost, John Milton describes his work as a process to justify “the ways of God to men”. In terms of the personal and individual, Milton’s main concern was between a man’s relationship and God. With this, comes the very idea of free will itself. One can define free will as the ability and freedom to choose between different possible courses of action. Not only is free will portrayed in Adam and Eve, but is also associated with God, Christ, Satan and the fallen angels. Milton enables these characters to make their own choices and have their own consequences based on their own decisions and free will. Throughout the poem, John Milton supports this concept of acting freely under God, he shows the reader that choosing ones own actions freely and independently is way more substantial and becomes more meaningful to ones self. Each characters free will in this poem helps explain why having this freedom of choice is so important and crucial in expressing and becoming ones self.

Though Milton details Adam and Eve’s falls separately, the fall in Paradise Lost is not two separate falls, but one because Adam and Eve are not independent of each other. Rather Milton has them fall physically apart to emphasize how connected they are, and in doing so, through the fall, he solidifies Eve as a symbol of liberty and Adam as a symbol of reason, thus making significant comments on the relationship between and the significance of the relationship between reason and liberty. In totality, through the structural significance of the fall, Milton is not only able to justify the ways of God to man, as stated in his thesis for Paradise Lost, but is able to justify the ways of man, legitimizing some of his major assertions in his prose works such as Second Defense of the English People, Areopagitica, and The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates.

Eve’s “lowliness majestic” is perhaps what enchants Adam the most. He is captivated and totally mystified by Eve’s very nature. Adam seems to understand the nature of humanity based on the qualities that he sees in himself, which at first seems safe, as he is the first man. However, he is perplexed by Eve’s completeness—perhaps because the qualities that Eve lacks are the ones that Adam values most in himself! Beholding his wife, he remarks that by design and intention she is his “inferior” (541): her “inward faculties” (542) are not as useful as his own, and she does not as closely resemble the Maker as he does (543-44). She is not designed, as Adam is, with the desire or capacity to rule over the other creatures (544-46). These things are not true of Eve, so Adam finds it difficult to understand why she seems “in herself complete” (548). He marvels that even as she lacks the qualities that resemble the Maker, she seems “so absolute,” not lacking anything (547). Eve is complete, she is a “guard angelic placed” to Adam—one sent as a helper and a protector (559). He is captivated by how “what she wills to do or say,/Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best,” even though the man was intended to be the wisdom-giver (549-550). Adam’s attitude can be

The novel The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood takes the Biblical origin story of man and creates a Garden of Eden for the end of the world. The novel’s allusion to Genesis adds to the message that the hardships befalling humanity and the destruction of the earth are due to man’s sinful nature just as Adam and Eve’s punishments and expulsion from paradise were a direct result of their sin. Adam and Eve, the first to live immorally on earth, are now recreated into a group of people that will witness the world’s end in a reflection of its beginning. The new Garden of Eden is created and lost in a time when new intelligence is created by man and evil fights for the hold of man once more. However, just as the expulsion from the original Garden led to the beginning of the world known today, the expulsion from the second Garden leads to the creation of a new world where humanity is largely absent.