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Paradise Lost by John Milton

Decent Essays
Written at the heart of the Enlightenment John Milton’s epic poem, Paradise Lost, illustrates some of the impacts that the key principles of the controversial time. Paradise Lost, unlike the King James Bible, shows logical thinking, complexity, and true love in Adam and Eve. This gives the reader more of an idea of how he tries to justify God’s ways to men. In doing this John Milton shows the reader that Adam and Eve should be held most responsible for the fall of mankind, because God created them able to resist temptation yet free to make their own decisions.
Man is at fault for their own fall because they were given the ability to make their own choices. God shows us this not only through Adam and Eve but also through Satan. He fell from heaven because they made choices. Satan can still make his own live back in heaven but he said “Better to reign in Hell, then to serve in heav’n (I,263).” He is making the best of what he had in Pandemonium because he chose to stay. When Satan decided to tempt Eve with the fruit of knowledge he just creates the cycles of his damnation. Not only is it Satan that had free will and free choice, all of the archangels have most of the same qualities as Satan. Nobody questions if the archangels should have be punished or not when they have the same choice making traits as Adam and Eve. The punishment of the archangels was much worse than Adam and Eve’s because in relation the archangels decision created a far worse situation than Adam and
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