Paradise Lost Character Analysis
In Paradise Lost , Milton characterizes Eve as autarchic as compared to Genesis, to show that obedience to God is truly more important than our own worth. In the original Genesis story, Eve is portrayed as a woman who was solely tricked by Satan into doing his evil doings, although in Paradise Lost, Milton portrays Eve as a woman who wasn’t just manipulated by Satan, but allows the reader to see Eve’s disobedience through her independent thought. In the beginning of book 9 of Paradise Lost, Eve is in the Garden of Eden, the reader is introduced to a talking serpent who is really Satan. At first, Eve is truly shocked about how a serpent can be speaking to her, she then starts to really question and think about what the serpent is saying.
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Part of their conversation leads Satan to convince Eve she will not die should she eat the apple because he too has eaten an apple. Eve gives the situation more thought and questions to herself, “How dies the Serpent? he hath eat’n and lives, / And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and discerns,” ( Paradise Lost 9. 252-253). Here Eve is thinking hard about what Satan has told her, she appears to be defying her own obedience to God in order to show God that this fruit should not have been forbidden. She is causing her own act of rebellion, thus demonstrating she does not need God to be telling her what to do. Instead, Eve proves to God that she will carve her own path. Milton’s version of Eve illustrates to readers that you do not always need a higher power such as God to advise one’s life decisions but instead, one should always have independent thought and be able to have the ability to show self-expression. The situation between Eve and Satan in Paradise Lost remains illustrated in today’s society. Milton stresses on the fact that we do not always have to have some higher power to advise our life decisions. Even today, society wants us to create our own independent thought and acts, it is a topic used in everyday life, while the Church still wants us to follow the light of God. Whether we decide to think YOLO or decide to think
Part of their conversation leads Satan to convince Eve she will not die should she eat the apple because he too has eaten an apple. Eve gives the situation more thought and questions to herself, “How dies the Serpent? he hath eat’n and lives, / And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and discerns,” ( Paradise Lost 9. 252-253). Here Eve is thinking hard about what Satan has told her, she appears to be defying her own obedience to God in order to show God that this fruit should not have been forbidden. She is causing her own act of rebellion, thus demonstrating she does not need God to be telling her what to do. Instead, Eve proves to God that she will carve her own path. Milton’s version of Eve illustrates to readers that you do not always need a higher power such as God to advise one’s life decisions but instead, one should always have independent thought and be able to have the ability to show self-expression. The situation between Eve and Satan in Paradise Lost remains illustrated in today’s society. Milton stresses on the fact that we do not always have to have some higher power to advise our life decisions. Even today, society wants us to create our own independent thought and acts, it is a topic used in everyday life, while the Church still wants us to follow the light of God. Whether we decide to think YOLO or decide to think