Today we examine several additional dialogues, but the stakes here are considerably higher.
It is worth bearing in mind that Eve thinks she is having a discussion with a talking serpent, when in fact her interlocutor is Satan in disguise.
532-732: the Satanic method and rationale
Identify the stages of Satan’s argument. Is any of it compelling? Why or why not?
What is Eve’s best line of resistance? Identify a specific passage (or passages).
Examine and comment on Satan’s speech at 679-732.
Examine the description of Eve’s attraction to the Tree immediately following this speech (733-44). In what way does this correspond to Satan’s argument?
Examine and comment on her following soliloquy (745-79), just prior to her eating the fruit (780-94).
795-816: Eve Confirms the Satanic Rationale
In what sense (if at all) is her argument flawed? If you think it sound, explain why.
816-33: share “knowledge” with Adam?
Having eaten, Eve deliberates how to proceed. A brief passage, but striking. Comments?
At lines 834-55, we go back briefly in time to learn that at the moment Eve ate, Adam’s “heart, divine of something ill, / Misgave him; hee the falt’ring measure felt” (845-46). Then, another dialogue:
856-85: Honey, I’m home; did you miss me?
886-959: Adam responds
Nice, yes? Or no?
997-99: “female charm”
And what of these lines? Comments?
1007-1045: “amorous play”
In the Bible story, what is the first thing that happens after Adam and Eve eat the fruit? They become aware of their nakedness and seek to hide it (Genesis 3:7). So, whatever is the meaning of the Fall, sexual shame is its first result. How does Milton handle this moment? Is there anything especially striking here?
Offer responses to one or several of these closing passages.
Beautiful poetry? Where and why? Here are several of my favorite passages:
This I like for purely romantic reasons: Adam tries to imagine a future without Eve—and it breaks his heart.
Here, the lines seem to mimic the action they describe: the slackened grip, the garland falling, its flowers drifting to the now-fallen earth, this latter complemented by an enjambment followed immediately by an abrupt caesura at “down dropp’d”—pure Miltonic artistry.
This line is beautiful for its tragic innocence (for Adam cannot know what is about to happen), but also its compressed statement of Milton’s chief point: that individual liberty and responsibility are worth retaining, even at the risk of losing Paradise.
To which passages are you attracted, and why?
©Robert Whalen, 2023