Humanities 3VI. The Last Epic

Lecture 29

Repentance and Humility

Outline

• Recapping: The Aim of Paradise Lost

• Essential Tensions

• Three Choices

• Adam’s Fall

• “Patience and Heroic Martyrdom”

The Aim of Paradise Lost• “To justify the ways of God to man”--that is, to teach Milton’s

fellow citizens the correct way to think of God’s plan forcreation and of their place in that plan

• Milton elaborates the Biblical account of Genesis, emphasizing– (a) human beings’ responsibility for sin

– (b) the difference between their pre- and post-lapsarian state

– (c) the hierarchical relation between man and woman

– (d) the sacrifice of the Son and the life to which human beings arecondemned as a consequence of the Fall (= the effects of “original sin”)

• Fundamental to (a)-(c) is the relation between freedom andobedience, and between reason and passion.

Essential Tensions

Love/Passion(eros)

Freedom

Reason(logos)

Obedience

“Only begotten Son, seest thou what rageTransports our Adversary? whom no boundsPrescrib'd, no bars of Hell, nor all the chainsHeap'd on him there, nor yet the main abyssWide interrupt, can hold; so bent he seemsOn desperate revenge, that shall redoundUpon his own rebellious head. And now,Through all restraint broke loose, he wings his wayNot far off Heaven, in the precincts of light,Directly towards the new created world,And man there plac'd, with purpose to assayIf him by force he can destroy, or, worse,By some false guile pervert; and shall pervert;For man will hearken to his glozing lies,And easily transgress the sole command,Sole pledge of his obedience: So will fallHe and his faithless progeny: Whose fault?Whose but his own? ingrate, he had of meAll he could have; I made him just and right,Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.Such I created all the ethereal PowersAnd Spirits, both them who stood, and them who fail'd;Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.Not free, what proof could they have given sincere

Of true allegiance, constant faith or love,Where only what they needs must do appear'd,Not what they would? what praise could they receive?What pleasure I from such obedience paid,When will and reason (reason also is choice)Useless and vain, of freedom both despoil'd,Made passive both, had serv'd necessity,Not me? they therefore, as to right belong'd,So were created, nor can justly accuseTheir Maker, or their making, or their fate,As if predestination over-rul'dTheir will dispos'd by absolute decreeOr high foreknowledge; they themselves decreedTheir own revolt, not I; if I foreknew,Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault,Which had no less proved certain unforeknown.So without least impulse or shadow of fate,Or aught by me immutably foreseen,They trespass, authors to themselves in allBoth what they judge, and what they choose; for soI form'd them free: and free they must remain,Till they enthrall themselves; I else must changeTheir nature, and revoke the high decreeUnchangeable, eternal, which ordain'dTheir freedom: they themselves ordain'd their fall.”

God: “Free to Fall” (3.80-134)

Raphael to Adam (8.632-43)Be strong, live happy, and love, but, first of allHim whom to love is to obey, and keepHis great command; take heed lest Passion swayThy Judgement to do aught, which else free WillWould not admit: thine and of all thy SonsThe weal or woe in thee is plac’t; beware.I in thy persevering shall rejoice,And all the Blest: stand fast; to stand or fallFree in thine own Arbitrement it lies.Perfect within, no outward aid require;And all temptation to transgress repel. (cf. 8.172-4)

Adam to Eve (9.343-356)O Woman, best are all things as the will Of God ordain’d them: His creating hand Nothing imperfect or deficient left Of all that he created, much less Man, Or aught that might his happy state secure, Secure from outward force; within himself The danger lies, yet lies within his power: Against his will he can receive no harm. But God left free the Will; for what obeys Reason, is free; and Reason he made right, But bid her well be ware, and still erect; Lest, by some fair-appearing good surprised, She dictate false; and misinform the will To do what God expressly hath forbid.

Obedience, Freedom, Reason• The ultimate basis of law is God’s command• Obedience to God presupposes freedom of the

will• Thus, one has a choice to obey or disobey• The proper use of one’s freedom presupposes

reason (“God left free the Will; for what obeys / Reason,is free; and Reason he made right”)

• Through reason, one knows what is right: onerecognizes God as a sovereign authority whoought to be obeyed

Divine Providence• Satan, Eve and Adam all fall because they make

the wrong choices: “Passion sway[s] [the]/Judgement to do aught, which else free Will/ Wouldnot admit.”

• In giving them free will, God has allowed sin to entercreation

• Because of his omniscience, God knows that this willhappen

• His providence nonetheless judges the overall resultgood (the “fortunate fall”)

Satan’s Choice

Free willReason

Follow God’s command

Resist God, be a law untohimself (passion of pride,ambition)

true good

false good

The Serpent’s Seduction

• Appeals first to Eve’s beauty (9.532-558)• Then to her reason: the fruit has given him

the power of speech• Eve resists (9.647-654)• Satan’s key speech (9.679-732)• Eve relents (9.744-779)

Eve to the Serpent (9.650-54)

Wondrous indeed, if cause of such effects.But of this tree we may not taste nor touch;God so commanded, and left that commandSole daughter of his voice; the rest, we liveLaw to ourselves; our reason is our law.

The Serpent to Eve (9.679-732)O sacred, Wise, and Wisdom-giving Plant,Mother of Science, Now I feel thy PowerWithin me clear, not only to discernThings in their Causes, but to trace the waysOf highest Agents, deem’d however wise.Queen of this universe, do not believeThose rigid threats of Death; ye shall not Die: How should ye? by the Fruit? it gives you LifeTo Knowledge….

Eve to herself (9.750-760)Thy praise he also who forbids thy use,Conceals not from us, naming thee the TreeOf Knowledge, knowledge both of good and evil;Forbids us then to taste, but his forbiddingCommends thee more, while it infers the goodBy thee communicated, and our want:For good unknown sure is not had, or hadAnd yet unknown, is as not had at all.In plain then, what forbids he but to know,Forbids us good, forbids us to be wise?Such prohibitions bind not….

Eve’s Choice

Free willReason

Follow God’s command (and Adam’s)

Eat the fruit of the “tree ofknowledge,” thereby asserting her independence from God and Adam (passion of pride: 9.816-33)

true good

false good

Should Eve Share Her Secret?But to Adam in what sort

Shall I appear? shall I to him make knownAs yet my change, and give him to partakeFull happiness with mee, or rather not,But keep the odds of Knowledge in my powerWithout Copartner? so to add what wantsIn Female Sex, the more to draw his Love,And render me more equal, and perhaps,A thing not undesirable, sometimeSuperior; for inferior who is free?… (9.816-825)

Adam’s Choice

Free willReason

Follow God’s command

Eat the fruit and fall with Eve(passion of love: 9.908-16, 955-9, 997-999)

true good

false good

Consequences• The first effect of Adams’ eating the fruit is lust• Then shame--before their bodies and their

transgression: innocence is lost• Then recriminations (of disobedience and

ingratitude): “Thus it shall befall/Him who toworth in Women overtrusting/Lets her Will rule;restraint she will not brook/And left to herself, ifevil thence ensue/She first his weak indulgencewill accuse.” (9.1182ff)

Patience and Heroic Martyrdom (9.25-33)

• Paradise has been destroyed, a highway tohell is build

• In desperation, Eve proposes that she andAdam die, so as not to pass on the curse ofsin to their progeny

• Adam rejects this: only if they endure lifepatiently and accept God’s “just yoke/Laidon our necks” will Satan be avenged(10.1013-46, 1078-96)