Page 185 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

British Poetry

Notes Adam, speaks. He tells Eve not to complain of the work they have to do but to be obedient to God,
since God has given them so many blessings, and only one constraint: they must not eat the fruit of
the Tree of Knowledge. Eve agrees wholeheartedly, and they embrace.
Eve tells Adam of her first awakening as she came to life and how she wondered who and where
she was. She found a river and followed it upstream to its source. Her path led to a clear, smooth
lake, and Eve looked into the lake, seeing an image in its surface, which she soon discovers is her
own. She hears a voice explaining to her that she was made out of Adam, and with him she will
become the mother of the human race. Overlooking Adam and Eve, Satan sees his opportunity. If
the Father has given them a rule to follow, then they might be persuaded to break it. He leaves the
two for a while, going off to learn more from other angels.
Meanwhile, Uriel comes before the Archangel Gabriel, at the gate of Eden, and tells him about the
shape-changing spirit that he saw from the hilltop. They both suspect that it might be one of the
fallen ones. Gabriel promises that if the spirit is in the garden, they will find it by morning. Around
this time, Adam and Eve finish their day’s work. They go to their leafy bower, praising God and
each other for their blissful life, and after a short prayer, they lie together—making love without
sin, because lust had not yet tainted their natures.

What does Satan feel is his greatest fault?
Night falls, and Gabriel sends search parties into the Garden. Two of his angels find Satan, disguised
as a toad, whispering into the ear of Eve as she sleeps. They pull him before Gabriel, who recognizes
him, and demands to know what he is doing in Paradise. Satan at first feigns innocence, as they
have no proof that he means harm. But Gabriel knows him to be a liar, and threatens to drag him
back to Hell. Enraged by this threat, Satan prepares to fight him. The two square off for a decisive
battle, but a sign from Heaven—the appearance in the sky of a pair of golden scales—stops them.
Satan recognizes the sign as meaning he could not win, and flies off.

Analysis

As Book IV opens, Milton presents Satan as a character deeply affected by envy and despair. Earlier
in the poem, Satan seems perfectly confident in his rebellion and evil plans. His feeling of despair at
the beauty of Paradise temporarily impairs this confidence. While in Hell, Satan tells himself that
his mind could make its own Heaven out of Hell, but now he realizes that the reverse is true. As
close to Heaven, as he is, he cannot help but feel out of place, because he brings Hell with him
wherever he goes. For Satan, Hell is not simply a place, but rather a state of mind brought on by a
lack of connection with God. Satan’s despondent recognition of this fact corresponds with what
Milton sees as the worst sin of all: despair. If even this beautiful new world cannot make Satan
forget Hell, then he can never hope to seek forgiveness and return to Heaven. As the Bible says, the
one sin that cannot be forgiven is despairing of forgiveness; if one cannot even ask for mercy, it
cannot be granted. Satan realizes this, and decides that the only course of action is to enjoy his own
wickedness, and pursue it with all his strength. Milton preempts the crucial question of whether
Satan could have successfully repented back in Book III. There, God said that he would give grace
to humankind because Satan would prompt humankind’s sin. But he would not help the fallen
angels, and especially Satan, because their sin came out of themselves and from no other source.
Satan’s continuing process of degradation is reflected in his use of progressively despicable, lowly
disguises. Through these first three books of Paradise Lost, Satan’s physical presence takes many
different forms. In Book I, he is a monumental figure so large that the largest tree would seem a
paltry wand in his hand. In Book III, he disguises himself as a cherub, but his inner turmoil ultimately
ruins this benign-seeming appearance. Satan is later described as leaping over Eden’s fence like a

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