ENL 122: Raphael’s Blunder: The Hope of Ascension and the Fall of Man

Jolene Patricia Brown

ENL 122: Milton

24 November 2009

Raphael’s Blunder:
The Hope of Ascension and the Fall of Man

Satan’s temptation of Eve begins long before his captivating her as a talking serpent in the garden in book IX. The dream sequence in which Satan first gives Eve the tantalizing fantasy of humans revered as gods puts the idea of ascension into Eve’s mind, but it is Raphael’s speech that allows that fantasy a hope for reality. Raphael is the first to mention the possibility that God might one day raise man up to join the angels in heaven, and by doing so, leaving room for an ambiguous interpretation of the promise. Adam and Eve are left to wonder whether it must be God only to elevate man higher in the heavenly hierarchy, or if the Tree of Knowledge might bypass that route altogether. Raphael is not explicit in his warning to Adam in the first place, but by sending Eve away, Raphael leaves opportunity for miscommunication—and assuredly ambiguity—of the warning between Adam and Eve. This ambiguity would spell disaster for the earthly pair giving Eve an excuse to taste of the fruit of knowledge, damning the pair to eternal strife.

The dream that Satan inspires in Eve in Book V crescendos just after he promises to Eve that, should she eat the fruit, she would “be henceforth among the gods / thyself a goddess, not to earth confined” (V.77-78). This dream was obviously disturbing to Eve, as she slept with “tresses discomposed, and glowing cheek, / As through unquiet rest” (V. 10-11) as well as her reaction to Adam as she wakes with “startled eye,” to embrace him (V. 26-27). When Raphael tells Adam of the possibility of man’s ascension to Heaven, it must have triggered an immediate memory for Eve when Adam passed the message to her. The similarity of Eve’s evil dream to Raphael’s musings on the potential of man is subtle:

…time may come when men
With angels may participate, and find
No inconvenient diet, nor too light fare:
And from the corporal nutriments perhaps
Your bodies may at last turn all to spirit,
Improved by tract of time, and winged ascend
Ethereal, as we, or may at choice
Here or in heav’nly paradises dwell… (V.493-500)

Perhaps Eve, Adam, or both, wondered that since they might ascend as angels, if there was a possibility they might also ascend as gods. After all, making the jump from man to angel would seem almost impossible from their perspective, especially considering Raphael had already put a distinction between the physical form of man and the physical form of angels. The substance from which each is made is vastly different, man of flesh and angels of ether; even the way man reasons is different from that of angels, man discursively and angels intuitively. With all these differences between man and angel it does not seem possible that one, namely man, would be able to make the switch into the other, and even the purpose for such a switch is odd. If God wanted man to be angels eventually, it would seem he would just create more angels instead of implementing a plan for eventual ascension. With all these unusual questions that Raphael leaves open in posing the opportunity for ascension it is no wonder Adam and Eve become tempted by a quicker rise through the ranks by choosing to eat the apple.

Eve is a curious creature: she wonders about the night and for whom the stars are for; she wonders about God, the hierarchy they are a part of, and her place within it. There is no reason why she would not also be inherently curious about the one forbidden tree in the garden, and though she may not have set out intending to eat of it, it can be argued that she was giving herself time away from her two guardians, God and Adam, to satiate her curious appetite. When Eve decides to venture out on her own to work she convinces Adam by arguing that fear in the garden is unfounded, and even if there were something to fear, God would protect them:

“If this be our condition, thus to dwell
In narrow circuit straitened by a foe…
How are we happy, still in fear of harm?
…Let us not then suspect our happy state
Left so imperfect by the Maker wise,
As not secure to single or combined.
Frail is our happiness, if this be so,
And Eden were no Eden thus exposed.” (IX. 322-323, 326, 337-341)

This is an important decision in the garden because it gives Satan the opportunity to exploit the curiosity in Eve’s mind on his own terms without interference from Adam. Eve’s argument seems well-founded: she would rather not “suspect” their happy state, for true happiness would not be experienced in fear. Her separation at this point, however, seems suspicious as their purpose in the garden is not solely for work, as argued by Adam, and certainly God would not have given Adam a partner in the garden only to mandate they work separate from one another. Her motive at this point is questionable, and one wonders if she was naturally curious about the tree, intending to investigate it whether or not the snake was there to tempt her. She does not realize that God is omniscient at this point either, for after she eats of the fruit she wonders if God might have missed her sin because “Heav’n is high, / high and remote to see from thence distinct / each thing on earth” (IX.811-813).

Eve’s dream turned to reality in book nine as the serpent, in place of Satan, reminds Eve to the hope of godhood. The serpent subtly hints to the promise of the dream: that a bite of the fruit will allow her ascension into a goddess-like status, as it moved the serpent to a man-like status. He begins to worship her as if she were already a goddess, which only heightens the excitement of ascension to come:

Fairest resemblance of they Maker fair,
Thee all things living gaze on, all things thine
By gift, and they celestial beauty adore
With ravishment beheld, there best beheld
Where universally admired; but here
In this enclosure while, these beasts among,
Beholders rude, and shallow to discern
Half what in thee is fair, one man except,
Who sees thee? (and what is one?) who shouldst be seen
A goddess among gods, adored and served
By angels numberless, thy daily train. (Book IX.538-548)

The language the serpent uses is one of seduction with words such as fairest, ravishment, beheld, adored, with which the snake pays tribute to her beauty claiming it is beyond the sphere she currently occupies. Her beauty is “celestial,” and belongs to Heaven, not on the earth where it can be enjoyed by only one man and “rude” animals. There is an echo within these lines as well from her original statement to Adam recalling her dream: “A goddess among gods” which is eerily similar to Book V.77-78 mentioned above. The echo here is important because Satan seems almost hypnotically seducing her by worshipping her, assuring her of beauty, and reminding her of the promise of ascension within her dream. The warnings from God, through Raphael, would only confuse her further, for she would remember that ascension might very well be possible even if it means disobeying the orders of God to attain it.

Raphael gave Adam and Eve the reason to believe that the hierarchy of heaven is fluid, and moving between realms is possible. Unfortunately, he is ambiguous enough in his explanation of this ascension that it leaves room to believe there might be other ways to ascend beyond those offered by God. He only exasperates the problem by excluding Eve from direct communication of the warning, exposing the earthly pair to the blunders of miscommunication between one another. Also, has she been present during this conversation, her curious nature might have forced Raphael to be more direct in his warnings, thereby subverting the possibility for ambiguity altogether. By allowing the curious Eve to imagine a world in which man and woman might attain heavenly bodies closer to God, Raphael gives her a reason to try to fruit to speed up that progress. If Adam and Eve had not thought it possible to change the status of the hierarchy they probably would have reconsidered eating the fruit, wondering if the snake was instead an evil enemy of God’s.

ENL 10A: Samson’s Captivity: A Reawakening of Purpose

Jolene Patricia Brown

ENL 10A: English Lit to 1700

19 November 2009

Samson’s Captivity: A Reawakening of Purpose

Milton explores the captivity of man in Samson Agonistes as more than the jail and slave labor that Samson must endure at the hands of the Philistines. Captivity is the fallen condition of man, Milton argues, as man is born with obstacles that must be overcome before he can reach his full potential as a servant of God, which turns out to be another form of captivity. The example of Samson, from the biblical book of Judges, allows Milton to write make this argument from the perspective of a man who was born with gifts bestowed on no other man by God. This is an important perspective from which to write because if a great man can be held captive by his own imperfection, then all men can. It is only through recognition of man’s potential failings that one can reach their full potential despite their post-lapsarian condition.

Samson is captive to the Philistines because he is chained, and forced to do slave labor. This is his most obvious form of captivity: forced physical labor. Samson is forced to slave for those people he was born to destroy, and by doing so is also forced to consider all his failings: “From restless thoughts, that like a deadly swarm / Of Hornets arm’d… / rush upon me thronging, and present / Times past, what once I was, and what am now” (19-22). For Samson, it is not the physical labor that is the worst part of the slavery. With nothing to do but work, he is forced to consider all his failings by his “restless thoughts” and he dissects his own fall from grace, which makes the physical work a form of “ease” from his thoughts (18). He comes to an important conclusion: that strength, though useful, is not immune to failure unless there is wisdom.

But what is strength without a double share
Of wisdom, vast, unwieldy, burdensome,
Proudly secure, yet liable to fall…
God, when he gave me strength, to shew withal
How slight the gift was, hung it in my hair. (53-55, 58-59)

Even his great gift of strength is a form of captivity for Samson because he did not have the wisdom to guard it properly. God endowed the strength with an inherent weakness by placing it in Samson’s hair thereby rendering Samson strong but not invincible. The captivity, therefore, is Samson’s false sense of security brought on by his lack of wisdom and overabundant strength which he does not realize until it is too late and he is physically captive to the Philistines: “Immeasurable strength they might behold / In me, of wisdom nothing more then mean; / This with the other should, at least, have paird, / These two proportion’d ill drove me transverse” (206-209).

The Philistines have also blinded him, depriving him of the light of the world and the light of God:

O loss of sight, of thee I most complain!
Blind among enemies, O worse then chains…
Light the prime work of God to me is extinct,
And all her various objects of delight
Annull’d, which might in part my grief have eas’d… (67-68, 70-72)

His blindness is a sensual captivity as Samson finds himself not only a slave to those he was intended to slay, but also without the guidance of his sight. It is sight that guides man in his daily life, without which one would wander hopelessly lost; without his sight Samson cannot make his way alone in the world. His blindness also implies he is without his God—another form of sight—as it is God who has, until now, guided Samson through his exploits against the Philistines. The sight that Samson has lost is multi-faceted: it is the physical sight in the world that allows him mobility and success in his battles against his enemies, but also the sight of God who has guided him in those battles. The loss of sight is a double-tragedy because he is deprived of a sensual pleasure and a spiritual pleasure, both of which are unbearable to Samson.

Before his captivity by the Philistines, Samson was captive to his passions as a man by allowing himself to be weakened by the love of a woman who is loyal to his enemy. Samson realizes he had fallen into service to woman, instead of in service to God when he states:

The base degree to which I am now fall’n,
these rags, this grinding, is not yet so base
As was my former servitude, ignoble,
Unmanly, ignominious, infamous,
True slavery, and that blindness worse then this,
That saw not how degenerately I serv’d. (414-419)

Both the physical captivity and the sensual captivity that he faces now in service to the Philistines is, he claims, better than his service to woman he paid before his fall. It is this captivity to woman that is another captivity that Samson is subject to, and another that he does not realize until he is already taken prisoner, betrayed by the woman he loved.

Though he ultimately takes responsibility for his own fall in admitting that “She [Delila] was not the prime cause” (234), he still laments his failing to identify her as a “specious Monster” and his “accomplisht snare” (230). The description of Delila as a “specious Monster” is especially telling, as the word specious, according to the OED, means “Having a fair or attractive appearance or character, calculated to make a favourable impression on the mind, but in reality devoid of the qualities apparently possessed” and “Of falsehood, bad qualities.” Samson is captive to her appearance, and his weakness for Delila echoes that of Adam’s for Eve in the garden of Paradise Lost, as both men allow women to have power over them. In Paradise Lost God was forced to remind Adam of the original hierarchy of subjection after the fall:

Was she [Eve] thy God, that her thou didst obey
Before his voice, or was she made they guide,
Superior, or but equal, that to her
Thou didst resign thy manhood, and the place
Wherein God set thee above her made of thee
And for thee, whose perfection far excelled
Hers in all real dignity: adorned
She was indeed, and lovely to attract
They love, not thy subjection… (X.145-153)

Like Adam, Samson’s perfection “far excelled” that of Delila’s, for she not only was an idolater according to the Hebrew people, but she was also a woman, and therefore inherently imperfect and subject to man. The Chorus recognizes this shortcoming of woman as well: “Is it for that such outward ornament / Was lavish’t on thir Sex, that inward gifts / Were left for haste unfinish’t, judgment scant, / Capacity not raise’d to apprehend / Or value what is best / In choice, but oftest to affect the wrong (1025-1030)? Further, like Adam, Samson became enchanted by a woman and allowed himself to become subject to her, overturning the hierarchy of power that should be God over man, man over woman.

Samson is also captive of God, and God’s plans. Samson was a gift to his parents, who could not conceive a child on their own, in order to free the Hebrew people from the Philistines. Samson’s responsibility is to his people and to his God and by allowing himself to be overthrown and taken prisoner by those he is supposed to slay, he has shirked his duties. This is his final captivity, and one that he must embrace and accept before death, though this captivity is one of service to God and not of to man, be it the Philistines or to women. Samson reawakens to his calling, slowly, through the visitations of his father, his wife, and a giant who refuses his challenge:

But come what will, my deadliest foe will prove
My speediest friend, by death to rid me hence,
The worst that he can give, to me the best.
Yet so it may fall out, because thir end
Is hate, not help to me, it may with mine
Draw thir own ruin who attempt the deed. (1262-1267)

At the end of the poem Samson accepts that to be a man in the fallen world is a life of captivity be it captivity to sin, women, slavery, senses or captivity in service to God. It is, however, within man’s power to decide what they will be captive to, and that is when Samson reaffirms his service to God, killing the Philistinian Lords:

Be of good courage, I begin to feel
Some rousing motions in me which dispose
To something extraordinary my thoughts…
If there be aught of presage in the mind,
This day will be remarkable in my life
By some great act, or of my days the last. (1381-1383, 1387-1389)

Captivity in this post-lapsarian world is can be chosen, and what man chooses to be captive to determines his end, be it in shame or in heroism. Samson, because he chose ultimately to be captive to God, became a hero and is remembered to this day for his feats in saving the Hebrew people. Though captivity can deprive man of his gifts, it can also give him strength, depending on the captivity he chooses.

I WANT TO GO TO THIS--who wants to go with me?

MACBETH!

Studio 301 Productions brings you this famed Shakespeare classic with a whole new twist. Stylistically as well as visually, this will be Macbeth like you've never seen it before. It will be at the UC Davis, College of Letters and Sciences (also known as The Death Star) Courtyard. That's right, outdoors! Intense fighting, love, and language. That's pretty much the essence of Macbeth, and directors Steph Hankinson and Gia Battista have revved all these elements up even more! This show will surely be an intense and highly fulfilling experience for all type of theater goers. Whether you've seen the play a million times, or never even heard of it, you're sure to find a wonderful and pleasant surprise with this production! The courtyard is located directly across the street from the ATMS at the Memorial Union. The weather will be cold, so we advise bringing some warm clothes, and perhaps a cushion to sit on. There is a possibility of rain so be prepared for that too. There will be hot drinks served as well! To assure yourself you got a spot, make a reservation at Macbethreservations09@gmail.com and when you do, be sure to include your name, your phone number and number of seats desired. These reservations guarantee you a spot but it is still first come first serve so be sure to arrive at least fifteen minutes early. Also, there is a deadline to reserve, make sure it is by 11:59 pm the night BEFORE your desired show date you wish to attend. SHOW DATES: Wednesday November 11 (preview) to Sunday November 15 Wednesday November 18 to Sunday November 22 all shows start at 8pm EXCEPT for Sunday shows which start at 6pm. Adults: $10 Students: $9 (donation minimum) We can't wait to see you all there!

ENL 10A: “Rebirth in Passion: The Fall of Othello and Iago”

Jolene Patricia Brown

ENL 10A

3 Nov 2009

Rebirth in Passion: The Fall of Othello and Iago

Othello is a tragedy of words. The sins committed by the various players are of ignorance, hardly deserving of the outcome of death and destruction at the end of the play, especially those of Othello and Desdemona. Their folly was not communicating with one another as a married couple should: not discussing the strange stories of Iago and thereby not discovering, before it was too late, that much of what they believed to be true was nothing more than hints of lies construed as truth. The echoing of Iago and Othello in act IV.i leads to both a convergence between Othello and Iago, and is a turning point in the play ultimately leading to Othello’s trance and the rebirth of both characters into passionate, revenge-induced rage.

The trance is the rebirth of both Othello and Iago within the play; it is what begins the fall of both characters and is a point of no return. Othello comes under Iago’s hypnosis and awakes to find himself in chaos, away from reason and love; embroiled in passion and hate. As a soldier, this is a dangerous place for Othello because his first instincts after the trance are for revenge on Desdemona and Cassio, which he acts on without rational consideration. His loyalties change after this convergence and rebirth as well, as Othello has performed an almost ritualistic ceremony of loyalty to Iago, comparable to a wedding, and Desdemona is no longer Othello’s “love” as it is now pledged to Iago. Iago is also reborn while Othello is in the trance: instead of only plotting against Othello, he begins to imagine revenge on Cassio by assisting Othello in his plans for Cassio’s death, and later the death of Roderigo. With all those out of his way, regardless of where that leaves him, Iago believes he will “win” and he also becomes overruled by his passionate desire for revenge.

Iago, it seems, did not originally plan to bring Othello down through Desdemona’s supposed infidelity. At the opening of the play his intentions are unclear and all the reader understands is that Iago hates Othello because Iago was passed over by Cassio for a lieutenant position. Originally, Iago’s plans only intended to embarrass, and hurt, Othello by denying him access to Desdemona. It is not until Brabantio warns Othello of Desdemona’s questionable decision to betray her own father that Iago realizes what might be the best way to hurt Othello: “Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see: / She has deceived her father, and may thee” (I.iii.290-291). These words from Desdemona’s father are ominous, especially when compared to Desdemona’s own words about her loyalty to her father:

My noble father,
I do perceive here a divided duty…
…you are the lord of duty;
I am hitherto your daughter. But here’s my husband;
And so much duty as my mother showed
To you, preferring you before her father,
So much I challenge that I my profess
Due to the Moor my lord. (I.iii.178-179, 182-187)

In her own words, Desdemona declares her loyalty divided between her father, to whom she owes for her “life and education,” and her husband. Though she ultimately chooses loyalty to Othello in marrying him without her father’s consent, by doing so she leaves her loyalty open to doubt and implies that her loyalty to Othello may ultimately waver. Iago most likely overhears Brabantio’s comment to Othello and it can be argued that it is this comment that sets off his plan of action to turn Othello against Desdemona through the use of suggestion. After all, if Desdemona had both loyalties to her father and to her love for Othello she would have attempted to work out the marriage through her father to show respect for both men. Instead, by pursuing it through subversive means, her loyalty comes into question and Iago will use this doubt against Othello throughout the rest of the play.

The idea planted in Othello’s mind by Brabantio festers in his subconscious as Iago subtly attempts to remind him of it. In act III.iii we witness the one of the first instances of echoing between Iago and Othello:

Othello: What dost thou think?

Iago: Think, my lord?

Othello: “Think, my lord?” By heaven, thou echo’st me

As if there were some monster in thy thought
Too hideous to be shown…
As if thou then hadst shut up in thy brain
Some horrible conceit. If thou dost love me,
Show me thy thought.

Iago: My lord, you know I love you. (III.iii.107-111, 116-119)

This conversation is where Iago finally breaches Othello’s secret fear and, taking advantage of it leads Othello to question Desdemona’s loyalty. At this point Iago is only leading Othello to doubt, and Othello supplies him with the ideas he needs only to affirm for him: Iago is hinting at a source of doubt and Othello is allowing himself to be manipulated. Though Othello is speaking to Iago in this passage when he wonders about the “monster” in Iago’s thought, it might be said that the “monster” is in fact Othello’s; he is really speaking to himself. Iago has successfully brought the “monster” of thought to the forefront of Othello’s mind and now he only needs to supply the evidence to drive Othello to chaos.

Throughout the story Iago uses subtle suggestion and echoes to bring Othello under his spell of lies. After Othello falls into the trance, Iago muses at his success: “Work on, / My medicine works! Thus credulous fools are caught, / and many worthy and chaste dames even thus, / All guiltless, meet reproach” (IV.i.45-46). Iago administers his words to Othello constantly throughout the play but never so directly that they might be called “lies.” Much of what he says hints at wrongdoing and infidelity, which only prompt Othello to consider them and at first Othello does not realize what is being implied. The idea is there, however, planted by Desdemona’s father, and Iago must only keep that thought at the forefront of Othello’s mind for him to become more serious about the implications of her behavior. Iago begins the play by plotting an attempt at “revenge” that he’s not even sure how he can carry out. By Act V, however, Iago has become a villain in the larger sense as he becomes enveloped in a depraved realization that regardless of who dies, he still wins: “Now, whether he [Roderigo] kill Cassio / Or Cassio him, or each do kill the other, / Every way makes my gain” (V.i.12-14). Othello’s trance is also a rebirth for Iago as he broadens the scope of his plans from revenge on only Othello to take revenge on Cassio and even Roderigo. His decision becomes one of multiple revenge and he is no longer only a minor villain and instead sees the death of all those who wronged him as a way of winning no matter what.

Othello’s trance is also his rebirth, but not one of innocence, as it strips him of his rational functions and places him in a world of chaos ruled by his passionate anger. When he awakens, he is under Iago’s control, whether he knows it or not. Iago already has what he wants at this point: the earlier convergence between Othello and Iago during act III.iv established Iago as Othello’s lieutenant:

[Othello]: …Come, go with me apart; I will withdraw
To furnish me with some swift means of death
For the fair devil. Now art thou my lieutenant.

Iago: I am your own forever.

Iago’s revenge would seem complete at this point except Iago continues what he has begun, consenting to kill Cassio as Othello swears he will kill Desdemona. Iago’s promotion is symbolic of Othello handing over control of his mind, and from that point forward Othello is only a shadow of his former self, and no longer has the beauty and dignity that he did before the trance.

The trance is the point of no return in the play as both Othello and Iago are no longer capable of ending the cycle of destruction that reader sees as the ultimate end. Unfortunately for Desdemona, she is an innocent victim of men who come under control of their passion for anger and jealousy. “Alas, what ignorant sin have I committed?” Desdemona asks of Othello in IV.ii.71 and indeed this question can be asked by all the players. An ignorant sin is one that the sinner does not realize they have committed; it is not innocent, but there is a sort of innocence involved in ignorance. Even Iago, it can be argued, committed ignorant sins for he could not have predicted the outcome of Othello becoming a passionate murder, or that Iago himself would turn on all those around him. Each step in the play escalates the players to a realm of hate, and each of them are ignorant of the outcome. The convergence, however, is a potential stopping point that Iago refuses to allow, and by the time Othello falls into a trance it is too late to stop.

ENL 122: “Adam, Eve and Satan: Disaster in the Garden”

Jolene Patricia Brown

ENL 122

3 Nov 2009

Adam, Eve and Satan: Disaster in the Garden

Adam and Eve are of one flesh; they share every part of their being and existence. By sharing one flesh they are not only of one person; they are one person. It is the ultimate partnership: physical, emotional and spiritual. They are born into a hierarchy that is established from the moment of their conception: there are no questions of authority as God is ruler over Adam; Adam over Eve; both over the animals and plants within the garden. As rational creatures it should be easy for both Adam and Eve to fit themselves into this preformed world, and it leaves no room for them to conceive of anything different. This eliminates the concern for an overthrow of the heavens by humans, since they cannot conceive of anything outside of the hierarchy. These are all strengths in their relationship that should be a recipe for success, however it is exactly these traits that give Satan an edge is his deception and temptation of Adam and Eve in the garden, leading them to make the sacrifice that Satan himself made.

Being created of “one flesh” they are equal and God did create Eve with a capacity for rationality equal to Adam. This is made clear by her tendency to ask good questions, and she takes what she learns very seriously. This equality among the pair makes it clear that by asking her to behave as a subject to Adam seems counter-intuitive. Her curiosity about night, for instance, is a great example of her tendency to think even at a grander scope than even Adam seems capable:

Of grateful evening mild, then silent night
With this her solemn bird and this fair moon,
And these the gems of heav’n, her starry train…
But wherefore all night long shine these, for whom
This glorious sight, when sleep hath shut all eyes? (VI. 647-649, 657-658)

Adam gives her an answer of nothing more than to say that to watch the beauty of the nighttime would take away from worship of God: “These then, though unbeheld in deep of night, / Shine not in vain, nor think, though men were none, / That heav’n would want spectators, God want praise” (IV. 674-676). This answer seems too simple for a question as thought provoking as Eve’s, for it does seem strange that God would spend time creating a beautiful nighttime world only to have his most prized creatures not take advantage of it.

The unity of Adam and Eve is what the narrator wants us to reflect on when he makes his hail on “wedded love” as a “mysterious law, true source / Of human offspring, sole propriety / In paradise of all things common else” (IV. 750-752). Any wedded pair should share a bond between them that is brought forth in a physical form by procreation. Marriage is, to the narrator, a unity on every level between two people that culminates in the creation of children. Satan interferes with the ultimate plan for Adam and Eve to create children within the garden. The interjection of Satan into this plan poses him as a threat to the unity between man and God, but also between man and women as the symbol of their unity—children—never come to fruition.

Neither Adam nor Eve understands the concept of evil. Being confined to a state of innocence allows them a freedom that no other human will have after them: ignorance without fear of sin. Because they do not know evil they will never commit, accidentally or otherwise, a sin against God because, in their present situation, they have no idea what a sin is or how to commit it. This innocence and ignorance of sin is implied by what is their sign of obedience:

…God has pronounced it death to taste that Tree,
The only sign of our obedience left…
Then let us not think hard
One easy prohibition, who enjoy
Free leave so large to all things else, and choice
Unlimited of manifold delights… (IV. 427-428, 432-435)

It is only through the outside influence of Satan that they are led into a temptation to sin and eat of the tree of knowledge which frees them of their innocence and ignorance. Indeed it is innocence which makes them vulnerable since they cannot conceive of evil and they cannot conceive of hypocrisy or trickery. Despite Raphael’s warnings to be on their guard against Satan, even that idea is beyond their scope of understanding. They have no concept of guile, mistrust, lies or ill-intentions. Asking them to be on guard against that which they cannot understand is like asking a child to know what is best for them: it cannot, in the best interests of the child, be done.

Satan’s primary motivation throughout these first books is jealousy. It is clear that he is jealous of the Son who was promoted above him by God, but his jealousy is rekindled when he realizes the love and joy that is shared by God and man in the garden.

Sight hateful, sight tormenting! thus these two
Imparadised in one another’s arms
The happier Eden, shall enjoy their fill
Of bliss on bliss, while I to hell am thrust,
Where neither joy nor love, but fierce desire,
Among our other torments not the least,
Still unfulfilled with pain of longing pines. (IV.505-511)

Satan sacrificed all that he loved for nothing more than a shot at a throne he would never achieve. In seeing Adam and Eve in their nuptial bliss he must be reminded of the joys in heaven of which he is now deprived because of nothing more than his own pride and jealousy. It is his jealousy, first of God and then of Adam and Eve, that continually drives him to make the wrong decisions: first to turn away from God and ultimately be hurled from heaven, and then to tempt Adam and Eve into sin. Both of his decisions were because he was jealous of what was not his, power in heaven and love on earth.

Satan deprives man of the one thing that would have saved him from temptation: unity, both between God and man, as well as between man and woman. Satan recognizes that the hierarchy of God/man/woman has changed as Adam declares Eve his “best image” and “dearer half” (V.95) and it is this weakness alone that allows Satan the opportunity to drive each pair apart. Satan does not want God, Adam or Eve to have what he has been deprived of: true love. Since God has already defeated Satan, the best Satan can do is to take away God’s prized new creation, and ruin the unity between the happy pair.

Adam and Eve had everything they needed to be happy in the garden, just as Satan had everything he needed to be happy in Heaven. Adam and Eve were innocent and ignorant of sin, and only had to show obedience through refraining from eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge. The hierarchy of power only needed to be maintained between God and man/man and woman in order for authority to have stopped the tragedy to come. They were also given warnings from heaven about Satan, and a reminder that with knowledge, comes death. This, however, did nothing to stop Satan from deciding his pride and jealousy should bring ruin to Adam and Eve. Adam, by putting Eve above himself, changed the dynamic of power in the garden; Satan introduced sin and jealousy into the garden by showing Eve the dream of man as gods; suddenly ignorance is something to fear. All of these combine to create a perfect opportunity for man to fall from God, and Satan to take his revenge upon God, by denying him man as a perfect creation on earth.