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John Milton’s epic Paradise Lost ultimately became a highly influential inspiration for many other artists and their work. Joseph Haydon’s oratorio The Creation (1798), and John Keats’s long poem Endymion (1818) was highly inspired by Paradise Lost. John Milton himself wrote Paradise Regained after the success of Paradise Lost in 1671. Moreover, John Keats tried to experiment with Miltonian verse or Blank Verse in his incomplete epic project titled Hyperion, though he found it pretty difficult to complete it in blank verse and let it remained unfinished.
Summary and Analysis of Book 4
Book 4 of Paradise Lost is pretty important because not only John Milton introduces the remaining two protagonists of the poem in this part, but he also shows how the antagonist Satan goes through his continual degradation. Milton introduced Satan as a great figure, taller than the tallest thing, stronger than the strongest opponents, next only to Almighty. Yet, as Lucifer continued his tryst with distrust and evil, he continued to suffer, degradation and diminution, and that is what is shown in Book 4. Furthermore, Milton also strengthens his plot of Hierarchy in God’s Universe in Book 4.
After knowing how to enter the new world from Uriel, Satan flies off and lands atop Mount Niphates from where he gazes at the green lush Earth and the Paradise, the garden of Eden. As the sun shines over the Garden of Eden, it reminds him of the grace and honor he used to enjoy in heaven. He stands still and thinks. He wonders whether he would have fallen or not if God had created him with a little less pride. He accepts that God created him in a way that led him to his fall. He understands God’s plan but this knowledge further fills his heart with a sense of revenge and hate against God. He concludes that his only recourse is evil, and from now on, all his efforts will be too, if not destroy, at least divide God's kingdom. He has seen the might of God and he fears it. But he concludes that he has no other choice. Satan says, "Farewell hope, And with hope farewell fear." Then he moves forward towards earth to corrupt mankind.
Meanwhile, Uriel was observing Satan who was in disguise as a Cherub. While Satan was going through his internal debate, Uriel observed the changes appearing on his face. Uriel was an experienced Archangel and he realized that he has been tricked. An innocent cherub cannot go through such a storm of emotions that can be visible on his face. He realizes that some Fallen Angel, enemy of God has tricked him and is now going to corrupt nor harm the new world.
As Satan approaches Eden, he sees that Paradise is surrounded by strong high walls, protecting it. Like a low-life wolf or a thief, Satan jumps and clings to the wall to go on the other side. He sees a beautiful world on the other side of the wall. He sees the Tree of Life, the Tree of Knowledge, and a variety of animals, birds, and beautiful creatures. He disguises himself as a hunting bird cormorant and perches on the Tree of Life.
As he sits atop the Tree of Life, he sees Adam and Eve in the Garden. He gets mesmerized by the beauty and grace of this new species, a new race that God created after he and his cohorts rebelled and fell from Heaven. He realizes that these new creatures are worthy enough to be loved and cared for and this intensifies his internal pain. He likes the man and wishes good of him but he aims to corrupt him and tempt the man to his fall. Then he listens to the conversation between Adam and Eve. Adam says to Eve that they should not complain about their work and should perform their duties happily. Eve then tells him how she came into existence. She tells him that after gaining consciousness, she was wondering who was she and why she was alive. Her path led her to a pure lake with still water, as she gazed over the water, she saw herself and found herself very attractive. Soon a voice informed her that she was created out of Adam to serve him and be his companion. The voice told that with Adam, she will be the mother of the human race. As Satan listens, he finds a clue. He thinks that if there is a Godly order to be followed by Adam and Eve, his aim is to tempt them to disobey that order. He then leaves Adam and Eve alone for a while to know more about the new world.
Meanwhile, Uriel visits the Gate of Paradise and meets Archangel Gabriel, the guard of Eden. He informs him how some fallen angel tricked him and enquired about the path to earth. Gabriel says that nobody visited the gate till now and if someone has breached the Garden of Eden by climbing up the wall, then he will find the intruder by the morning. As the night falls, Adam and Eve finish their work and reach their leafy bower while praising God and each other for their wonderful life. Soon they embrace each other while making love.
Satan observes Adam and Eve as they fall asleep. He turns into a toad and goes near to Eve to whisper false knowledge and corrupt words in her ears. At the same time, Gabriel sends his soldiers to search for the intruder in the Garden of Eden. Soon, two soldiers catch Satan whispering in the ears of Eve They pull him up and bring him in front of Gabriel. Gabriel recognizes him as Satan the mighty fallen angel and asks him what he is doing in the Garden of Eden? Satan tries to avoid direct conflict and feigns innocence and says that he was curious about the new race of Man and came to watch them with no intentions of harm. Gabriel, a wise angel realizes the lies of Satan and warns him to go away or he will throw him back to hell. Instigated by this threat, Satan comes in his real being as a strong tall fierce fallen angel, though he is now not as tall and strong as he was when he found consciousness on the fiery lake. Gabriel also prepares himself to fight but before they could engage in war, a pair of golden scales appear on the sky with a roar. It was a sign from God to stop fighting. Satan realizes that Almighty will soon intervene and he is no match against his power. Thus, Satan decides to fly away and disappears.
Analysis of Book 4
In hell, Satan was suffering physical pain and punishment when he was chained to the fiery lake. Now his physical pain has diminished as he is free, yet, he is not free of hell as the physical pain has been converted to emotional, psychological pain. Satan has such an aim that he will do everything possible to achieve, yet, even after achieving his aim of tempting man to his fall, Lucifer realizes that he won’t be happy as he loves man and wishes good of him. His determination to accept his damnation is shown through the degradation that he goes through. At the beginning of Book 1, Satan was depicted as a glorious, tall, strong, impressive, yet fallen angel. But as he continued to side with evil, he was forced to disguise himself as a Cherub. A Cherub is pretty low in the hierarchy in comparison to an angel, especially Lucifer, who once used to be the closest and favorite of God. His degradation didn’t stop there. Milton depicts him like a low animal wolf, or a thief when he tried to climb on the wall of Eden to pursue his evil aim of corrupting mankind. He further declines and degrades himself appearing as a cormorant to get close to Adam with evil intentions. Later on, Satan, who once was the strongest and most glorious archangel, decides to become a toad so that he may reach near to sleeping Eve and whisper falsehood in her dreams to corrupt her.
Why did Satan Chose Eve as his Target to Corrupt Mankind?
The major theme of Book 4 of Paradise Lost is the Hierarchy of God’s universe. Man lies at the center of this hierarchy. Man is a creation of God that He made in His own image and offered him free will to decide and act. Man is close to God. When Man complained that he feels lonely and needs some companion to be with, God took out a rib of Adam and created Eve out of it. While explaining the nature of this new creation, the female Man Eve, God told Raphael that Eve is a little away from God because she was created to serve man and God. Thus, in the hierarchy of God, Eve is in a lower position than Adam. The lower side is that of Satan. Thus, Eve is a bit more on side of Satan than Adam and hence Satan thinks that he can easily influence Eve. In Satan’s hell, the hierarchy is just an opposite mirror image of God’s Universe. The lower position of hierarchy is further explained in Book 4 as Eve says, "God is thy law, thou mine." What Eve says is that for Adam God is supreme, but for Eve, Adam is supreme, as Adam is subservient to God, she is subservient to Adam, or in other words, Adam is the lord or God of Eve. Eve further says, "to know no more Is woman's happiest knowledge and her praise." In later episodes of Paradise Lost, we see that Archangels Raphael, Michael, and others continue to visit Paradise to consult and offer knowledge and sermons to Adam but they offer this knowledge to him only when Eve is away, busy in some other works. And Eve is happy about it. She takes the knowledge that Adam decides to offer her, and to know no more, is her happiest knowledge.
Satan decides to turn it down and prompts Eve to exercise her individuality and act as an independent individual and stop being a loyal subservient to God through his tricks of temptations. In the Miltonian world, Adam is superior to Eve and she must always follow him. The fall of Man is all about Adam acting equal or subservient to Eve, listening to her, accepting her whims, and doing her bids. This happens because Adam feels too much enamored by the beauty of Eve and he stresses more on his emotions than reason and thus falls.
In Paradise Lost, Adam and Eve are engaged in love-making much before Satan corrupts them. However, their sexual acts are to follow the command of God that suggested that Eve will be subservient to Adam and will give birth to his offspring, humankind. Their love-making has a sense of duty and absence of lust. Though it is also clear that they do enjoy the act and that’s how Adam gets trapped in Satan’s plan.
So this is it about Book 4. We will continue to discuss the remaining parts of Paradise Lost. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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