Hello and welcome to the Discourse. John Milton began Book 9 of Paradise Lost with another prayer to his Muse. He invocates and begs Urania, the ‘Christian’ muse to guide him to perform this task when he is going to depict the actual act of disobedience by Adam and Eve. He suggests that he is too old and much less creative than what is required to describe the fall of Humans which is more ‘Heroic’ than Virgil’s Aeneid and Homer’s Iliad. He prays the ‘Christian Patroness’ to help him complete his work and show the true heroism that lies in the Christian idea of sacrifice.
Satan was sent away from Paradise by Gabriel. After 8 days, he returns to the Garden of Eden and while avoiding the eyes of Gabriel and his guards, he studies all the animals of Eden. He learns the strength and weak points of all the creatures and ultimately, he decides to take the shape of a serpent to approach Eve and tempt her. Satan believes that the serpent is the "subtlest beast of all the Field.”
Summary of Book 9
Twilight falls on Eden and as the darkness engulfs the beautiful world, Adam and Eve go to sleep while Satan comes down to the garden in form of mist and then enters the serpent. As he waits for his chance he laments his loss of heaven when he sees how beautiful a creation paradise is. "Revenge, at first though sweet, Bitter ere long back on itself recoils."
The next morning, Adam and Eve prepare for their daily routine of tending the Garden. Eve has noticed the increasing growth of Garden and she realizes that no matter how hard they work, some portion of Garden will remain untended. Thus, she devises a plan and suggests that this day, Adam and Eve should work separately at different portions of the Garden so that they may concentrate more on the work at hand.
Adam argues against Eve’s idea as he is aware of the danger that Raphael informed about. He tells Eve that she will be more vulnerable in his absence but Eve doesn’t relent, she is willing to test her strength. They continue to argue as Eve continues to propose they work separately while Adam insists that they should remain together. At last, Adam gives up and agrees to work separately. However, he commands Eve not to wander here and there and return to their bower as soon as she finishes the work. Eve agrees, but Milton mentions that Eve will never return to the bower in the way she is leaving.
So, Eve chooses the direction in which Satan was hiding in the body of a serpent. Satan watches Eve, arguably the most beautiful creature God ever made, and gets mesmerized. For a moment, he forgets all the evil ideas he had in his head and just watches Eve, admiring her. He feels that in her presence, he is becoming ‘stupidly good.’ Soon he comes to his senses and realizes that his only purpose is to destroy God’s creation, to corrupt Eve, and Adam.
Satan approaches Eve and flatters her, telling her how beautiful she is, how graceful and godly she appears. Eve, prone to vanity, is amazed seeing a serpent speaking like her and Adam. She asks how could the serpent can talk like a human? Satan answers that it is the effect of a fruit that he ate from a tree in the Garden. He says that by eating the fruit of that tree, he got the power to speak and reason. Through his newly acquired rational faculty, the serpent says he reasoned that Eve is worshipable as she is the most beautiful creation of God and he wishes to worship her.
Eve feels like a goddess, full of vanity, and asks the serpent about the tree. Satan, in the body of that serpent, takes Eve to the Tree of Knowledge. Eve is surprised to know that the serpent ate the fruit of that tree. She says that God has forbidden Man from eating fruits of that tree and she is obedient to God. The serpent plays his cards. He says that God forbade Man to eat the fruits of that tree because the fruits of the Tree of Knowledge will make Man omniscient, equivalent to God. Since God doesn’t like competition, He forbade Man to take those fruits. Satan says that God tricked her and Adam. He says that he ate the fruit of that tree himself and got the power to speak and reason like humans, his acumen increased, and there is no side effect, he is not dead. He argues that Man, who already is the master of reason if he eats the fruit from that tree, his abilities will be second to none.
Eve is tempted to try a fruit. She convinces herself to eat the fruit of Tree of Knowledge as the serpent is the proof that those fruits are harmless. Eve takes fruit and devours it.
Suddenly, the whole nature becomes gloomy, sad, and weeping as Eve falls. She is mesmerized by the taste of that fruit and starts worshipping the Tree of Knowledge as a god. Eve notices the gloomy atmosphere and fears if it is a bad omen and will she die? She couldn’t fathom that she will die while Adam will remain. She is fearful that if she dies, Adam will be given another wife. So she decides that Adam must also take that fruit.
As Eve approaches Adam, he sees the change in her, and aghast, he drops the wreath of flowers he was making for her. Eve tells him about the wondrous fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and how she ate it. She insists that if Adam loves her, he must also take the fruit. Adam lets his passion and emotion towards Eve rule his decision and agrees to take the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. He knows that it is forbidden, but for Eve, he is willing to disobey God.
As soon as Adam eats the fruit, he feels a sudden surge of lust for Eve. Earlier too they made love but that was so gentle and pure. It was Eve that always took the hand of Adam as they mated. However, now things have changed. Adam has an animalistic urge to take Eve. He grabs her hand and forcefully takes her to the bank of the river where they first met. They engage in carnal amorous play. They mate like beasts. After their impure love, they get so tired and immediately fall asleep.
As Adam and Eve arise, they find themselves deprived of all the virtues and godliness. Rather they are filled with shame and remorse. For the first time, they are now aware of their nakedness and they feel shame. Adam soon sews some fig leaves together to cover their genitals.
Now Eve realizes what wrong they have done and she starts blaming Adam for letting her go alone in the Garden while he knew that she is vulnerable. Both continue to blame each other as the love between them gradually evaporates.
Analysis of Book 9
Milton doesn’t mention Urania directly as his Muse in the fourth invocation. He strictly prefers to make it more Christian. He further mentions that this story is much greater and grander than Virgil’s or Homer’s work. He mentions that now the ‘Tragic’ part of his epic is going to be revealed. Satan is further degenerated before corrupting Eve. Satan again shows regret to what had happened but he shows no wavering in his determination to destroy humankind. Satan feels the agony of internal despair as he realizes that it would have been better if he hadn’t fallen and been allowed to appreciate the creation of God that he must now ruin. Milton carefully shows that Satan and Man both have absolute power to reason and free will. He expresses that the mind can become one’s own enemy by using reason to approach an unreasonable position. Satan easily succeeds in tempting Eve which again shows that woman is the weaker sex in the Miltonian world. Milton expresses Eve has lacking the ability to reason soundly. She rather falls for false praise and superficial things. Furthermore, once she is corrupted, she cannot stand losing Adam and wants him to be corrupted too. Adam knows that it would be wrong to eat the fruit but he cannot stand the situation where Eve is banished and he is forced to live without her. So he chooses Eve above God and readily eats the fruit. As a result, their pious love turns into a perverted sexual whim.
This is it for today. We will continue to discuss the remaining parts of Paradise Lost. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.
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