Morality_in_John_Milton's_Paradise_Lost

To begin, I think it’s important to allocate a definition to a moral. Morals are what ones conscience suggests is right or wrong, good or bad; independent of rules or what the law says should be done. Milton presents two moral paths that one can take after disobedience; the downward spiral of sustained sin, represented in paradise lost by Satan, and the road to redemption which is followed by Adam and Eve. While Adam and Eve are the first humans to disobey God, Satan is the first of all God’s creations to disobey. However his decision to not to obey comes only from himself as he was not tempted or provoked by others like Adam and Eve were. All this deception and evil is entwined with intense literary description of Milton’s Garden of Eden that entices the reader’s sensory imagination repeatedly. The descriptions are visually intense, ‘the humid flowers’ that ‘breathed/Their morning incense’ or the ‘thick-woven arborets and flowers/ imbordered on each bank’. However in terms of Satan the description is very interesting, as Satan approaches Eve the language is full of sexual innuendo and imagery. To begin with, the imagery is in many ways appealing as he is described to have ‘rising folds’, ‘surging maze’ or ‘verdant gold’ as his shape is described to be ‘pleasing’. This positive description is tainted to a certain revulsion when described as ‘fawning and licked the ground where she trod’ as Satan’s true intentions are uncovered, and in a way I think a greater sense of contrast is created here as the reader is pulled into feelings of appeal to Satan. A strange position seeing as he is the chief spirit of evil bringing the depth of description to a new level as it shapes a positive opinion of the epitome of all evil. Book IX of paradise lost shows not only the most well known and important of moral lessons that is basically if you sin you will go to hell and if your good you will go to heaven, but within are lesser examples of moral code. At the centre of the epic lies the most basic and important of religious beliefs that if you live a life of good doings you will be allowed into heaven, and if you live a life of evil you will be sent to spend eternity in hell. This clearly represents the consequences of following, or averting personal, and social morality. Trust appears in many places, firstly is the obvious trust of God in Adam and Eve that they will leave the forbidden tree and fruit alone as instructed. As there has to be free will, God had to allow for Adam and Eve to make the decision themselves, trusting in his creations to make the right choice. I think the other major act of trust shown strongly in book IX, and probably the closest to the heart of the reader, is the trust of Adam in Eve to walk alone in the Garden of Eden without him by her side. As they discuss the dangers of working separately in the Garden the language shows a politeness rather than warmth between Adam and Eve as Adam attempts to convince Eve that she should not work alone. However his arguments are not completely convincing as he shifts from suggesting that temptation in itself is an insult, to more platonic claim that as Eve represents ultimate goodness her presence inspires a lover to virtue. Eve is shown to be hurt by Adams unease, to which Adam advises her to trust Gods rule rather than her own reason. This advice if followed by neither of them at the most important moment of temptation. Milton has given absolute power to the reason and free will of both men and Satan, only to show that the mind can defeat itself, using reason to arrive at an unreasonable position. Satan's successful temptation of Eve, which is the core episode in the fall of man, may be said to occur in large part because of Satan's ability to entice Eve to what seems a higher state of being than humanity. He does this by differentiating human and divine attributes and by suggesting that Eve and Adam can become as God by becoming themselves gods of a kind. When Satan refers to the lower gods, he suggests that they have specific functions in the running of the universe, and suggests that Eve may attain some connection with the workings of the universe if she eats the fruit of the tree of knowledge. I believe that the ability of Satan to flatter Eve in itself reveals a distinct moral lesson in vanity. Satan uses an interesting tangent to begin the flattery of Eve in that he gives her a sense of power over him, suggested by ‘sovereign mistress’, allocating her an almost queen like stature above him. Satan continues with ‘fairest resemblance of thy maker fair’, clearly suggesting that she is in fact the nearest thing to God, and therefore suggests that Eve is superior to all other beings through her physical beauty. As human beings we like to hear what we want to hear, obviously Eve’s vanity allowed her to be tempted by the devil, and through this Milton presents another moral lesson. John Milton lived in the 1600’s and obviously in those times the wife and husband relationship was dominated by the husband. I believe in some respect that the portrayal of the discussion, and the eventual outcome, of Adam and Eve as to whether to work alone or not entails a certain moral lesson. This is because Milton shows Adam to be uncannily right about Satan’s intentions to tempt Eve into eating from the tree of knowledge, suggesting Adam had the initial insight to be wary of leaving one another. Therefore because of the obvious outcome of eating the fruit, which is the fall of mankind, we as the reader view Eve as the initial cause and we are then given Adam as an almost, tragic hero as even when he is given the choice as to whether or not to eat the fruit he decides to do so, out of true love for his other half. I believe that Milton uses this as a way of displaying the moral lesson that a woman should listen to her husband and obey him, through using the garden of Eden setting which clearly has the most tragic ending, as the fall of mankind doesn’t get much more tragic, I believe that the moral lesson become much more obvious and has much more of an impact on those that read it. However I believe that the moral lessons could have been interpreted and perceived differently to an audience in the time that it was written than a more modern audienc