CHOICE After they have felt the first consequences of the Fall, and as one of its consequences, Adam and Eve fall to blaming one another for their Sin, and justifying their own part in it. But Milton has repeatedly stressed that their sin lies in the simple fact that they allowed themselves to be seduced into doing what they had been told not to by God. They are seduced from a state in which they refer everything to God, into one in which they prefer their personal judgment - the supposed knowledge of good and evil. The eating of the fruit does not, itself, work the magic, and Milton only writes as if it does, because eating represents the the moment at which their respective sin becomes irrevocable. This is the moment at which Adam and Eve, do indeed, become as gods in their assumption of judgment as to what is good and what is evil. That the assumption of judgment is not proper to them, the event shows. The crucial thing is that both Eve and Adam exercise their reason on the facts as they believe them to be, but that their knowledge of the facts is imperfect. In Eves case, this is because she actually believes what the Serpent tells her. At PL IX,762-772 she says: …In the day we eat Of this fair fruit, our doom is, we shall dies How dies the serpent? He hath eaten and lives And knows, and speaks, and reasons and discerns, Irrational till then. For us denied This intellectual food, for beasts reserved? For beasts it seems; yet that one beast which first Hath tasted, envies not, but brings with joy The good befallen him, author unsuspected, Friendly to man, far from deceit or guile And the reader knows, because he has been told, that this is wrong in every point - the Serpent, has not eaten; it is not the serpent that knows and speaks and reasons and discerns - for it is not the serpent that does these things, but Satan who has possessed it, and Satan does indeed envy; he brings not good, but evil; and not in joy, but in hatred; he is not an author unsuspected, but an untrustworthy liar; he is not friendly to man, far from deceit or guile, but bitterly hostile and utterly bent on encompassing mans ruin. In Adams case, the seduction springs from preferring created Eve, to her Creator, God. Raphael has already warned him expressly as to his vulnerability on this score (PL VIII 5.60-594), but Adam does not regard it. Whereas Eves rational expositions are vitiated by her ignorance of existing facts, Adams are vitiated by his self-willed presumptions about the likely future. He sees at once that Eve has been deceived (PL IX, 904-905), but then goes on to speculate that perhaps the consequences will not be as dire as were foretold, because the Serpent (PL, IX, 933-948): Lives, as thou saidst, and gains to live as man Higher degree of life, inducement strong To us, as likely tasting to attain Proportional ascent which cannot be But to be gods, or angels demigods. Nor can I think that God, creator wise, Though threatening, will in earnest so destroy Us his prime creatures, dignified so high, Set over all his works, which in our fall, For us created, needs with us must fail Dependent made; so God shall uncreate, Be frustrate, do, undo, and labour loose, Not well conceived of God, who though his power Creation could repeat, yet would be loathe Us to abolish, lest the adversary Triumph… Adams speculations as to the effects of disobedience are as delusive as Eves. First, his speculation as to the elevation of man to higher station (whether or not sanctioned by God), are, like Eves, based on a misapprehension of the Serpents true state; for the Serpent has not gained to live as man, but is merely a dumb reptile possessed by the spirit of evil; second, his speculation as to Gods likely actions in relation to his Creation are presumptuous, for they assume that God both thinks as Adam might think were Adam God; and further assume that God will be motivated to act as Adam might be motivated to act if Adam were God. In each case, Miltons aim is to show how Mans reason is completely limited first, by the facts which it has, or has not, at its command; and secondly, by the limited nature of its presuppositions. The reason why only Gods judgments are to be trusted, is because only God knows the full facts, so that obedience to God is not simply what is due to Him as God, but in our interests as being unquestionably in our best interests. The partial knowledge of the facts, as interpreted by our own judgment, leads us to the apprehension of good and evil, but evil we would not know in any case where our own judgment was in harmony with that of God. For how should the thing created know its intended use better than its Creator what was intended for it, or speculate as to the sphere in which it is designed most harmoniously to revolve?
Posted on: Fri, 15 Nov 2013 08:02:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015