Paradise Lost Book - IX by John Milton

PARADISE LOST BOOK – IX

                             -John Milton

                   Paradise Lost is about Adam and Eve's loss of Paradise; their eating of the Forbidden Fruit has often been called the "fall" (as in, "fall from innocence" or "fall from grace"), so it's no surprise that images of falling occur throughout the poem. The first characters we meet – Satan and his legions – are newly fallen, both morally (they disobeyed God and attempted to overthrow him) and literally (in Book 6 they actually fall out of Heaven and into Hell). Satan's first words to his legions are: "Awake, arise, or be forever fallen." To be fallen, in this poem, is to have sinned, or to have disobeyed God.

                   It is important to note that in this poem people make themselves fall; there is no "fate" or other force that causes Adam, Eve, Satan, and the rebel angels to fall. Thus, in Book 3 God says that he created Adam "Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall" (3.95-96, our emphasis). And in Book 6, God doesn't push Satan and his legions out of Heaven. They actually throw themselves out of Heaven. Let's repeat that: God doesn't throw them out, they throw themselves out! In Milton's words: "headlong themselves they threw/ Down from the verge of Heav'n" (6.864-865).

                   In addition to these two falls, Milton also uses a number of other connected images. Now, an object that has fallen is no longer standing; it is no longer upright. In Book 11, Michael tells Adam that "man's woe" begins with "man's effeminate slackness". Michael implies here that Adam was effeminately "slack" when he listened to Eve and ate the fruit. In other words, he implies that Adam was like a woman, not a man (it is hard not to associate "slackness" with something that is supposed to be hard but is not – wink, wink). Just remember that "slackness" is associated with something going limp, with not being a 'real' man, with the Fall, and with a general lapse in judgment.

                   Paradise Lost is about Adam and Eve's fall, the original sin! So it's no surprise that sin is a prominent theme in the poem. Don't forget that we also learn a lot about Satan's major sin (he tried to overthrow God) and a lot about the sins that Adam's descendants will commit. Oh, and Milton constantly reminds us of our sins, or rather of the fact that we are sinners in a fallen world. Fate and free will are major topics in Paradise Lost. God reveals that he knows what will happen to Adam and Eve, but resolutely denies that there is any such thing as fate. Huh? God knows what will happen (that Adam and Eve will disobey him) just like we know the sun will rise tomorrow. So it might seem sometimes like Adam and Eve never had a chance, but according to Milton, that's just not true. After all, it's not God's fault that he can see everything that will happen as if it has already happened!

                   Paradise Lost takes place almost exclusively in a time and place when death, sin, and lying didn't exist. In other words, it deals with a time when humanity was still innocent. While Milton is very good at painting a picture of innocence, he realizes and reflects on the difficulty of attempting to describe something as alien as a deathless, sinless existence. Satan is the ultimate trickster. He flat out lies to Eve, telling her the Forbidden Fruit has powers that it doesn't. Beyond that, however, he is somehow able to convince a third of the angels that God is unjust and that they should rebel. You've got to be pretty good at lying and deceiving people to convince them to risk losing Heaven.