Paradise Lost Essay, Research Paper

In John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost , the issue of who is to blame for the fall of man is one that is widely discussed and argued. Since Eve is the one who acts on her own to eat from the Tree of Knowledge as she says To satisfy the sharp desire I had / Of tasting those faire apples, I resolved / Not to defer; hunger and thirst at once (538-541), she is usually thought to be solely to blame. When everything is sorted out later in the story, it becomes clear that Adam and Eve were equally at fault for their actions.

Adam knows the dangers that eating from the Tree of Knowledge would bring, so Adam is faced with a problem. The problem is that Eve wants to split up for the day saying Alone, without exterior help sustained? Let us not then suspect our happy state / Left so imperfect by the Maker wise / As not secure to single or combined. / Frail is our happiness, if this be so (290-296) and Adam knows that this is a bad idea, particularly after the dream that she has described to him. They argue at great length, but in the end Adam allows Eve to do as she wishes even though he knows she is making a very bad decision. Adam also knows that his ability to reason is inherently stronger than Eve’s, yet in his love for her is so strong that consents to her will. This yielding is very similar to Eve s yielding to the serpent s deception because Adam is aware of the probable outcome of this decision. In his final plea for her to remain committed he says to Eve:

O woman, best are all things as well Of God ordained them; his creating hand Nothing imperfect of deficient left Of all he had created, much less man, Or aught that might his happy state secure, Secure with outward force. Within himself the danger lies, yet lies within his power; Against his will he can receive no harm. But God left free the will, for what obeys Reason is free, and reason he made right, But bid her well, and still erect, Lest by some by fair appearing good surprised, She dictate false and misinform the will To what God expressly hath forbid (296-308).

In this long speech Adam is pleading with Eve to see that it is a terrible idea for her to venture out into the garden alone in the mist of such impending danger. It is as though he is giving her a speech before he sends her out to battle. Battle is precisely what she walks into, and Adam is clearly aware that this is going to happen. Satan hoped to get Eve alone, He sought them both, but wished his hap / might find / Eve separate; (371-375) because of his certainty that she is weaker than Adam, and would be easier to persuade to consume the fruit. It is his decision to yield to Eve that makes him as much to blame for the fall as Eve is for trusting the serpent and falling into temptation. After Eve has been corrupted she is faced with a decision of what to do about Adam. She decides to convince him to eat the apple as well so that they will share whatever punishment that they will have coming to them. Adam knows that eating the apple is very wrong, but he does so anyway because his love for Eve is so strong will not let her suffer punishment alone. This being his decision, he eats the apple and thus disobeys the word of God and contradicts every thing he has been telling Eve that they must believe in.

Arguments that Eve is solely to blame often come up simply because she is the one who ate the fruit. It s much like the laws being conceived present day which place the parents of children in jail if the child breaks a law, even if the parents told their child not to do the act because the courts feels that they must have not done everything they could have in their power to stop it. Satan appealing to her vanity also may have caused her to eat the fruit as he bowed / His turret crest, and sleek enameled neck, / Fawning, and licked the ground whereon / she trod (477-480). Also, Eve knew the danger eating from the tree would bring, yet she still broke down. She told the serpent Of each tree in the garden we may eat, / But of the fruit of this fair tree amidst / The garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat / Thereof, nor shall ye tough it, lest ye die (612-616).

Adam knew what would happen if Eve went off alone but said With thy permission then, and thus forewarned, / Chiefly by what thy own last reasoning words / Touched only, that our trial, when least sought, / May find us both perhaps far less prepared, /The willinger I go, nor much expect / A foe so proud will first the weaker seek; / So bent, the more shall shame him his repulse (330-337). After the deed is done, they fall into a terrible argument of who is to blame, but the reality is that the two of them are equally at fault for the fall of man, because either could have prevented it if they had obeyed the will of God.

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