John Adams

John Adams

Paradise Lost: Analysis of Adam's fall

Paradise Lost Analysis: The Fall of Adam

Closing reading of passage from Book IX (Lines 896-959)

The following “focal passage” from Paradise Lost is the center of my thesis: that Adam’s fall was due to the corruption of his reasoning abilities. The source of his corruption was Eve, whose beauty and grace coaxed Adam into tasting the forbidden fruit. Make no mistake however; Eve is not the cause by which Adam falls. Eve’s fall is separate and of different circumstances. Adam’s error is entirely his own; he chose to neglect his judgment and he chose to be subjugated by the whims of Eve. It is not easily comprehended, but consider the following analogy: if John tells Mike to steal a cookie, the fact that Mike was told to steal does not justify that he stole. Mike should use his reason to know that stealing is wrong. This same concept applies for Adam. In the following passage, Adam tries to justify an evil he will commit. His reason becomes flawed and that is why he falls.

O fairest of creation, last and best
Of all God's works, creature in whom excelled
Whatever can to sight or thought be formed
Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet!
How art thou lost, how on a sudden lost,                     [900]

Defaced, deflowered, and now to death devote!
Rather, how hast thou yielded to transgress
The strict forbiddance, how to violate
The sacred fruit forbidden! Some cursed fraud
Of enemy hath beguiled thee, yet unknown,                [905]

And me with thee hath ruined, for with thee,
Certain my resolution is to die.
How can I live without thee! how forego
Thy sweet converse, and love so dearly joined,
To live again in these wild woods forlorn!                  [910]

Should God create another Eve, and I
Another rib afford, yet loss of thee
Would never from my heart: no, no! I feel
The link of nature draw me; flesh of flesh,
Bone of my bone thou art, and from thy state               [915]
Mine never shall be parted, bliss or woe."

So having said, as one from sad dismay

Recomforted, and after thoughts disturbed

Submitting to what seemed remediless,

Thus in calm mood his words to Eve he turned:           [920]

"Bold deed thou hast presumed, adventurous Eve,
And peril great provoked, who thus hath dared,
Had it been only coveting, to eye
That sacred fruit, sacred to abstinence,
Much more to taste it under ban to touch.                     [925]

But past who can recall, or done undo?
Not God omnipotent, nor Fate; yet so
Perhaps thou shalt not die, perhaps the fact
Is not so heinous now, foretasted fruit,
Profaned first by the serpent, by him first                      [930]

Made common and unhallowed ere our taste,
Nor yet on him found deadly; he yet lives,
Lives, as thou said'st, and gains to live as man,
Higher degree of life ; inducement strong
To us, as likely tasting to attain                                      [935]

Proportional ascent, which cannot be
But to be gods, or angels demi-gods.
Nor can I think that God, Creator wise,
Though threatening, will in earnest so destroy
Us his prime creatures, dignified so high,                      [940]

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 labor loose ;
Not well conceived of God, who, though his power      [945]

Creation could repeat, yet would be loath

Us to abolish, lest the Adversary

Triumph and say, ' Fickle their state whom God

Most favors; who can please him long? Me first

He ruined, now mankind; whom will he next? '            [950]

Matter of scorn, not to be given the foe.

However, I with thee have fixed my lot,

Certain to undergo like doom; if death

Consort with thee, death is to me as life;

So forcible within my heart I feel                                   [955]

The bond of nature draw me to my own;

My own in thee, for what thou art is mine:

Our state cannot be severed, we are one.

One flesh ; to lose thee were to lose myself.

In this passage, Adam speaks to Eve after she has eaten the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge. He begins by recalling to her the angelic and divine traits that caused him to feel passionate for her: “holy, divine, good, amiable, and sweet”. Adam is taken aback by what she has done and acknowledges her act as a “devotion” to “death”. From this moment on, Adam deteriorates in his logic. He convinces himself of an inseparable bond to Eve and fails to acknowledge his bond to God. Twice in his speech, Adam uses the word “nature” (in lines 914 and 956) to describe the strength by which he is bound to Eve. This, however, is illogical because God himself is nature. Adam goes on to make false justifications as to why it was “ok” to eat the fruit and to the inevitability of events. One preposterous allegation of self denial he makes is reducing Eve’s transgression as a petty act. “Perhaps the fact is not so heinous now, foretasted fruit, profaned first by the serpent”, he says, even going so far as to imply there may be a chance of “proportional ascent” for him and Eve.

The moment at which Adam falls is when he acknowledged that Eve had transgressed the boundaries of God and yet (he) chose to transgress those boundaries with her. The term “fall” (in this case) is categorized by Adam’s entry into a depraved state: a state in which his reason is flawed. Starting with the creation of Eve, there are a series of events that lead to the corruption of Adam’s fall. He is slowly tipped to the point at which he becomes degenerate enough to consume the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge. His passion for Eve causes him to feel “bound” to her whims. “I with thee have fixed my lot”, he says to Eve as another form of false justification for his impending sin. He uses additional phrases such as, “so forcible within my heart” to reinforce the feeling of being trapped and helpless despite God having gave him the free will to choose his own actions.

Adam’s passion for Eve is thus the cause of his progressive downward spiral towards corruption. His first spiritual attraction to her stems from the fact that she was created from his rib. “[flesh and bone] to have thee being I lent out of my side to thee, nearest my heart, substantial life…” (4.483-485). He thus felt a strong presence of himself in Eve that was demonstrated by his immediate love for her. The problem occurred however when Adam’s love turned into passion, two emotions (love and passion) that are distinguished by the angel Rafael. “In loving thou dost well; in passion not, wherein true Love consist not. Love refines the thoughts, and heart enlarges-hath his seat in reason…” (8.588-591). The difference between love and passion is that the former “refines” reason while the latter corrupts it. Adam’s description of Eve to Rafael suggests that he feels a mixture of love and passion for Eve. In describing her, he says,

“Her loveliness, so absolute she seems

and in herself complete, so well to know

her own, that what she wills to do or say

seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best.

All higher Knowledge in her presence falls

Degraded; Wisdom in discourse with her loses”

(8.447-452).

Here Adam acknowledges that his passion for Eve subjugates his own knowledge. He feels that this passion surpasses his own willpower and wonders if he was made strong enough to resist any temptation that Eve may offer. He, however, is reprimanded by Rafael who says, “Do thou but thine! And be not diffident of wisdom” (8.562-563). Rafael emphasizes that despite Adam’s desire for a graceful, elegant, and divine Eve, he is to remain the dominant judiciary power, free of passion-driven sentiment.

Adam acknowledges the boundaries and the rules that have been instilled in him. Even before his conversation with Rafael, he knows what is reasonable and what is not: logical from illogical. He clearly understood his sole commandment: to not eat from the tree of knowledge. “This one, easy charge-of all trees in paradise that bear delicious fruit so various, not to taste that only Tree...let us not think hard about one easy prohibition” (4.420-433). It is thus clear not only that passion causes Adam to fall, but also Adam was conscious of his fatal error: to let Eve coax him into eating the fruit. The first part of this error is when Adam let Eve go into the forest by herself to collect fruit despite rationalizing it best to stay with Eve. Here is an instant where love is transformed into passion and passion leads to bad judgment. Eve argues that Adam refuses to let Eve go into the forest by herself because he does not trust her own ability to reason, to which Adam responds, “not then mistrust, but tender love, enjoins that I should mind thee oft; and mind thou me.” (9.367-368). Adam loves Eve and clearly wants to protect her from the dangers of a skeptical forest. This example relates perfectly to Rafael’s definition of love: something that “refines thought” and leads to good reason. Quickly turned awry, Adam decides to let Eve venture by herself. How, after all, could Adam possibly deny Eve this simple request, even if it contradicts his own reason? It is the first direct act that leads to his own fall.

This having been said, we may look towards the end of the center paragraph and observe Adam’s flawed reasoning. Adam can no longer see a solution to his circumstance. His predicament seems “certain to undergo like doom”: trapped and hopeless. All he can see is Eve for he and she cannot be “severed from each other”. He chooses to remain by her side whether it is with “bliss or woe”, and he chooses to leave God, so what is flawed in is reason is that he does have a choice, and his passion for Eve corrupts his ability to comprehend this. He is not trapped, but in his own mind he feels that way, eternally bound to Eve and separate from God. “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a hell of Heaven” (1.254-255). This is what Adam does to himself; his depraved state of mine causes him to bring hell upon himself (and his ancestors). He creates the illusion that he is “trapped”. Nonetheless, Adam acknowledges Eve’s transgression as a sin, yet performs the same sin because passion clouds his judgment.

About the Author

What is a good slogan idea for President John Quincy Adams?

I have to make a campain poster for John Quincy Adams (John Adams son) and, well, he was boring. I have nothing for him. If you come up with an idea for a slogan or anything else related to a campagin poster, please tell me!
Thanks.

Catch the John Q. Magic
I'm Presenting my 5 Slaves 3 Votes for John Quincy Adams!
My Father was a Statesman [Jackson's] father was a drunk!
Sensibilities and Morals
Rachel Jackson is a Bigamist! (note this was a real smear campaign during the election)
Can we really afford a new party? (in reference to the new democratic party Jackson represented)
Read my lips! NO ELECTORAL SCANDALS!!! (your teacher may get a kick out of this as the only thing interesting about J.Q. Adams presidency was the electoral scandal, and it's a direct reference to George Bush seniors election campaign; a promise he could not keep)

hope any one of these can help

John Adams Theme Song (HBO Intro)