This was composed in 2014.
PARADISE LOST & THE BOOK OF GENESIS
- Venus Anand
John Milton was an eighteenth century English poet who gained fame for his
masterpiece 'Paradise Lost'. Despite being a blind person he went on to
compose 'Paradise Lost' which was first published in 1667. Milton's work is
very much in contact with the Holy Bible. The epic dramatises stories from the
Bible. Phrases and images from the Bible are everywhere in both his poetry
and his prose. Paradise Lost is about Adam and Eve. How they come to be
created and how they come to lose their place in the Garden of Eden, also
called Paradise. It's the same story we find in the book of Genesis, expanded
by Milton into a very long, detailed, narrative poem. It also includes the story
of the origin of Satan, originally called Lucifer, an angel in heaven who leads
his followers in a war against God, and was ultimately sent with them to hell.
Thirst for revenge led him to cause man͛s downfall by turning into a serpent
and tempting Eve to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge.
The beginning of Paradise Lost is similar in gravity and seriousness to the book
from which Milton takes much of his story - the Book of Genesis, the first
book of the Bible. The Bible begins with the story of the world's creation, and
Milton's epic begins in a similar vein, suggesting the creation of the world by
the Holy Spirit. Milton coined his very own word within the book. Milton
invokes his muse, which is actually the Holy Spirit rather than one of the nine
muses. In the first place, an invocation of the muse at the beginning of an epic
is conventional, so Milton is acknowledging his awareness of Homer, Virgil,
etc. and signalling that he wishes to master their format and wants to be part
of their tradition. But by identifying his muse as the divine spirit that inspired
the Bible and created the world, he shows that his ambitions go far beyond
joining the club of Homer and Virgil. Milton's differential account of the Book
of Genesis is the way that he focuses on the freedom that God gives to man.
God creates them "free to fall," and this is something that is shown to be
essential to their very nature. They must be able to defy God if their
relationship with him is to mean anything at all. Milton therefore majors much
more heavily on the whole aspect of 'freewill'.
In Paradise Lost, the characters are portrayed differently in a negative sense.
Adam and Eve were to be created equal in God's eyes, but this is not
demonstrated in Paradise Lost. After gaining the fact that she was created
from the flesh of Adam, i.e. Adam was created first, she started to consider
herself somewhat inferior to Adam. The epic gives Eve more reasons for being
tempted into eating the fruit from the forbidden tree. Eve is also given a more
submissive and ductile image in Paradise Lost. The qualities she attains
basically sets up the stage for her to be the one that can be easily tempted by
the Devil. However, Eve is still innocent and has yet to discover her fall. Milton
is already attributing negative qualities to Eve, which makes her "flawed" in a
sense whereas Adam is not. While Adam and Eve are asleep, Satan notices the
vulnerability and innocent qualities of Eve, and tempts her in dream. Milton
parallels the Fall of Man with the fall of Satan and his minions. Both of them
disobeyed God. This disobedience brought 'sin', 'death' to Earth and
elimination of Lucifer from heaven, respectively.
Lucifer rebelled against God and formed a faction, despite knowing that God
loved him. He urged for being 'King of the hell' rather than be a 'servant in
heaven'. After the defeat, he finds himself defeated and banished from
heaven, and sets about establishing a new course for himself and his
followers. Plot-wise speaking, in an epic, the hero or protagonist is a person
who struggles to accomplish something that he has aimed. Milton plays with
our expectations by composing, starting of the Paradise Lost, about the
antagonist rather than the protagonist. But as and when the focus starts to
shift towards Adam and Eve, Satan remains the most active force in the story.
As for few last words, Genesis is the foundation upon which the rest of
scripture is built. Genesis contains more history and covers more of a time
period than the rest of scripture combined. Genesis contains the first promise
of a Saviour. Finally, the Bible closes with a warning to those who would
change it. Therefore, Paradise Lost is just an attempt, only an attempt.
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