Comus and Paradise Lost
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In Comus and in Paradise Lost Milton created two arguing, flattering demons who attempt to seduce two women. In one case the tempter wins, in the other case the woman triumphs. The difference in outcomes occurs despite the fact that Satan and Comus use very similar arguments to achieve their ends. The two cases are predetermined. There is little suspense about whether the Lady will succumb to Comus and, although Milton creates a literary type of suspense in Paradise Lost, there is certainly no question about Eve eating the forbidden fruit. The question of why one is successful and the other is not does not depend on the abilities of Comus or Satan, however, but on what it is they have to offer and the resources of the women with whom they argue. The Lady in Comus has a clear sense of sin and its meaning. Eve's sense of this is far less certain. In addition, the Lady aspires toward a positive virtue that comes from within herself while Eve is obeying (or disobeying) a prohibition and is not acting out of inner strength. The similarity between the two encounters includes the first reactions of the two tempters. Both are impressed by the great beauty of their intended victims. But they are surprised for different reasons. Satan arriving in the Garden of Paradise is like "one who long in populous City pent" (445) escapes to the fresh air of the country. When he sees Eve her smallest actions "overaw'd / His Malice, and with rapine sweet bereav'd / His fierceness of t
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she can stand on: "Fool, do not boast, / Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind" (662-3). It might seem like the lack of pretense on Comus' part destroys his argument. The essential point is made immediately by the Lady and Comus' arguments, as it turns out, do entirely relate to the pleasures of "this corporal rind" (664).
The offer of knowledge to be gained from the forbidden fruit intrigues Eve but the temptations of Comus never interest the Lady in the least. The former is completely innocent and unprepared, the latter simply despises her captor and would not even answer Comus "but that this Juggler / Would think to charm my judgment, as mine eyes" (757-8). Adam and Eve only have one command from God and for everything else "Reason is our law" (654). But the words of Satan are "impregn'd / With reason, to her seeming" and she is persuaded (737-8).
Both tempters work with flattery to ensure the women's attention and to inflate their vanity in order to give them grounds to be offended, in Eve's case by the prohibition and in the Lady's case by the general idea that she is being thwarted. This idea plays to Eve's already existing desire for the fruit -- a desire that exists simply on the basis of its appeal -- and
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Satan Eve, Satan Eve's, Garden Paradise, Adam Eve, Wherefore Nature, Lady Comus, Lady Eve, Queen Universe, Satan Gods, Lady Comus', intended victims, lady comus, eat fruit, forbidden fruit, paradise lost, comus' arguments, allowed fall,
Approximate Word count = 1551
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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