Books IX and X of John Milton's Paradise Lost

Books IX and X of John Milton's Paradise Lost tell of the Fall from Paradise and the judgment rendered on the humanity thereafter. This section contains important thematic developments expressing the fate of humanity in the titanic struggle in Heaven, as noted by A.J.A. Waldock in considering who might be considered the hero of the epic poem:

But again, Man is Adam; his fate is that of all his progeny; should we not say, then, that the true hero of the poem is the Human Race? (Waldock 1-2).

For many critics, though, the hero of the work is an unconventional one, Satan, and the primary opponent Satan faces in Books IX and X is not Adam but Eve. The poem as a whole has been written by Milton to justify the ways of God to man, yet the "hero" of the piece is considered to be Satan, the most powerful figure in the poem and the central intelligence for most of it. Adam and Eve are pawns in his challenge to the power of God, and the subject of the Fall is a central issue in the poem. Eve has long been considered the dupe whom Satan seduced into eating of the tree of knowledge in direct contravention of God's orders, and this original sin would doom their ancestors to death and to expiation for that sin for all time. Yet, it is possible still to see Eve as one of the major ethical protagonists in the poem even though she succumbs to this particular moral lapse, and an examination of her role can be one way to approach the poem and explicate its meaning. She is a different

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). Eve, however, is seen by many critics as more alive and more real as a human being after the Fall: Milton's triumph in what follows is, of course, the delineation of Eve. It is like watching some magic transformation; the Fall transmutes her into a woman, a person; one by one the human lineaments are etched in before our eyes (Waldock 62). Contrast some of the behaviors of Adam with those of Eve after the fall. Adam has been said to be superior to Eve in all important ways. He represents reason and is much more intelligent than she. He is brave where she is not. He is strong where she is weak. Milton's Adam is not as quick-witted as such a description might indicate, and often his deductions are unreliable. He argues with Eve, and she often bests him, confusing him so that he does not know what to say. While he is said to be formed for valor, when the opportunity for him to be brave arrives, he fails. When the Son comes to judge him in the Garden, he tries to shift all the blame to Eve so she will be punished and he will be spared. He had earlier stated that he would be brave when she was watching, but now he has shown himself to be otherwise. Eve, on the other hand, does not try to blame Adam or to shift the p

Category: Literature - B