Friday, September 27, 2013
Satan
For my blog post on Book IX of Paradise Lost, I want to focus on Satan just before he attempts to tempt Eve to eat the fruit. For a brief moment, we see that Satan somewhat withdraws from his hatred and evil when he is gazes upon Eve. "From his own evil, and for the time remained stupidly good," (463-464). We've only seen Satan in this text as evil, this was shocking to me to see the ruler of Hell forget all of his vain thought for only a moment because he saw an innocent beautiful lady. This was also the first human he had ever seen before, so it makes me wonder would this happen to other humans he saw? Could this be evidence that he has not completely let go of his good side that he held in heaven? My guess is probably not, as we see he uses her beauty as a way to entice her and trick her. "Thee all living things gaze on, all things thine by gift, and thy celestial beauty adore with ravishment beheld," (539-541). We see here that he is taking his thoughts that he had when he forgot his evil ways for a brief moment, and using them as a tool to get Eve to trust him.
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I found the part when Satan withdraws in that moment a crucial part of the story because it is a pausing point where the plot can go either way. In that moment I truly felt good and evil was placed upon him and Eve where heaven was an option but they both chose to be dammed in hell. As long as Satan remembering what it was to be good I feel it exists but only briefly as the climax of the story falls when Eve eats the apple anyway and Satan is pleased by this. I agree that his false kindness he shows to Eve leads to tricky in overall leads her to follow him into hell.
ReplyDeleteOn the next page of the text Satan talks about how much more horrible of an experience resisting the temptation of Eve is because she is not made for him. This suggests that he physically could not harm her. The same can be said when he first finds Adam and Eve sleeping in the garden. He is clearly capable of killing them, but chooses not to. Does this suggest an understood barrier to direct contact with humans? Maybe the gift of free will to humans is a form of protection against Satan in regards to this.
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