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Thinking activity on "Paradise Lost" Book- IX




"Paradise Lost" is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th century English poet John Milton. It's written in 12 books. The idea of this book comes from the story of creation. Book - IX is a climax of the story of Paradise Lost. The first version published in 1667, consisted of 10 books with over 10 thousands lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, arrange into 12 books.

The poem concern the biblical story of Fall of Man, the temptation of Adam & Eve by the fallen angel Satan & their expulsion from the Garden od Eden.

1. Write a critique on the character of Eve.
In the Western world, the fall of humankind from the Garden of Eden is the foundational story of creation. In the 17th century, John Milton rewrites the story of creation in epic form to flesh out the characters & actions leading to the fall.

Throughout the epic poem, Milton shows Eve's progression from an independent woman to a dependent woman to show that women are not born submissive.
Milton's revision of the biblical Eve changes the character from static in the Bible to dynamic in Paradise Lost.
Even becomes more than just the mother of mankind & Adam's wife in Paradise Lost.

Indeed, Milton repositions Eve as a complex woman. She is no longer merely the woman who falls prey to Satan's seduction in the Bibal.

Eve, as described by Milton is also Adam's equal. God says to Adam , "And they shall be, one flesh, one heart, one soul " suggests that Eve is not inferior to Adam upon creation, she is actually equal to him for she is made from the same flesh as he.

As Eve rationalizes her decision in Paradise Lost. She wishes to acquire knowledge & it is her "want" that drives her to believe that she was making the right decision.



2. Whose arguments did you find more convincing? If you are in the place of Adam , Eve & Satan , How would you argue? What will be your logic? 
In the book - IX of Paradise Lost ....I found that Satan's arguments was more convincing than Adam & Eve because Satan who is the most powerful speaker in Paradise Lost is the leader of the fallen angels,  Satan.

Satan, who wa once one of God's principal angels rebels against God because God has given precedence to Christ & Satan's anger takes the form of a rebellion in which he convinces a substantial number of other angels to join him.

Satan's motivational skills are stunningly good , so good in fact, that Milton ultimately takes them away in Book- X, but at the beginning of the struggle between God & Satan is depicted as strong, proud, articulate & intelligent.

Satan's soliloquy & all arguments are good & knowledge is good because knowing what is good & evil makes it easier to do what is good wrongfully assumes that knowledge is always good.

This flow in his argument is the theological thrust of this book; though the intellect is powerful & obeying God is a higher priority than feeding the intellect.

So to conclude this question I only wants to say that Satan is more powerful in the whole epic because he persuades Eve to sin paints an unflattering portrayal of woman.
And further wants to add that if Satan didn't succeed to tempt or seduce Eve than this whole scenario didn't happened ever.

3. How do you look at divine perspective in the Genesis of The Holy Bible & human perspective in John Milton's Paradise Lost Book- IX ?
Before the Renaissance & Reformation, there was a God-centric world & people had a blind faith in God. But after the Renaissance & Reformation God-centric world was replaced with human centric one. All the stories in scriptures which were earlier told from devine perceptive, now all were retold from human perspective & human was at the center of Universe.

In "Genesis" the 'fall' is narrated from God's perspective. Obviously, God is the center in Bible. The characters od Adam & Eve are flat, lifeless & mere puppet in Bible.They don't have any emotion or feeling or voice.

Well, the entire story of Genisis is quite obviously, God-centric. It is narrated from divine perspective. It does not take care of Adam or Eve or Serpent's perspective.

When we come to John Milton's "Paradise Lost" Book-IX, We realize that some story is told from Human perspective, seemingly it tries to justify ways of God to man, whereas in reality it retells the story from Human perspective.

Thank-you.

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