Thinking Activity on Paradise Lost

         

              Paradise lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th - century English poet John Milton (1608 - 1674). The first  version  published in 1667, consisted of ten books. A second  edition followed  in 1674, arranged into twelve books.It is considered  by critics to be Milton's major work. The poem concerns the biblical story of the fall of Man,  the temptation of adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion  from the garden of Eden .Milton's purpose, stated in Book 9, is to "justify the ways of God to men".                                                         

 (1) write a critique on the character  of Eve. 

Along with Satan, Eve is the most important character in paradise lost, it is her idea to separate from Adam and she is the one who first eats the forbidden fruit and then convinces Adam to eat it. Eve ate first, but Adam also ate the fruit ,for his own reasons. The thing to keep in mind then is that Eve isn't always as bad or stupid as she seems or as she is portrayed. Milton has portrayed weakness of women through the character of Eve. Milton has portrayed Eve weaker than Adam. She easily tempted by Satan. 

(2) whose argument did you find more convincing? 

In Milton's paradise lost book 9, I find three characters more lively. 

• Eve 

• Adam

• satan

According to my view Adam's argument is more convincing, because Eve is easily tempted by Satan than Adam. We find Eve's character as weaker than Adam .So Satan decides to tempt or deceipt her than Adam. Satan find that Eve is better for his aim than Adam. When Eve tell Adam that they can do more work if they work separately, Adam knows what Eve is more likely to be tricked by Satan so, he argues against separation. Always Adam shows the proper respect and relationship in graceful speech and manners.                                                   

                After when Eve comes to Adam

and force him to eat fruit at that time also Adam makes arguments with Eve.But then Adam becomes emotional with her charm and eats the fruit of the tree of knowledge because he bear to be without Eve. 

(3) How do you look at divine perspective in the Genesis of the holy Bible and human perspective in John Milton's paradise lost book 9 ?

In holy book Bible we find God centric world. God was at the center and all human beings as like puppet. We can see that everything is done by God. Bible represents God's lively character. We find that due to God's creation of forbidden tree "Fall of Man happens "

But in Genesis, that God  created Man in his own image, in the image of God he created him male and female. We find in Milton's paradise lost human as the central character of world .He has not presented God as a central character. Milton is a human being and as a poet Wrote human perspective. In Bible we find divine perspective is prominent while in paradise lost " Human perspective " is principle than divine perspective .                                           

Thank you..........