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They have passions and distinct personalities. Satan, disguised in the form of a serpent, successfully tempts Eve to eat from the Tree by preying on her vanity and tricking her with rhetoric. Adam, learning that Eve has sinned, knowingly commits the same sin. He declares to Eve that since she was made from his flesh, they are bound to one another — if she dies, he must also die.
In this manner, Milton portrays Adam as a heroic figure, but also as a greater sinner than Eve, as he is aware that what he is doing is wrong. After eating the fruit, Adam and Eve have lustful sex. At first, Adam is convinced that Eve was right in thinking that eating the fruit would be beneficial. However, they soon fall asleep and have terrible nightmares, and after they awake, they experience guilt and shame for the first time.
Realizing that they have committed a terrible act against God, they engage in mutual recrimination. Meanwhile, Satan returns triumphantly to Hell, amidst the praise of his fellow fallen angels. He tells them about how their scheme worked and Mankind has fallen, giving them complete dominion over Paradise. As he finishes his speech, however, the fallen angels around him become hideous snakes, and soon enough, Satan himself turned into a snake, deprived of limbs and unable to talk.
Thus, they share the same punishment, as they shared the same guilt. Eve appeals to Adam for reconciliation of their actions. Her encouragement enables them to approach God, and sue for grace, bowing on suppliant knee, to receive forgiveness. In a vision shown to him by the angel Michael , Adam witnesses everything that will happen to Mankind until the Great Flood. Adam is very upset by this vision of the future, so Michael also tells him about Mankind's potential redemption from original sin through Jesus Christ whom Michael calls "King Messiah".
Adam and Eve are cast out of Eden, and Michael says that Adam may find "a paradise within thee, happier far". Adam and Eve also now have a more distant relationship with God, who is omnipresent but invisible unlike the tangible Father in the Garden of Eden. Satan , formerly called Lucifer , is the first major character introduced in the poem. He was once the most beautiful of all angels, and is a tragic figure who famously declares: Satan's desire to rebel against his creator stems from his unwillingness to be subjugated by God and his Son, claiming that angels are "self-begot, self-raised," [13] and thereby denying God's authority over them as their creator.
Satan is deeply arrogant, albeit powerful and charismatic. He argues that God rules as a tyrant and that all the angels ought to rule as gods. According to William McCollom, one quality of the classical tragic hero is that he is not perfectly good and that his defeat is caused by a tragic flaw, as Satan causes both the downfall of man and the eternal damnation of his fellow fallen angels despite his dedication to his comrades. In addition, Satan's Hellenic qualities, such as his immense courage and, perhaps, lack of completely defined morals compound his tragic nature. Satan's status as a protagonist in the epic poem is debated.
Milton characterizes him as such, but Satan lacks several key traits that would otherwise make him the definitive protagonist in the work.
One deciding factor that insinuates his role as the protagonist in the story is that most often a protagonist is heavily characterized and far better described than the other characters, and the way the character is written is meant to make him seem more interesting or special to the reader. By some definitions a protagonist must be able to exist in and of himself or herself and that the secondary characters in the work exist only to further the plot for the protagonist.
Satan's existence in the story involves his rebellion against God and his determination to corrupt the beings he creates in order to perpetuate evil so that there can be a discernable balance and justice for both himself and his fallen angels. Therefore, it is more probable that he exists in order to combat God, making his status as the definitive protagonist of the work relative to each book. Following this logic, Satan may very well be considered as an antagonist in the poem, whereas God could be considered as the protagonist instead.
Satan's status as a traditional hero in the work is similarly up to debate as the term "hero" evokes different meanings depending on the time and the person giving the definition and is thus a matter of contention within the text. According to Aristotle, a hero is someone who is "superhuman, godlike, and divine" but is also human. While Milton gives reason to believe that Satan is superhuman, as he was originally an angel, he is anything but human. Therefore, according to Aristotle's definition of a hero alone, Satan is not a hero.
Torquato Tasso and Francesco Piccolomini expanded on Aristotle's definition and declared that for someone to be considered heroic one has to be perfectly or overly virtuous. Satan goes against God's law and therefore becomes corrupt and lacking of virtue and, as Piccolomini warned, "vice may be mistaken for heroic virtue". Satan achieves this end multiple times throughout the text as he riles up his band of fallen angels during his speech by deliberately telling them to do evil to explain God's hypocrisy and again during his entreaty to Eve.
He makes his intentions seem pure and positive even when they are rooted in evil and, according to Steadman, this is the chief reason that readers often mistake Satan as a hero. Although Satan's army inevitably loses the war against God, Satan achieves a position of power and begins his reign in Hell with his band of loyal followers, composed of fallen angels, which is described to be a "third of heaven".
Satan's characterization as the leader of a failing cause folds into this as well and is best exemplified through his own quote, "to be weak is to be miserable; Doing or Suffering", as through shared solidarity espoused by empowering rhetoric, Satan riles up his comrades in arms and keeps them focused towards their shared goal. As scholar Wayne Rebhorn argues, "Satan insists that he and his fellow revolutionaries held their places by right and even leading him to claim that they were self-created and self-sustained" and thus Satan's position in the rebellion is much like that of his own real world creator.
Adam is the first human being created by God. Finding himself alone, Adam complains and requests a mate from God, who grants his request and creates Eve to be Adam's conjugal companion and helpmate. God appraises Adam and Eve most of all his creations, and appoints them to rule over all the creatures of the world and to reside in the Garden of Eden.
Adam is more gregarious than Eve, and yearns for her company. His complete infatuation with Eve, while pure of itself, eventually contributes to his deciding to join her in disobedience to God. Unlike the biblical Adam, before Milton's Adam leaves Paradise he is given a glimpse of the future of mankind by the Archangel Michael—including a synopsis of stories from the Old and New Testaments. Eve is the second human created by God, who takes one of Adam's ribs and shapes it into a female form of Adam. Not the traditional model of a good wife, Milton's Eve is often unwilling to be submissive towards Adam.
She is the more intelligent of the two and more curious about external ideas than her husband.
Though happy, she longs for knowledge, specifically for self-knowledge. Her first act in existence is to turn away from Adam to look at and ponder her own reflection. Eve is beautiful and though she loves Adam she may feel suffocated by his constant presence. In her solitude, she is tempted by Satan to sin against God by eating of the Tree of Knowledge.
Soon thereafter, Adam follows Eve in support of her act. The Son of God is the spirit who will become incarnate as Jesus Christ , though he is never named explicitly because he has not yet entered human form. Milton believed in a subordinationist doctrine of Christology that regarded the Son as secondary to the Father and as God's "great Vice-regent" 5. The poem is not explicitly anti-trinitarian, but it is consistent with Milton's convictions. The Son is the ultimate hero of the epic and is infinitely powerful—he single-handedly defeats Satan and his followers and drives them into Hell.
He, the Son, volunteers to journey into the World and become a man himself; then he redeems the Fall of Man through his own sacrificial death and resurrection. My overshadowing Spirit and might with thee [ ] I send along, ride forth, and bid the Deep Within appointed bounds be Heav'n and Earth, Boundless the Deep, because I am who fill Infinitude, nor vacuous the space. Though I uncircumscrib'd my self retire, [ ] And put not forth my goodness, which is free To act or not, Necessitie and Chance Approach not mee , and what I will is Fate.
Great triumph and rejoycing was in Heav'n [ ] When such was heard declar'd the Almightie's will; Glorie they sung to the most High, good will To future men, and in thir dwellings peace: Glorie to him whose just avenging ire Had driven out th' ungodly from his sight [ ] And th' habitations of the just ; to him Glorie and praise, whose wisdom had ordain'd Good out of evil to create, in stead Of Spirits maligne a better Race to bring Into thir vacant room , and thence diffuse [ ] His good to Worlds and Ages infinite.
So sang the Hierarchies: About his Chariot numberless were pour'd Cherub and Seraph, Potentates and Thrones, And Vertues , winged Spirits, and Chariots wing'd , From the Armoury of God , where stand of old [ ] Myriads between two brazen Mountains lodg'd Against a solemn day, harnest at hand, Celestial Equipage; and now came forth Spontaneous, for within them Spirit livd , Attendant on thir Lord: On heav'nly ground they stood, and from the shore [ ] They view'd the vast immeasurable Abyss Outrageous as a Sea, dark, wasteful, wilde , Up from the bottom turn'd by furious windes And surging waves, as Mountains to assault Heav'ns highth , and with the Center mix the Pole.
Silence, ye troubl'd waves, and thou Deep, peace, Said then th' Omnific Word, your discord end:. Then staid the fervid Wheeles , and in his hand He took the golden Compasses , prepar'd [ ] In Gods Eternal store, to circumscribe This Universe, and all created things: One foot he center'd , and the other turn'd Round through the vast profunditie obscure, And said, thus farr extend, thus farr thy bounds, [ ] This be thy just Circumference, O World.
Thus God the Heav'n created, thus the Earth, Matter unform'd and void: Darkness profound Cover'd th' Abyss: Let ther be Light , said God, and forthwith Light Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure Sprung from the Deep, and from her Native East [ ] To journie through the airie gloom began, Sphear'd in a radiant Cloud, for yet the Sun Was not; shee in a cloudie Tabernacle Sojourn'd the while.
God saw the Light was good; And light from darkness by the Hemisphere [ ] Divided: Light the Day, and Darkness Night He nam'd. Thus was the first Day Eev'n and Morn: And Heav'n he nam'd the Firmament: Immediately the Mountains huge appeer [ ] Emergent, and thir broad bare backs upheave Into the Clouds, thir tops ascend the Skie: So high as heav'd the tumid Hills, so low Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep, Capacious bed of Waters: He scarce had said, when the bare Earth, till then Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorn'd , Brought forth the tender Grass, whose verdure clad [ ] Her Universal Face with pleasant green, Then Herbs of every leaf, that sudden flour'd Op'ning thir various colours , and made gay Her bosom smelling sweet: That Earth now Seemd like to Heav'n , a seat where Gods might dwell, Or wander with delight, and love to haunt [ ] Her sacred shades: So Eev'n and Morn recorded the Third Day.
The Bible is more succinct. Unsaid, but surely implied, is that God is making sure Adam cannot be confused about the role he is to play. Finally, the point the Creator wanted Adam to understand came through. There was absolutely nothing else in all of the creation like him—the first human. All of these personal events transpire on Day Six of the creation week. The whole focus of Scripture turns in chapter three. The relationship between God and man changed.
There is no question that Paradise was lost. Many would allegorize much of Genesis—especially the first three chapters! But the text is not presented as poetical or mystical. It reads just like what one would expect to find in a historical record.
Names and places are identified. When Jesus was incarnated on earth, He quoted from this narrative account. He presented it as real history. There are many other passages in Scripture that refer to these events, and all of them treat the text of Genesis as presenting actual events. We who were not there must embrace the consistency of message and the necessary acceptance of that message—or openly reject the account, the message, and the consistency.
This is the same Adam who held conversation with the Creator not too long before. No backstory is given in Genesis.
We must either infer from the immediate text or search the rest of Scripture for insight. And the insight is chilling.
Some stunning personage is described in Ezekiel It is from these and other biblical insights that we draw the conclusion that the serpent in Genesis 3 is either the devil incarnate or an animal possessed by none other than Lucifer himself.