English Lit Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

English Lit - Essay Example Book IX of Paradise Lost presents Adam and Eve in their prelapsarian state and gradually develops to the theme of temptation and the original sin. The signs of self-will are shown by Eve, as she suggests to Adam that they can divide their work and go separate ways in the garden of Eden. As Adam is apprehensive of the enemy lurking in the garden, and shows his reluctance to separate from her, Eve protests, â€Å"How are we happy, still in fear of harm?†. To Adam’s fears about the Tree of Knowledge and the chances of Eve getting tempted, Eve declares that the very concept of heaven is false if there is suspicion among the two and a lack of confidence in each other: Eve’s sagacity to question the idea of a perfect state of bliss in heaven where differences and fear exist, though presented as part of a grand design, can in the contemporary scenario interpreted as a woman’s attempt to break herself free from the numerous norms set by the patriarchal society. The element of humanness that Milton attributes to Eve is capable of endearing her to the readers and to see her words and actions in a sympathetic light, even as the arguments that ensue after the original sin is capable of confirming the traditional Christian concept of seeing the woman as the eternal seductress who takes away the heavenly bliss man is capable of reaching, if not for her presence in his life. Adam’s words, â€Å"Go; for thy stay, not free, absents thee more;† hints at the paradoxical proposition of God trusting the free will of man and at the same time forbidding him and his companion from at least one thing in the Garden of Eden. The presence of a power relation which is deemed inappropriate in the eternal bliss and native innocence of the prelapsarian state of Adam and Eve is first recognized and contested by Eve. When Satan, in the form of an enlightened snake first flatters her and then reasons to her in a sophisticated manner, she does not try to