Character analysis of Adam,Eve and Satan

Name :-Aneri R. Thakar

Roll no.:-1

Paper no:-1

Unit no :-3

Year :-2012/13

Semester :-1

Submitted To.:-   DR.Dilip Barad

                          S.B.G.Department of English

                          M.K.K.S.Bhavanagar university

  Character analysis of Adam :-

                                      Adam is a strong intelligent and rational character possessed of a remarkable relationship with word .Infact,before the fall,he is as perfect as a womwen being can be.He is an enormus capacity for reason,and can understand the most sophasticated ideas instantly. He can converse with Raphel as a near-equal,and understand Raphel stories readily.But after the fall,his conversation with Michael,during his visions significantly one sided.Also,he self doubt and anger after the fall demonstrate his new ability indunge in rash and irrational attitudes.As a result of the fall,he losses his pure reason and intellect.Aadam’s greatest wickness his love for Eve,he falls in love with immidetely upon seeing her and confidence to Raphel that this attraction to her is almost over whelming.Though Raphel wants him to keep his affection in check Adam is powerless to prevent his love from over whelming his reasons.After eats from the tree of knowledge,he quickly does the same,realizing that if she is doomed,he must follow her into doom as well if he wants to avoid lossing her.Eve has become his companion for life and he is unwilling to part with her even if that means disobeying God.Adam’s curiosity and hunger for knowledge is un other wickness .The question he ask of Raphel about creation and univers may suggest a growing temptation to eat from the tree of Knowledge.But like his physical attraction to Eve Aadam is able to partly avoid this temptation become unavoidable .

                     Before the fall,Aadam is as nearly perfect a human being as can be imagened.He is physically attractive,mentally  adept  and spiritually profound .He stands out in Eden as the apex of the hierarchial pyramid .Only Eve can compare to him in physical beauty.The conversation s between Aadam and Eve before Book-X are models of civilized discourse .These conversations are difficult to image as  real,but they reflect the nature of the two humans.Adam’s and humanity ‘s values are reflected in his attitude,which is revealed through his speech to Eve ,to Raphel and to God.In each instance when Adam speaks,he shows the proper relationship to the being with whom he  converses while he is superior to Eve and inferior to Raphel and God.There is still no hint of  haughtiness in his discussions with Eve or of subservience in his talks with the angel and God .Always Adam shows the proper respect and relationship in graceful speech and manners.

               When Adam sees Raphel’s approach to Earth,he tells Eve  “go with speed and what thy stores contain,bring forth and pour/Abundance,fit to honor and receive,our “ HEVE’NLY STRANGER”(V313-316).Eve replies’ “Adam,earth’s hallowed mould of God inspired small store will serve ,where store / “all reasons ripe for use hangs on the stalk” .These words which may seem onverly formal,nontheless reveal the relationship of Aadam and Eve .Aadam is in charge,but his request for Eve to prepare a meal is not a dismissive command.Like wise,her response shows that she knows more about the fod situation in Eden than Adam.This brief dialogue is a discussion between near equals who understand their responsibilities to each othe and to the world.Adam’s conversation with Raphel is similar and marked by the same tone.Adam welcomes Raphel graciously but in a manner that acknowledges the superior standing of the angel.Further,Adam uses his time with the angel to learn about heaven,about angels,about the war in heaven,about creation and about astronomy .Adam’s curiosity and intellect are revealed.Likewise,Adam inforems Raphel about Adam’s and Eve ‘s creation and about their relationship.Man and Angel have information for each other and they present this information within the fotmalized structure that establishes their relationship.

           After Adam’s fall,his conversationswith Eve become querulous.He blames her.It takes a mea culpa speech by Eve to rekindle Adam’s love for his wife and to reeslablish their proper relationship.Likewise,when Michel comes to Eden,the relationship between man and Angel has changed.Michael is stern but compassionate.He presents the vision of the future to Aadam,but there is little,if any,give and take between the two.Aadam and Raphel have a social meeting in which hierarchy is understood,Michael and Aadam have a hierarchical meeting in which Michael talks and listens.

           After the fall ,Aadam is prey to self-doubt,to anger and sullenness,and to self-pity.Ironically Eve’s love for him starts Adam on the path back to righteousness.Adam,after the fall will never again be the old Adam,but he does recover his reason,he develops a new  understanding of and love for Eve,and he sees the good that God will produce from his and Eve’s sinful action.Adam goes from being the perfect human to becoming a good hyman.

CHARACTER ANALYSIS OF EVE.:-

          Created to be Adam’s mate, Eve is inferior to adam, but only slightly. She surpasses Adan only in her beaty. She falls in love with her own image when she sees her reeflection in a body of water. Ironically, her greatest asset produces her most serious weakness, vanity. After satan compliments her on her beauty and godliness, he easily presudes her to eat from the tree of knowledge.

          Aside from her beauty,Eve’s intelligence and spiritual purity are constantly tested.She is not unintelligent,but she is not ambitious to learn content to be gided by Aadam as God intended .As a result,she does not become more intelligent or learned as the story progresses,though she does attain the beginning f wisdom by the end of the poem.Her lack of learning is partly due t her absence for most of Raphel’s discussions with Aadam in Book-V,VI and VII,and she also does not see the visions Michael shows Adam in Books XI and XII.Her absence from these important exchanges  shows that  she feels it is nt her place to seek knowledge independently;she wants to hear Raphel’s stories  through Adam later.The one instance in which she deviates from her passive role, telling Adam to trust her own and then seizing the fruit of the tree of knowledge is disastrous.

               Eve’s strengths are her capacity for love ,emotion and forebearance.She persuades Adam to stay with her after the fall,and Adam in turn dissuades her form committing suicide as they begin to work together as a powerful unit.Eve complements Aadam’s strengths and corrects his weakness.Thus,Milton does not denigrate all women through his despiction of EVE.Rather he explores the role of women in his society and the positive and important role he felt they could offer in the divine union of marriage.

           The two were treated exactly as God had told them they’d be treated “in the beginning” .They were his children .They’d been given one rule they broke his rule and he exacted punishment Milton opens paradise lost by frmally declaring his poem’s subject,humankind’s first act of disobedience toward God,and the consequences that followed from it.The act is Adam and Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit  of the tree of knowledge,as told in Genesis,the first book of Bible.In the first line,Milton refers to the out come  of Adam and Eve’s sin as the “fruit” of the forbidden tree,punning on the actual apple and the figurative fruits of their actions.Milton asserts that this original sin brought death to human beings for the first time,causing us to lose our home in paradise until Jesus comes to restore humankind to its former position of purity.

              Eve is a simpler character than Adam ‘s rib as his help meet,while she is beautiful,wise and able,she is superior to Adam only in her creation,when she looks in the water and falls in love with her own reflection,Eve is linked to the flaw of vanity and Satan as the serpent will use this defect against her.Before the fall ,Eve is generally presented as submissive to Adam and to some extent,dependent on him.Her reasoning powers are not fully realized as his.However,Milton in no way suggests a lack of intelligence on Eve’s part.Eve listens to Ralphel’s discription of the war heaven and the defeat of the rebellious angels.When the  conversation turns to more abstract questions of creation and planetary motion at the start of Book-VIII,Eve walks away to tend her garden.Milton is quick to note,however,

  “yet went she not,as not with such discourse delighted or not capable of her ear of what was high such pleasures she reserved”

           In ther words,Eve is perfectly capable of comprehending the abstruse subject,but she prefers hearing the ideas from Adam alone.She implied idea here is that Eve understands her position in the hierarchical arrangement and leaves this conversation so that she will in no way usurp Adam’s place with the angel.Eve does have a tendency now and then to question Adam,but she does so in a rational respectful manner.In book IX,sush questioning leads to temtation .Eve tell Adam at bthe start of book IX that they can do more work if they work if they  work likely tobe tricted by Satan if she is alone and argues against separation.His love for Eve.though,allows him to be persuaded and against his better judgement  he lets her go.Most commentators see this action on Adam ‘s part as another example f his unseriousness ;he yeilds to Eve’s argument  not because he does not want to hurt her feelings.On the other hand Eve wins the argument by knowingly using her advantages over Adam.Eve sets herself up for the fall and is not equal to the task f dealing with satan by herself.

          Eve’s yields to temtation through a combination  of flattery and sophistic argument by the serpent.Satan is happy to find Eve alone and acknowledges that Adam would be a much more difficult opponent .Satan knows Eve’s weakness and plays on them .She is charmed by him and can not detect the flaws in his arguments.After she eats the fruit,Eve immidiately changes.She begins to think of ways of becoming Adam’s equal or perhaps his superior,but, fearful losing Adam to another feamale creation,she decides that he must eat the fruit also.Adam does so but not because of Eve’s arguments .He eats willfully because he is unwilling tobe parted from Eve.

          After the fall,Eve like Adam is acrimonius and depressed.However her love for Adam imitates the regenration of the pair .She apologizes and her love causes a change in Adam :they can face the future together.Eve is also glorified by being told that her seed will eventually destroy satan,though her position in relation to Adam is made clear when Michael puts her to sleep while he shows Adam the vision of the future .Eve is certainly not a faminist heroine.Like so many characters in the epic,she has an assigned role in the hierarchy of the universe ,Milton does not denigrate women through the character Eve;he simply follows the thought of his time as to the role of women in society .Eve has as many important responsibilities as Adam,but  in the hierarchy of the universe ,she falls just below him

CHARACTER ANALYSIS OF THE SATAN :-

        Probably the most famous quote about “paradise lost “ is william Blake’s statement that Milton was “of the devbil’s party wiothout knowing it”.while Blake may have meant some thing other than what is generally under stood from this quotation(see “Milton’s style” in the critical essays),the idea that satan is the hero ot at least a type of a hero”,in paradise lost is wide spread.However,the progression,or ,more precisely,regression, of Satan’s character from book-I through Book XII gives a much different and much clearee picture of Milton’s attitude towards satan.Writers and critics of the romantic area advanced the notion that satan was promethan hero,pitting himself against an unjust God. Most of these writers based their ideas on the picture of satan and in the first 2 books of paradise lost in those books ,Satan rises of the lack of fire and delivers his heroic speech still challanging GOD.Satan tells the others rebels that they can make “a heav’n of hell,a hell of heav’n” and adds, “better to reign in  Hell than serve in Hea’vn”.Satan also calls for and leads the grand council.Finally he goes forth on his own to cross chaos and find earth .without question,this picture of satan makes him heroic in his initial introduction to the reader.

           Beside his actions, satan also appears heroic because the first two books focus on hell  and the fallen angels.The reader’s introduction to the poem is through Satan’s point of view ,Milton,by beginning in medias res gives satan the first empathetic character.Also ,Milton’s writing in these books,and his characterization of Satan ,make the archfiend understable and unforgettable.These facts certainly make Satan the most interesting  character in the poem but they do not make him the hero.Because the reader hears Satan’s version first,the reader is unware of the exaggeration and out right lies that are parts of Satan’s magnificient speeches .Moreover,the reader can easily over look the fact that Milton states that,what ever powers and abilities the fallen angels have in Hell,those powers and abilities come from God,who could at any moment take them away.

           In essence then Milton’s grand poetic style sets Satan up as heroic in books 1 and book 2.The presentation of Satan makes him seem graater than he actually is and initially draws the reader to Satan’s viewpoint.Further ,because all of the other characters .Milton spends more artistic energy on the development of Satan so that through out the poem,Satan’s character maintains the reader’s interest and perhaps sympathy at least to an extent.No matter how brillintly Milton created the character of Satan ,the chief demon can’t be the hero of the poem .For  Milton,Satan is the enemy who chooses to commit an act that goes against the basic laws of God,that challenges the very nature of the universe .Satan attempts to distroy the hierarchy of Heaven through his rebellion .Satan commits this act not because of the tyranny of God but because he wants what he wants rather than what God wants.Satan is an egoist.His interests always turn on his personal desires.Unlike Adam who discusses a multiplicity his own desires,Satan see every thing in terms of what will happen to him.

          One reason that Satan is easy to sympathize with is that he is much more like us than God or the son are .As the embodiment of human errors,he is much easier for us to imagine and emphasize with than an omniscientdeity .Satan ‘s character and psychology are all very human,and his envy,pride and despair are understable given his situation,but Satan’s speeches,while undeniably moving subtly display their own inconsistency and error.

Conclusion:-

      John Milton brilliantly created the three character of Adam,Eve and Satan.We saw that Adam is created by God ,and he is as perfect as a human being.He is the superior character of the epic.He is a strong,intelligent and rational  character of epic .In Adam we saw the ego of a man ,His protectiveness for EVE.His superireality and love for Eve is also created by Adam’s rib as his helpmeet.She is  beautiful,wisecharacter.She is superior to Adam only in her beauty,from the time of her creation .Eve is inferior to Adam,only slightly if we taking about the character of satan and his psychology are all very human it is easy to sympathize satan because it is much more like us.