A STUDY IN "THE FALL" OF MAN IN MILTON'S PARADISE LOST

Abstract

Eve falls through pride and unawareness and Adam by uxoriousness. Although, the nature of the Fall in Paradise Lost seems not so simple; there are many difficulties. If Adam was created pure so that evil could not abide in him, how could he be fondly overcome by female charms? surely no natural weakness in Eve can have made her incline her ear to Satan's subtle persuasions, for natural weakness she has none. The story of the Fall is unsatisfactory simply because Adam's free-will is so empty of moral content. If the Liberty is twinned with right reason and reason also is choice, Liberty, reason, and choice must be given something concrete as the sphere of their operations. Adam is asked only to be obedient to one command. He knows no reason and has no grounds, other than arbitrary command, on which to base his choice. He is incapable of moral evil: he can sin only against a positive law. How can he then be free? With Adam and with Eve Milton sidetracks the difficulties. Only thing we know in his concept, he has not abandoned the principles of Christian liberty and right reason. The defeat of the passions by reason has become the main object in a man's life, for only through the victory of reason can true liberty and inward peace be attained. There can be no doubt at all Milton never questioned the validity of sacrifice made on the cross. For reconciliation with God, He must be propitiated, and man must himself be disciplined until he becomes worthy of freedom, God, through Christ, freely gives His grade; man must freely accept it. The sacrifice on Calvary is central importance in Milton's religious thought, at least as it appears in the story of "the Fall." In the justification of God's ways with men, the appeasement of the Father by the ransom paid by Son is not only an essential element in the story, it is also a crucial element in the thought.