Critical quotes to learn: Satan, Sin and Seduction Flashcards
Terry Eagleton on evil (2)
‘Pure evil detests the very fact of human existence’ - yes, Satan detests mankind because they are meant to replace him and the other fallen angels and because he can’t himself experience the beauty God created for them in Eden (envy) - but no, Satan is not ‘pure evil’ as he still has shreds of angelic goodness in him
‘in order to reject goodness, the evil must first have some experience of it’ - applicable to Milton as he, like Adam and Eve, was first created in God’s image and thus innocent
William Blake on how Milton viewed Satan
Milton was ‘of the Devil’s party without knowing it’
Kenneth Gross on Satan (2)
He is an object of our ‘troubled admiration’ - on the one hand he is an intelligent, charming ‘rebel against tyranny’, but on the other hand he is embarking on a futile, childish mission to destroy
Satan is the only character who really thinks. He represents ‘the mind’s shifting circle of freedom and compulsion’
Stanley Fish on seduction
‘Satan’s charisma tempts the reader the same way it tempted Adam and Eve’
John Carey on Eve’s character
Suggests Milton made ‘proto-feminist’ changes to the Bible account through presenting Eve in an often more sympathetic light than Adam - counter with the fact that Eve’s imitation of The Fall is not in the slightest heroic, but rather driven by sin (greed, pride, gluttony etc)
Professor John Rogers
The most ‘convincing’ part of Satan’s seduction of Eve is his turning it into an act of ‘romantic chivalry’ - Satan uses flattery and hyperbole to convince Eve that he is being courtly/generous in offering her the apple
Sean McEvoy
Eve’s desire to make Adam fall too is motivated by ‘jealousy’ - she would envy and resent Adam’s replacement wife, so wants to bring him down with her
C.S Lewis
‘Eve fell through pride… Adam fell through uxoriousness’ - Eve fell because she thought herself deserving of greater authority/status, and so was particularly susceptible to Satan’s seemingly attractive proposition - Adam fell, not because he believed Satan’s false argument, but because of his devotion to Eve and to maintaining the unity of their relationship (not heroic, though, but makes him look weak-willed and submissive)
Terry Eagleton on Satan (2)
Milton’s Satan is in a ‘permanent sulk’ - his rebelliousness is not courageous or admirable, but a symptom of his childishness and foolishness
But… doing evil can also be ‘intensely creative’, hence why Satan’s seduction of Eve is fascinating and perhaps admirable to the reader
