Essay on Pointing the Finger in John Milton’s Paradise Lost

Pointing the Finger in Paradise Lost After the fall in Milton’s Paradise Lost, Adam and Eve bicker and blame one another for their decent. First, Adam accuses Eve for her physical act of accepting the apple from Satan and eating it, thus defying God’s decree not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. In retaliation, Eve responds and attempts to not only justify her act, but also to place the blame on Adam. Eve’s reaction is typical of someone who does not like to admit he is wrong. Eve begins by challenging Adam with an argument that he would have done the same thing had he been in her situation. [Had’st] thou been there,/ Or here th’ attempt, thou couldst not have discern’d/ Fraud in the Serpent, speaking as he spake (IX†¦show more content†¦At the same time, this revelation shows that virtue can be blinding. After all, Satan was disguised as a snake, and snakes are well known to be sly creatures. However, since Adam and Eve represent the first of God’s human creations on earth before the fall of man, Eve did not have any knowledge of deceit. Thus, Eve is in a lose-lose situation: she must trust Satan to prove her virtue, and in effect she falls; or she must thwart her innate trusting instincts and avoid falling. Her plight coins the phrase, damned if you do and damned if you don’t in a very literal sense. Next, Eve reveals a personal motive; she wants to gain individuality. She wonders, Was I to have never parted from thy side? (IX 1153) and answers her own question responding, As good have grown there still a lifeless Rib (IX 1154). She suggests that if she had remained at Adam’s side forever and not ventured on her own, she never would have lived. She is trying to gain Adam’s respect for herself as her own person. Conversely, Adam could easily feel abused by this comment since Eve is also suggesting that life with him is unfulfilling. This argument is the least effective in her entire speech. It is hard for a speaker to maintain an audience’s appeal when he withdraws himself from an unselfish motive and takes on a self-centered one. In retraction, Eve withdraws her previous declaration