Epic Poetry and Psychological Complexity (was NPPF Canto 1: 1-4 some random notes)

[Tim Strzechowski]

Morris:
>
> What was the choice offered?  The answer is Obedience or Disobedience.
Reason
> was exactly what the Biblical God DIDN'T want.  Read the story in the
Bible and
> you'll see that it was when Eve began to question God's command (at the
> serpent's prompting) using this precious reason, that she disobeyed.
Reason
> was the enemy, and Satan was the vehicle.

Your response might have just as well been written by Milton's Satan,
because that is precisely how he viewed the choice: obedience (leading to
mere servitude) or disobedience (leading to punishment).

But recall that Milton's God says,

[...] Ingrate, he [speaking of Man] had of me
All he could have; I made him just and right,
Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.
Such I created all th' ethereal Powers
And Spirits, both them who stood and those who failed;
Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.
Not free, what proof could they have giv'n sincere
Of true allegience [...] (III: 97-104)

Your argument using Eve and the exercising of her Reason doesn't really
support your position, only because when doing so you forget that her Reason
was being manipulated by a lie (again, how Milton fashions the Eve/Serpent
dialogue).  It's a reasoning whose foundation is based on error -- that
eating the fruit will make one like a God, etc. -- and all subsequent
conclusions that Eve reaches are obviously false.

For Milton (and I stress a secular reading here; not about to argue dogma),
reason IS a form of obedience.  Obedience to a natural law.  However, one
may use reason either wisely or unwisely.  When serving the unwise, man is
little more than an animal, a creature that "obeys" but that obedience is
predetermined, irrational, like "slavery."

So ... Milton's God creates a universe in which the inhabitants have REASON
and FREE WILL, and also creates situations that will test those inhabitants
(a paradoxical situation, yes, but necessary if one is to truly have freedom
of choice).  To make man free to choose, and at the same time not free to
make wrong choices, would be illogical.

Remember: "Reason also is choice" (III: 108)


> I strongly disagree.  The entire situation was of his manufacture.

Milton's, or God's?  Clarify.

> God put
> Adam and Eve into an environment which he created  with a big fat trap in
the
> middle of it: a temptation.  Obviously he didn't inform Adam and Eve of
the
> full nature of its dangers, or their *reason* would have kept them in line
(you
> don't think they would've walked off a cliff just for the experience, do
you?).
>  But then we wouldn't have a story to read.

But Milton's God doesn't need to give more command than simply "Don't eat
the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge."  And I think God has given Adam and Eve
sufficient due process on the matter, considering He told them what to
avoid, and then sends Raphael down to *tell them* exactly what will happen
to them if they disobey (even going so far as to reveal that a wayward angel
will try to tempt them).  Raphael even makes it pretty clear:

"Attend: that thou art happy, owe to God;
That thou continu'st such, owe to thyself"  (V: 520-21)

so the full blame rests on Eve who, knowing what would happen, still allowed
herself to be duped by the Serpent, and Adam, who lets Eve talk him out of
doing the morning gardening with her (Book IX).

No entrapment.  It's called Justice.

Respectfully,

Tim



By the way, Book IX has a great set of lines:

" [...] For nothing lovelier can be found
In woman, than to study household good,
And good works in her husband to promote." (IX: 232-34)

I'm puttin' *that* on my refrigerator!