The document explores the parallels between Satan and Eve in Milton's 'Paradise Lost,' highlighting their shared fall from grace and the themes of free will and knowledge. It discusses how both characters grapple with their choices and the consequences of disobedience to God, ultimately questioning the nature of freedom and knowledge in Eden. The analysis emphasizes their motivations, the role of envy, and the implications of their actions within the context of moral and existential themes.

1. BRL 2630 - Milton
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Fallen Angel, Forbidden Fruit, Lost Paradise
Satan and Eve in Paradise Lost are two characters that are
similar in a sense that they are both lesser
individuals in the hierarchy presented in their world and they
both fall from a higher state of being to a
lesser state of being. Satan was at the highest state of being,
which is immortality in the form of an
angel. Eve was unfallen, immortal and on her way to becoming
an angel, but she disobeyed God which
lead to her fallen mortal state. God smote Satan from Heaven
through a painful abyss of darkness and
fire into the deepest part of the earth. Though both had fallen,
Satan was well aware and knew of the
consequences for his actions, but did Eve know she would have
fallen for eating from the Tree of
Knowledge? Satan's motive in Eden is based on revenge. Eve's
motive in Eden is to do as thy Creator
said, but without what Eve believes is knowledge she beings to
struggle when confronted with the
decision to take and eat from the "forbidden tree." The allowing
of both Satan and Adam and Eve to
fall in Paradise Lost brings in the question of free will. Since
God is omniscient as well as omnipotent
why would he have not stopped the three beings from their fall?
Everything may be predetermined or
predestined, but it is up to the individual to decide through free
will what will occur. Free will plays a
major part in Eve's decision as well as Satan's decision, but it
can be seen that Adam's decision to
follow Eve is based on pure love.

2. The description of Eve's hair can be compared to the description
of Satan in the form of the serpent.
"Her unadorned golden tresses wore/Disheveled, but in wanton
ringlets waved/As the vine curled hertendrils" (IV. 305-07). Her
hair was flowing loose and curly. A delicate twist or coil like
that of the body of a serpent. It could just be a coincident that
Eve's hair is similar to that of a serpent, but it could also be a
metaphor that Eve is convincing and sly like a serpent. Eden in
Book IV is in its unfallen state and is described through a fallen
and vengeful Satan. Satan with all his hatred towards God sees
Eden and is filled with envy and jealousy. "Aside the Devil
turned/For envy, yet with jealous leer malign" (IV. 501- 02).
Eve also becomes envious in Book IX when she sees the serpent
has eaten from the Tree of
Knowledge and has not died. "For us alone/was death invented?
Or to us denied/This intellectual food,
for beasts reserved?" (IX. 766-68). Eve sounds envious because
she has been told not to eat from the
tree, but if a beast has eaten and lives she feels she shall also
live afterwards.
When Raphael is telling of the great battle in Heaven lead by
Satan and the rebel angels, he mentions
that until Satan's armor had been pierced by the sword of
Michael, he felt no pain, nor fear. "Then first
with fear surprised and sense of pain/Fled ignominious, to such
evil brought/By sin of disobedience, till
that hour/Not liable to fear or flight of pain" (VI. 394-97). This
is both a metaphor and it foreshadows
the fall in Eden. A metaphor for when Eve eats the fruit from
the Tree of Knowledge. Before she had
indulged in the forbidden fruit she had not known what pain or
fear had felt like. Now that she ate
form the tree, she fears what will happen to her. This line also
foreshadows that evil will be brought

3. about by disobedience. Satan is convincing, as seen from his
leading of thousands of rebel angels.
"Subtle he needs must be, who could seduce/Angels, nor think
superfluous others' aid" (IX. 307-08).
This line is Adam warning Eve that if Satan could convince
Angels to go to war he can easily convince
you to disobey God. Eve is a follower. "What could I do,/But
follow straight, invisibly thus led?" (IV.
475-76). Eve says she can only follow because she is blind to
knowing. Eve is blind to knowing which is
why she follows the serpent to the tree and eats the fruit. Like
Satan, Eve is also convincing, but in a
different way. Satan is conniving and is able to persuade Eve by
speech. Eve is convincing through love.
Adam's only weakness is the charm of Eve's beauty and her
love. "Here only weak/Against the charm
of beauty's powerful glance" (VIII.532-33). Eve's beauty and
Adam's love for her will be convincing
enough to get Adam to do as Eve asks.
Satan being sent into the eternal darkness abyss known as Hell
can be considered Satan's freedom.
Satan chose to rise up and try to overthrow God from the thrown
in Heaven, but in the end he was
defeated and possibly freed. Freedom is being able to do what
an individual wants whenever and
wherever. In Heaven Satan was unable to do this, but in Hell
Satan is king, ruler, the highest in the
hierarchy of all the fallen angels. This freedom allows Satan to
ultimately get revenge on God by
convincing Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Free will
and freedom play major roles in Eve's
ultimate decision to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree. Eve is
free to do whatever she pleases in Eden,
except eat from the trees God said not to touch. "But if
death/Bind us with after-bands, what profits

4. then/Our inward freedom?" (IX. 760-62). This is Eve
questioning why God even put the tree in Eden. If
the tree gives us knowledge of good and evil, why then will we
die if we eat from it? This is Eve's
ultimate questioning of freedom. We are not free if god has
restricted us from one tree among many
of trees and plants.
The question of free will and freedom leads into whether or not
both Satan and Eve truly knew the
consequences of their disobeying God. Satan knew fully what
would happen if he kept fighting after he
began to feel pain. Eve was told that if she ate from the tree she
would die and live in a mortal world of
woe and sorrow. Although Satan knew of his consequences, he
feels that his miserable state was done
to him by God. "Me miserable! Which way shall I fly/Infinite
wrath, and infinite despair?" (IV. 73-74).
Satan believes that god has mad him infinitely miserable and
infinitely angry. This is Satan's motive for
seeking revenge. Although, Satan knew of what would happen
to him, he still blames God for the
actions he made. Satan had the free will to do as he pleased, but
Heaven never saw Pandemonium
until Satan chose to start a war. This can later be related to Eve
when she pins the blame on the
serpent for her choice to pluck and eat the forbidden fruit. "And
put not forth my goodness, which is
free/To act or not, necessity and chance/Approach not me, and
what I will is fate" (VII. 171-73). This is
proof from God to Raphael that fate may have nothing to do
with God. Fate is based on the character
of the individual, thus Satan will have nothing to do with the
fall of Eden. Therefore, Eve should not
blame Satan, nor God, nor Adam, but she should blame herself
for freely choosing to disobey God.

5. Right before Satan slithers down as the serpent to tempt Eve he
is reminded of the grandeur of all the
beauty he gave up by rebelling. "Though in mid-Heav'n, soon
ended his delight,/And tortures him now
more, the more he sees/Of pleasure not for him ordained: then
soon fierce hate he recollects" (IX. 468-
71). Satan is ready to unleash his revenge and lead Eve to her
fall from paradise.
Adam and Eve had to create a world where they chose based on
free will what would happen. They did
not sit around in Eden abiding by what God told them to do
every day. The one thing they had to do
was obey God's order to not eat from the Tree of Knowledge.
Satan was in Heaven and also had to
obey God, but chose not to. Satan was banished from Heaven
and when he saw the Heaven-like quality
of Eden he became jealous and envious and wanted to have its
inhabitants feel what he felt. The fall of
Adam and Eve leaves them in shame. Before the fall Eden was
shameless. "Of honor void,/Of
innocence, of faith, of purity,/Our wonted ornaments now soiled
and stained" (IX. 1074-76). This
describes Adam and Eve's nakedness which is now shameful.
Did Eve really know what she was doing
before she ate the forbidden fruit? One answer is that she did
know because she had been warned
previously by Raphael, Adam, and indirectly by God through
both Raphael and Adam. Eve was capable
of knowing because she knew she loved Adam and she knew
where and what the Tree of Knowledge
was. The other answer to the question is that Eve did not know
what she was going to cause by eating
the fruit. The serpent said he had eaten the fruit and it gave him
the ability to speak like a human. Eve
believing, began to question if God said she would die, why has

6. the serpent not died? Eve would die of
her immortality and then gain knowledge if fear and sorrow.
Satan and Eve are more alike than
different that they both fell from God's fortune and they both
were lower in a hierarchical paradise. In
the end Eve's freedom is not the same as Satan's freedom. Satan
was freed by being sent to Hell,
where he could be ruler. Eve did not seek immortality, she only
sought knowledge, but to gain
knowledge she had to become immortal.
From Writing Analytically, by David Rossenwaser and Jill
Stephen
· Focus on the comparison to give it a point. A comparison will
not have a point inherently; you need consciously to give it one.
It is often useful to assume that what you have originally taken
for a point of comparison/contrast has not yet gone far enough,
is still too close to summary.
· Look for significant difference between A and B, given their
similarity. Look for difference within similarity. Identify the
essential similarity and then ask and answer, So What? Why is
the similarity significant? In this context, identify the
differences that you notice. Choose one difference that seems
revealing or interesting, and again ask and answer, So What?
· Look for unexpected similarity between A and B, given their
difference. Focus on unexpected similarity rather than obvious
difference.
Comparison and Contrast
For this course, it is suggested that the student take the analysis
of one work in the first assignment and bridge (by substantive
revision) such an analysis to a second work by another writer in
the same or preferably a contingent period, thus establishing the

7. basis for a comparison and contrast. There should be some
basis of comparison. One cannot compare/contrast apples and
oranges; rather, one compares/contrasts something they have in
common, such as their skins. Strangely enough, a contrast is a
kind-of comparison. Comparison often implies contrast, and
vice versa. Typically in such an assignment, especially as it
evolves from a previous one, the main point of comparison-
contrast might be theme; sub-points the student would discuss
in the paper (topics for paragraphs) might include the elements
of each work (speaker, tone, figurative language, imagery,
symbolism, character/characterization, etc.) that elucidate such
a theme.
Definition of the comparison/contrast:
A comparison/contrast generally contains some or all of the
following elements:
A direct thesis or claim identifying the two poems, the method
(comparison or contrast), and the purpose for the comparison
(what the reader will learn about theme by making the
comparison or contrast).
Clear points of comparison which are general and parallel
(thematic, structural, contextual)
Ample evidence to support the claim (quotations that provide
specific examples).
Avoid common problems that surface when attempting an
extended comparison or contrast:
The "so what" thesis: That is, move beyond merely comparing
two or more elements to consider a judgment on the elements,
what it all means in terms of larger issues and theme. Consider
your audience and what readers will gain from your comparison.
Find a clear purpose for the essay beyond merely listing
similarities or differences. Use descriptions so your reader can

8. see and understand each element.
Choppy Writing: Use transitions to move the reader smoothly
from point to point. Do not assume your reader can follow your
logic. Spell out clearly how each point follows from the
previous point. Consider how words and phrases like "also,
similarly, too, both, not only...but also," can work to tie ideas
together for comparisons. For contrast, consider words and
phrases such as "however, on the contrary, though, instead of."
OTHER Methods used in Critical Thinking Include Analysis,
Definition, and Cause and Effect. Cause and Effect is
especially prized since it helps explain why something happens.
Analysis
In general, analysis involves taking something apart in order to
understand it. Thus, examine separately the speaker/tone,
figurative language (images, symbolism, and metaphors) before
making any final determination. Analysis is the reverse of
synthesis, the putting together of things, which would result in
the understanding of theme after one has analyzed the parts. In
an analysis, the student examines how things work, why they do
what they do, what they mean, and what effects they have.
There is a certain level of detachment necessary for analysis.
What do we observe; what conclusion do we come to about
being in the poem? Working out answers to such basic
questions should lead to a thesis or claim. In such a paper, the
student is expected to analyze how the evidence relates to and
supports the claim.