Paradise Lost Book 11

Summary of Book XI

        Book XI opens with Adam and Eve sending their prayers to Heaven. Their prayers are heard by God and the Son, and the Son begins to appeal to Christ in Adam and Eve’s favor, saying that they regret having disobeyed God’s word. The Son says that Adam is “unskillful” in what words he should use to pray with, so the Son interprets Adam’s feelings to God, as he takes responsibility for Mankind’s deeds. He asks for God to allow Adam and Eve to be forgiven and to delay their deaths, but not eliminate them because he knows that since they have sinned, their deaths are now inevitable. God says that he intended to fulfill the Son’s request, but he cannot allow Adam and Eve to reside in Paradise any longer. They have been tainted by Sin, and God sends the angel Michael to drive them out of the Garden of Eden. Michael also takes with him an army of angels of Cherubim, in case Satan tries to intervene. God also instructs Michael to show Adam visions of the future only if Adam accepts banishment without excessive sadness.

Meanwhile in the Garden of Eden, Adam is attempting to comfort Eve by assuring her that that their prayers will reach God, and naming her as his wife. Troublesome omens begin appearing in Eden however, and shortly after Michael and his army of angels arrive. At first Adam believes that Michael is in the Garden to bring new laws to abide by, but Michael soon informs him that he has come to lead Adam and Eve out of the Garden due to their transgressions. Adam is shocked, and Eve openly expresses distress at leaving her native home to be relocated to a location far less pure. Shocked as he is, Adam contains himself and and humbly accepts Michael’s message. Michael then offers Adam comfort from the news by telling him that no matter where Adam and Eve may reside, God will always be present and watching over them.

        After relaying the news of banishment from the Garden to Adam, Michael tells Adam that he will show him visions from the future, which will depict his descendants, the sinfulness of men yet to come, as well as heavenly acts of God. Michael sends Eve to a hilltop and puts her to sleep while he shows Adam these visions, since Michael has “drenched her eyes”. Michael then uses euphrasy and rue (herbs that were thought to sharpen eyesight), to “purge Adam’s visual nerve” so that he will be able to see the visions.

The first vision that Michael shows Adam depicts the story of Cain and Abel. Cain offers a sacrifice of fruit and vegetables to God, which were apparently picked at random, and as such the sacrifice is not deemed to be sincere by God. This story differs from the Bible in that Milton provides a precise reason as to why Cain’s sacrifice was not accepted. Abel, being a shepherd, offers up his best livestock, with incense strewed, and all “due rites” performed. A fire from heaven consumes the sacrifice gratefully. Cain becomes jealous and kills Abel by striking him in the midriff with a stone. This vision greatly upsets Adam, who has seen death for the first time and feels pity for Abel. Michael informs Adam that these two are his sons, and that Cain’s crime will not go unpunished. Michael then says that death can come in many forms, be it murder, disease, or death by “intemperance in meats and drinks”.

After showing Adam the vision of the world’s first death, Michael then shows Adam a vision of a lazar-house (a hospital for leprosy, syphilis, and other diseases). This is the only vision in the book that is not taken from the Bible. This vision seems to be an example of “what misery Eve’s inabstinence could bring on men.” This vision brings tears to Adam’s eyes, though he promptly regains control of his emotions before speaking to Michael. He asks Michael why man is born if only to experience pain and then die. Michael says that mankind must now suffer death since Eve and Adam have been tainted by sin when they were supposed to have upheld God’s image in themselves, having been created in God’s likeness. Adam humbly accepts Michael’s explanation, but asks if there are any other ways that death may come to man, besides dying of painful diseases. Michael says that there is; if man lives a just life, and eats or drinks only to provide adequate nourishment rather than to seek gluttony, death will be a much more peaceful transition.

Michael warns Adam to neither love nor hate his mortal life, an idea which introduces the third vision. The third vision depicts people dwelling in tents. The vision shows women dancing and men watching, and what seems to be a marriage ceremony. This vision pleases Adam, who begins to express more optimism towards the future. Michael then informs Adam that these people are the wicked descendants of Cain, and to not “judge what is best by Pleasure”. He describes the women as being evil, trained only to appear beautiful and inspire lust through song and dance. Michael says that these women corrupt the men before them, who are deemed virtuous but will give up all their virtue to these women. Adam them places blame on women for corrupting men, but Michael reprimands him, saying that Men’s “effeminate slackness” is to blame, and they should be a better example having been given “superior gifts” by God.

The fourth vision depicts the “giant offspring” of the marriages from the third vision. These men fight in wars and appear to be heroic, but their glory is ill-begotten and not genuine. They cause much bloodshed, until one rises up and criticizes them, a man referred to as “middle aged” who turns out to be the holy man Enoch. Enoch speaks of justice, truth and religion, but he is mocked by the other people in the vision. This vision brings tears to Adam’s eyes, and he expresses lament and asks why these men multiply ten-fold  the sin of the world’s first murderer. Michael says that these men will falsely be upheld as great heroes, while Enoch, (whose name Adam and Michael do not know) who speaks out against them, will be persecuted by men but rewarded by God.

The final vision is introduced with the context of “what reward awaits the good, and what punishment the rest”. In this vision, war has ceased, and in the aftermath of victory, there is much lust, prostitution, adultery, and sin abundant in mankind. Noah is introduced as a “reverend sire”, and he speaks out against the actions of the people. He is ignored, and once Noah realizes that his words of conversion will not reach them, he withdraws from society and begins to construct the ark. As told in the Bible, Noah gathers pairs of every animal, as well as his three sons and their four wives, before God seals the door of the ark. Relentless rainfall floods the Earth, wiping out all of mankind save for those aboard the ark. Adam is again quite distressed after seeing this vision, having seen all of his offspring and descendants be eliminated. He expresses that he would have rather been ignorant of the future, since he knows what will happen but can do nothing to change it. Michael responds by saying that mankind was eliminated because they had all become degenerate, turning to sloth and ease after the wars had ended. Noah and his kin were the only ones who still upheld God’s will, and were thus saved. The vision continues with the rain subsiding and the ark stopping on top of Mount Ararat. Noah sends the biblical dove to search for land, and it brings back the olive branch. The vision ends with the rainbow that signifies that God will never destroy the earth by flood again. Adam finally has reason to express great joy at this final vision, lamenting the loss of a wicked world much less when shown that Noah and his descendants shall prosper in a new world. The book ends with a reference to the Final Judgment, i.e. when “fire purge all things new”.

Quotes

“ ‘O sons, like one of us man is become / To know both good and evil, since his taste / Of that defended fruit; but let him boast / His knowledge of good lost, and evil got, / Happier had it sufficed him to have known / Good by itself, and evil not at all’” (XI.84-89).

God is lamenting over the fact that despite his order, Adam and Eve have eaten from the tree of Knowledge, and because of their sin, have brought evil and suffering into the world. This quote may be an example of the consequences of obtaining knowledge- God may even be saying that blind ignorance is bliss, and Adam and Eve would have definitely been happier had they only obeyed God and not sought knowledge and pursued their curiosities about the forbidden tree. God seems to be saying that seeking knowledge can be dangerous; perhaps since he is all-knowing, he knows what is best for Adam and Eve; which is why he forbade them to eat from the tree. Mankind would have been happier to have knowledge only of the joy in obeying God; and not the consequences that arise from disobeying him.

     “All th’earth he gave thee to possess and rule, / No despicable gift; surmise not then / His presence to these narrow bounds confined / Of Paradise or Eden: this had been / Perhaps thy capital seat, from whence had spread all generations […]” (XI.339-344).

This quote affirms God’s omnipresence. Before Michael informs Adam that God has given Man the Earth for him to have dominion over, Adam expresses distress at leaving the Garden, mostly because he believes that this means that God’s presence will no longer be with him. Michael tells him that this is not true, as God is omnipresent, and even though Adam is being banished from Paradise into the world, God will still be watching over him. Michael calls Eden the “capital seat” because it is from here that mankind was created. All future generations will have their origins there.

   ‘Their Maker’s image,’ answered Michael, ‘then

Forsook them, when themselves they vilified

To serve ungoverned appetite, and took

His image whom they served, a brutish vice,

Inductive mainly to the sin of Eve.

Therefore so abject is their punishment,

Disfiguring not God’s likeness, but their own,

[…] since they

God’s image did not reverence in themselves.’ (XI.515-525)

Michael is explaining to Adam why the people seen in the second vision, (the sufferers of diseases such as leprosy and sexually transmitted diseases like syphilis), are the victims of such pain and suffering. When he says their disobeying of God is due mainly to Eve’s sins, he means that their suffering is caused by diseases that are the result of Eve being inabstinent. “Serving ungoverned appetite” could be interpreted as serving worldly, sinful lusts rather than God’s word. This is again blaming much of man’s suffering and fall into sin on the sins of women. Michael also makes the point that these men have insulted God; they were created by God in his image, and had his grace, yet they chose not to strive to keep God’s image in themselves. They did not live a godly life, they disobeyed God, and they suffered from sexually transmitted diseases. Michael is saying that because of these particular sins, their punishment is deserved and severe.

   Adam, now ope thine eyes, and first behold

Th’ effects which thy original crime hath wrought

In some to spring from thee, who never touched

Th’ excepted tree, nor with the snake conspired,

Nor sinned thy sin, yet from that sin derive

Corruption to bring forth more violent deeds. (XI.423-428)

This quote serves to reinforce the very biblical theme of original sin; it also foreshadows the suffering and punishment that mankind will bring on themselves, in the form of the great flood. This quote specifically however, is Michael’s dialogue before he shows Adam the first vision, of the world’s first murderer- Cain. Since Adam has brought sin into the world, his two sons, Cain and Abel, will have to suffer those effects. Cain and Abel, though innocent in nature before Cain murders Abel, are born with original sin. Michael says that Adam’s sin brings forth “corruption” of his future descendants. This quote also enforces the theme of predestination, as do all of the visions that Michael shows Adam. Adam is being shown all the terrible things that mankind after him will have to endure, and not only is he being declared the one who starts it all, but he can also do nothing to change it.

  “But prayer against his absolute decree / No more avails than breath against the wind, / Blown stifling back on him that breathes it forth: / Therefore to his great bidding I submit” (XI.311-314)

In this passage, Adam submits to God’s will. It also, again, brings up the theme of absolute predestination, as Adam realizes that it is useless to try to pray for a different outcome other than God’s decree, which at this point, is to indefinitely banish Adam and Eve from Eden. When Adam says that prayer will “blow stifling back on him”, it again conveys absolution, as he cannot change God’s will. Adam’s submission may arise from guilt as well, for having eaten of the forbidden tree and suffering the consequences.

“If patiently thy bidding they obey, / Dismiss them not disconsolate; reveal / To Adam what shall come in future days”  (11.112-114).
This quote shows the importance of being obedient to God. As long as Adam and Eve are obedient to God, God is willing to show Adam the future so they will not lose hope from being evicted from the Garden. As long as you are obedient to God, God will reward you. Also,God is only willing to reveal the visions to Adam and not Eve, which suggests that Eve is lesser than Adam.

“Some, as thou saw’st, by violent stroke shall die, / By fire, flood, famine; by intemperance more / In meats and drinks, which on the earth shall bring / Diseases dire, of which a monstrous crew / Before thee shall appear; that thou may’st know / What misery th’ inabstinence of Eve / Shall bring on men” (11.471-477)
All of the bad things that have happened in the world is due to Eve taking a bite of the forbidden fruit. Which places all the blame on Eve and shows the role that women play in society during that time, which is a lesser one.

“Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou liv’st / Live well, how long or short permit to Heav’n” (11.553-554).
Do not live in excess and do not live in hate. Just live well and as long as you do that, you will be able to get into Heaven.

“Judge not what is best / By pleasure, though to nature seeming meet, / Created, as thou art, to nobler end / Holy and pure, conformity divine” (11.603-606).
This quote suggests that Adam and Eve are not originally flawed as some people would argue, but that they are “holy and pure.” This quote also reveals that sin may look good, but it will corrupt you since you are created to be better than that.

“O visions ill forseen! Better had I / Lived ignorant of future, so had borne / my part of evil only” (11.763-765).
Adam is unable to cope with the visions that Michael shows him since they show how corrupt humankind will be because of the fall. The visions of death, disease, sin, and war give Adam a sense of worry and shame. Although once Adam is shown the vision of Noah he has hope again.

Those whom last thou saw’st

In triumph and luxurious wealth, are they

First seen in acts of prowess eminent

And great exploits, but of true virtue void;

Who having spilt much blood, and done much waste

Subduing nations, and achieved thereby

Fame in the world, high titles, and rich prey

Shall change their course to pleasure, ease, and sloth,

Surfeit, and lust, till wantonness and pride

Raise out of friendship hostile deeds in peace. (11.787-790)

Michael explains to Adam that even though the conquerors are seen as triumphant and successful, they lack obedience to God. Because they lack obedience they do not have a sense of morality, and because they do not have a sense of morality all the work that they did was all for naught, and they end up succombing to sin. This quote shows the importance of being obedient to God.

Critical Perspective

Free Will and Obedience in the Separation Scene of Paradise Lost
Diane Kelsey McColley

Article Summary:

McColley believes that the idea that the separation scene in Book IX of Paradise Lost is regarded as evidence that Milton portrays Eve as vain and willful and Adam as weak and uxorious before the Fall is not true. Because that would be implying that they are originally flawed and that their failure was inevitable, which would mean that their Maker would be responsible for all their sin and woe. She believes that Milton frequently denies that claim in his poetry and prose and, instead, believes that the separation scene portrays potentially sufficient beings in the process of healthful growth, facing difficulties and learning the meaning of obedience to God’s orders and imitation of God’s ways. Examples of which are Adam instructing Eve and preserving for her the dignity of choice, and Eve in responding creatively to her calling to help Adam both in caring for the Garden, which teaches the fruitfulness of a loving discipline, and caring for the “happier Eden” of fruitful marriage. McColley also believes that Eve’s obedience to Adam and to “God in him” depends on her liberty, preserved on their trust in God and their responsiveness to the whole creation. McColley states that the separation scene dramatizes not merely weaknesses Satan will exploit but, more importantly, virtues he will pervert, but which will be restored to responsive men in the process of regeneration.

Important Quotes:
“For if Adam and Eve are not sufficient as well as free, God will in effect have inclined the scale toward disobedience. Their responsibility for their conduct derives from their capacity to obey, which is the source of the dignity and freedom from which they fell ‘till one greater Man/ Restore us’” (104).
McColley is arguing that Adam and Eve are sufficient and have free will, and if they were not sufficient and free, then God would have to regard their actions as a form of disobedience. In order for them to take responsibility for their actions, they need to be able to take in orders. Because Adam and Eve are able to take responsibility for their actions and take orders, they are able to have dignity and freedom. With this dignity and freedom, however, they have a choice of what they should do with it and Adam and Eve made the choice to Fall. Without free will and a sense that their existence is a part of a much bigger picture then there would be no future. In Book 11 of Paradise Lost God tells Michael to present Adam with visions of the future as long as Adam and Eve are obedient to Him. Because they are sufficient and free and agree to leave Paradise because that is what God has commanded them to do, God recognizes their obedience towards Him and allows Michael to show them the future. It would be impossible for God to regard their actions as a form of obedience if they were not “sufficient as well as free.”

“Adam’s respect for Eve’s liberty, though imitating God’s for his own, is then a first step in the Fall, in which Satan’s only part has been a dream incongruous with their whole experience in Eden” (105).
The beginning of Adam and Eve’s fall was when Adam agreed to let Eve go off on her own in Book 9 of Paradise Lost. Although that was the first action that set into motion the Fall of Adam and Eve, the reasoning behind that was a positive one. Adam only allowed Eve her liberty because he felt that that is something that God would do. Since Adam’s intentions are good, he can not be blamed for the Fall. Also, Satan’s only involvement in this entire thing was implanting a dream into Eve, which was blatantly obvious to be a bad omen.

“Milton makes the experience of Adam and Eve before the Fall pertinent to our own is not by showing that they, like us, were congenitally enslaved by their own passions, but by showing that we, like them, have the opportunity either to enslave ourselves or to exercise our restored free will in response to God’s providence” (107).
McColley believes that Milton makes the experience of Adam and Eve, pre-Fall, much like our own experience, by not being enslaved by their own passions, but rather have the opportunity either to enslave themselves or to exercise our restored free will in response to God’s providence. Because Milton creates a strong connection between us, as people, and Adam and Eve, it supports the idea that they are not congenitally bad, or else we would have to agree that we, ourselves, are congenitally bad as well. Because Adam and Eve are not congenitally bad, Adam and Eve are proven to be sufficient beings that McColley is arguing that they are. Also, because they are sufficient beings, God is able to forgive them for their actions in Book 11 of Paradise Lost.

“The awareness of their place in the order of creation which the lesson of temperance can infuse and its trial strengthen promotes a balanced growth free from any obsession, such as Satan’s bondage to pride, which would limit responsive love” (110).
Adam and Eve are self-knowing, and because they are self-knowing, they are able to recognize their place in the order of creation. Because they are able to recognize their place in the order of creation they will not fall into the same trap that Satan fell into. Since Satan went against his place in the order of creation, he became obsessed with going against God. Adam and Eve are free from that obsession because they are obedient to God and are strengthened by the trial of the Tree of Knowledge.

“That Eve’s love for Adam is a voluntary and growing love is the point of her initial motion towards self-love; she must move from knowledge of herself to understanding of the nature and the needs of others” (111).
This quote represents progression of Eve’s growth. Eve starts out as seemingly vain since she falls in love with her own image when she sees her reflection in a pool of water. Although that is just the beginning of her progression. She must first love herself in order to love Adam because that is the natural progression of things. She realizes that Adam is worthier of her love because, unlike her image, Adam is tangible. It also makes her love for Adam more meaningful since it is voluntary.

“Adam’s admission to Raphael of his own potential for intemperate affection and forgetfulness of his leadership is also and indication not only of Adam’s infirmity but of his awareness of it and desire to master it” (112).
This quote represents the growth of Adam. Not only does Adam admit to his intemperate affection and his lack of leadership when he is talking to Raphael in Book 8, but he also expresses his desire to overcome his faults. It shows Adam wanting to improve himself and become even more sufficient. Since McColley’s argument relies on Adam and Eve being sufficient beings in order to dispute the argument that they are originally flawed, this quote helps to enforce her argument.

“Whether at the moment of temptation Eve is, as Milton says she is, ‘yet sinless’ (IX, 659), and thus free to make a responsible choice, depends on whether, like Satan, she departs with the fixed mind of obstinancy or, like the Son, with a generous and potentially productive purpose” (112-113).
McColley creates parallels between Eve and Satan, and Eve and the Son. Just like Satan and the Son of God, Eve falls. Satan falls because of his refusal to accept God’s decision to make the Son his second in command, but the Son falls because He wants to take responsibility for the sins of mankind. So the cause of Satans fall is selfish, while the cause of the Son’s fall is generous, and since Eve has free will, she has the choice to make a selfish or generous decision. McColley is leaning towards Eve having a generous and productive purpose during her fall since she, as Milton describes, is yet sinless.

“It is true also that Michael reprimands Adam’s accusation of woman as the source of woe by accusing rather ‘Mans effeminate slackness’ (XI, 633); but this slackness is not in allowing Eve the freedom which just authority is instituted to preserve, but in stooping to join her in sin rather than trusting divine providence and using his own unfallen virtue to free her from it” (118).
McColley believes that the Fall was not just Eve’s fault, which is what Adam accuses Eve of, but rather they are both equally at fault. Because Adam did not enforce his authority on Eve and put his faith in God, he is just as guilty as she is in the Fall of man. Adam and Eve are to learn from this ordeal in order to become more obedient and more trusting in God.

“Their capacity for pride and intemperance is balanced by their mutual concern that human love, like all love is the divinely appointed order, should remain generous---neither possessive nor fugitive nor straitened by a foe; and such love, as Raphael has explained, is the reason for free will and the purpose of creation” (120).
McColley justifies the separation between Adam and Eve by explaining it in terms of love. Even though they are prideful and intemperate they still love each other, and that love, since it is pure, should be generous and not be possessive. McColley also relates the love that Adam and Eve have for each other to the love that God has for them, and it is because of God’s love, that Adam and Eve were created and have been given free will.

“What the episode proves is not that Adam and Eve are congenitally weak but that they are developing individuals who are responsible for their actions because their wills are free; and this responsibility is necessary both to the justice of their chastening and to their capacity for regeneration” (120).
This is the basis of McColley’s argument. She believes that the separation scene between Adam and Eve is not proof that they are weak, but it is instead a testament to how much they have grown as individuals who are taking responsibility for their actions and have free will. Their ability to be responsible for their actions and to freely decide their own fate allows them to make it through being banished from the Garden and be responsible for building the future for mankind. Without free will and obedience Adam and Eve would not be able to withstand the ordeal of being evicted from Paradise.