Man and Nature after the Fall in John Miltons Paradise Lost Essay

Man and Nature after the Fall in Paradise Lost In Paradise Lost, the consequences of the fall and the change in relations between man and nature can best be discussed when we look at Miltons pre-fall descriptions of paradise and its inhabitants. Believing that fallen humans could never fully ascertain what life was like in Eden and the relationships purely innocent beings shared, Milton begins his depiction of Paradise and Adam and eve through the fallen eyes of Satan So little k straight offs Any, but God alone, to value right The good before him, but perverts best things To worse abuse, or to thir meanest use. Beneath him with new wonder now he views To all delight of human sense exposd In narrow room Natures whole wealth, yea more, A Heaven on Earth for lucky Paradise Of God the Garden was, by him in the East Of Eden planted... (IV, 201-210) Milton presents a symbolic landscape, a garden that certainly was created by a manufacturing business power. Eden is fertile, andAll Trees of noblest kind for sight, smell taste (IV, 217) grow in abundance blooming with fruit. There are, mountains, hills, groves, a river, and other earthly delights. Adam and Eve live in this paradise and their job is to tend to the garden They sat them down, and after no more toil/ Of thir sweet Gardning labor then sufficd (IV, 27-28). Although Eden works harmoniously with Adam and Eve, allowing them to partake of its abundance, it also lives and thrives on its own. Eden has a mind and is a living being, it is excessive and therefore dangerous because it has the effectiveness to choke itself, to smother everything in its path. When Milton first describes Adam and Eve, they are one with the Garden... ...strust and breach Disloyal on the part of Man, revolt, And disobedience on the part of Heavn straightway alienated, distance and distaste... (PL. IX, 1-9) Works Cited and Consulted Elledge, Scott, ed. Paradise Lost An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Sources, Criticism. Ne w York Norton, 1975. Fox, Robert C. The Allegory of Sin and Death in Paradise Lost. Modern Language quarterly 24 (1963) 354-64. Lewis, C. S. A Preface to Paradise Lost. Rpt. New York Oxford UP, 1979. Milton, John. Paradise Lost. In John Milton Complete Poems and Major Prose. Ed. Merritt Y. Hughes. Indianapolis 1980. OKeeffe, Timothy J. An Analogue to Miltons Sin and More on the Tradition. Milton Quarterly 5 (1971) 74-77. Patrick, John M. Milton, Phineas Fletcher, Spenser, and Ovid--Sin at Hells Gates. Notes and Queries Sept. 1956 384-86.