Paradise Lost-damned and saved
Looking at John Milton's Paradise Lost, we can see that there are the two ideas of damnation and salvation through reconciliation present in the characters of Satan and Adam & Eve, respectively. It is Satan's sin of pride that first causes him to fall from God's grace and into the bowels of hell. This same pride is also what keeps him from being able to be reconciled to God, and instead, leads him to buy into his own idea of saving himself. With Adam & Eve, we see that although they too, disobeyed God, they repented of their sin, and were reconciled to the Divinity through the saving judgement of the Son. It is their ability to admit their wrongdoings to God that allow them to have the promise of returning to Paradise (Heaven); something that Satan was not able to do. In the fourth book in Paradise Lost, we see Satan wrestling with himself over what has happened (his fall), and what it is he is about to do (his completely setting himself against God). He is able to recognize that God's forgiving nature extends even to himself, "I could repent and could obtain By Act of Grace, my former state", and is if only for a moment, unsure as to "which way I shall fly"? However, Satan knowingly chooses to cling to his foolish prid
Adam chose to partake of the forbidden fruit, also knowing full well that was against the will of God, chose to do so anyhow due to his excessive love for Eve, "thou hast yielded to transgress the strict forbiddance... against his better knowledge, not deciev'd but fondly overcome with female charm". In the case of both Satan and Adam, both loved the creation more than was healthy for them: Adam loved Eve (parts of creation), and Satan loved himself, not realizing that he, himself, was a part of creation (pride). As a result of this excessive love that was not directed towards God, they would fall. However, it is Adam who is able to recognize his sin of disproportionate love of Eve that caused his fall, and bring about a desire in him to seek repentance, "humbly thir faults, and pardon begged with tears". Satan realized that he would not be able to catch both man & woman together, so tempted Eve when she was alone, relating to her in a way very similar to his own fall from grace. When Eve was asked by the serpent, she replies that the one restriction placed upon her and Adam was that "the fruit of this fair tree... ye shall not eat thereof, nor shall ye touch it lest ye die". When he explains to her that she would not actually "die", but instead become discerning such as God, it appealed to her desire to be equal to or more powerful than Adam, and so she fell. Although she, like Satan, fell because of her prideful a
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Approximate Word count = 967
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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