The Loss Of Faith And The Absence Of Reason: A Study Of Body In Milton's Paradise Lost

Milton depicted Satan as a hero for his daring,dauntless,and intrepid spirit in book one and book two in Paradise Lost for the sake of art or might under the influence of his revolutionary experience or the suppression,but it didn't mean that the devoted Christian Milton wanted to subvert the Biblical tradition or support Satan.This thesis aims to analyze Milton's Christian ideology and his criticism on Satan's changeable body shape,the loss of faith,and the absence of reason about Adam and Eve through Satan's body transformation and Adam and Eve's body descriptions.The introduction puts forward the main idea of this thesis,literature review,major points and researching method.Lots of critics paid much attention to space,humanism,the image of Satan,cosmology in the 17 th century and so on.Few researches have touched the body as a narrative strategy to analyze Milton's Christian ideology –faith and reason in Paradise Lost.,which gives the possibility to this thesis.Chapter one is about body transformation of Satan;Satan slipped into Eden secretly and changed his body shape fluently to protect himself and fight against God,firstly he changed himself into the beast,then the bird,finally the Serpent.Symbolically speaking,the body transformation stands for Satan's continuous degeneration and his eternal doomed destiny.The conclusion can be drawn that Milton was a pious Christian and Milton narrated Satan's changing body so as to critique Satan's loss of faith in God.The fall of Satan lies in his desire for power which usurped his reason and enslaved him.Chapter two is about body description of Eve;Eve was seduced by the Serpent to eat the forbidden fruit which was prohibited by God.Because she listened to the Serpent's voice and language that if she ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge she could become as clever as Adam and other angels in Heaven.So Eve lost the faith because she was under the driven of desire,which result she lost her reason and ate the forbidden fruit.The other reason she lost her reason lies in she without Adam's accompany.Here Milton created the image of Eve;he would love to show his criticism on women who easily lost their sensibility because they were easily under the driven of desire and they were easily deceived by sweet utterance and the beautiful appearanceChapter three is about the body description of Adam,as we all know that Adam was the one who could represent reason in Bible.Whatever he did,he was always be there and kept accompany with Eve,so the Serpent could not have chance to seduce Eve.After they separated,Eve lost her reason and she was seduced by the Serpent,not only did she eat the forbidden fruit,but she also asked Adam to eat it.Adam listened to Eve's voice and ignored God's prohibition.Milton believed that there was a conflict between reason and passion in the soul of human beings,so the fall of Adam was the triumph of passion over reason.The conclusion part puts Milton's true purpose when he created Satan,Adam and Eve in their bodies,Satan was not a hero instead he was the one who lost his faith through his constantly changed body shape and his rebellion against God.Eve's final fall was because she was under the driven of desire and her absence of Adam's company who represents reason,and she lost her reason,while Adam's fall was the triumph of passion over reason.So Adam's body as the carrier of Milton's criticism on Adam's submission to sensibility and passion.