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Paradise Lost and Volpone: Main Ideas and Key

Links
It is important to consistently evaluate differences in the tone of Jonson and Milton as they
explore immorality in their texts:

Paradise Lost is a consciously moral text with religious acknowledged didactic purposes.
Volpone is a theatrical entertainment with immorality mixed with inventive humour, making moral
judgements awkward.

Sources

Paradise Lost makes clear references to the Bible, consciously creating a new epic in the style of

the classics.
Volpone draws from the theatrical tradition of comedy (Aristotle) sourced in Commedia DellArte
continued through Renaissance drama.

The Nature of Wrongdoing


In Volpone, we see a cornucopia of sin: greed, deceit, lust, pride while in Paradise Lost, there is
theoretical sin, a simple disobedience, a failure of a test.
This is described in Book 8:

However, in Book 9 this law is transgressed:

This Paradise I give thee; count it thine


To till and keep, and of the fruit to eat.
Of every tree that in the Garden grows
Eat freely with glad heart; fear here no
dearth
But of the tree whose operation brings
Knowledge of good and ill, which I have set,
The pledge of thy obedience and thy faith.
Amid the garden by the tree of life
Remember what I warn thee shun to taste,
And shun the bitter consequence for know,
The day thou eatst thereof, my sole command
Transgressed, inevitably thou shalt die (Book
VIII, 299-330)

So inflame my sense
With ardour to enjoy thee, fairer now
Than ever; bounty of this virtuous tree!
So said he, and forbore not glance or toy
Of amorous intent, well understood
Of Eve, whose eyes darted contagious fire.
Her hand he seized; and to a shady bank,
Thick overhead with verdant roof embowered,
He led her, nothing loth; flowers were the
couch,
Pansies and violets, and asphodel,
And hyacinth; earths freshest, softest lap,
There they their fill of love and loves disport
Took largely, of their mutual guilt the seal,
The solace of their sin; till dewy sleep
Oppressed them, wearied with their amourous
play.
(Book IX, 1031-1045)

Milton is much less ironic than Jonson his use of blank verse is more stately and formal

Pride: the greatest of sins


Pride is one of the seven deadly sins the top of the list. Overwhelming Pride (hubris) was what
drove Lucifer, the brightest of angels, to rebel against God.
Your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Aspiration to transcend
position e.g. overwhelm God sin of Pride: leads inexorably to Eves downfall.
C. S. Lewis reminds us how Satan appeals to Eves sense of personal pride (targets her
vulnerabilities and obsessions) The serpent, tells her first that she is very beautiful (9, 53241)she ought to be adored and served by angels: she would be queen of heaven if all had their
rights (9, 542-48).
Sin and the senses
Hierarchy of the senses the more material and physical something was the less spiritual it is: the mind
and the soul were usually perceived as being higher spiritually than the body; feeding the soul was
better than feeding the body. This makes an interesting issue for both texts.
Eve (and Volpone) aspires to fill both: inviting to the Taste, / Of vertue to make wise; what hinders
then / To reach, and feed at once both Bodie and Mind?
In Areopagitica, Miltons great defence of the concept of a free press, there is a long passage
defending God from the charge that He put temptation (both Eve and apple) in the way of Adam.

Milton argues that Eve and Adam were free to choose or reject an object that appealed to their
sensuous desires. It was not up to God.
Deception and the falseness of appearance Temptation as Performance (links well to Volpone)

Satan is compared to a Roman orator As when of old som Orator renound

Satans temptation is a performance

Critical interpretation, Alistair Fowler The implication is that Satan, besides talking
persuasively, is acting a part

Sin, goodness and choice


Throughout Paradise Lost, Milton associates evil and goodness with a choice:
Yet first / Pausing a while, thus to herself she mused
Satans motivation
In Book 1, Satan will destroy for its own sake:
Of this be sure
To do august good never will be our task
But ever to do ill our soul delight
As being the contrary to this high will
Whom we resist

Satan takes delight in tempting Eve: Hope elevates, and joy / brightens his Crest he delights
in the success of his plan to deceive Eve

But is Eve just a means to an end YES But the hot Hell that always in him burned / Though
in mid Heaven, soon ended his delight, / And tortures him now more

This sense of delight in seeing Eve is distinct to the delight he gains in his commitment to do
ill

Revenge is political not moral: power play and vengeful.

Moral complications of entangling innocents in his revenge.

Miltons Presentation of the Deception and Temptation of Eve


Paradise Lost: Structural Comparisons (Pre and Post-Lapsarian)

Milton refuses to call the snake innocent even before Satan enters him. Instead he stresses the fallen
root of the word, nocent [harmful], of which the unfallen counterpart, innocent, is merely a kind of
frail denial. So the snake is not innocent, but, much more ominously, nor nocent yet (l. 186). A second
example is when, on Adam and Eves first appearance at l. 205, we are told of the luxurious and wanton
growth of the plants of paradise their unfallen labour strives to keep pace with by means of astute
pruning. But because we know the story, and because we, too, are subject to the mortal sin /Original
(IX,1003-04) we cannot help but hear ominous pre-echoes behind both adjectives.
As Ricks points out, before the fall luxurious is a harmless horticultural word; but its fallen
meaning jostles against it here. Likewise, and more ominously, wanton, for in this case the unfallen
meaning suggests an absence of discipline, the fallen meaning sexual promiscuity. Another example of
this jostling of innocent with less innocent meaning comes when Adam and Eve part at line 385. In the
innocent world from her husbands hand her hand / Soft she withdrew means that her hand was
delicate and incapable of guile; but on the edge of the Fall the same line has a faint mixed suggestion of
frailty and deceit, much as the adverb and adjective (the meaning is both soft and softly) mingle in
Miltons impressionistic grammar.
Immediately Eve is compared with a wood-nymph light,/Oread or Dryad. The unfallen sense is
to celebrate the delicacy and charm of the Pastoral World. But think of Eves soft insidiousness for a
moment and the fallen meaning is predominant, with the Oreads and Dryads reduced to available eyecandy, the pagan Pastoral they have strayed in from suddenly suspicious and our first mother alight
woman on the cusp of catastrophe. Finally, note how on opposite sides of the Fall the most familiar
words, such as wound, complicate their meaning. In Book 8, before the Fall, wound is a creative word,
Adam the male mother rejoicing at how quickly his birth scars healed when Eve was brought forth from
his side, though wide was the wound (8,467). By the climax of Book 9, however, the wound made by
original sin is more terrible, more destructive, and more generally felt (earth felt the wound). This
breach never heals for the rest of human history.
The Deception
Satan is compared to a ship tacking into the wind As when as ship by skilful Streasmen wrought / Nigh
Rivers moth or foreland, where the Wind / Veres of, as oft so steers, and shifts her Saile
- Use of sibilance
- Indirect and weaving motion Satan is indirect, devious but also determined
Satan entering the serpent
Nature is at this point unfallen there is no harm in nature, without the thorn, the rose (Book 4) and
the serpent fearless unfired he slept (animals do not harm each other, so the serpent is unafraid and
no one is afraid of it).

Theres also the description of the sleeping serpent In Labyrinth of many a round self-rowld, / His
head the midst, well stood with subtle wiles a possible indication of a flaw in Gods pre-lapsarian
world?
He is also compared to other serpents:
Hermione and Cadmus transformed into snakes in Illyria for disbelieving that Dionysus was a god
Aesculapious, the god of healing, was represented in the temple at Epidaurus as a flashing-eyed serpent
Contentious Point at Line 631: Eve uses an imperative Lead then, acting as if she is in control, but
indeed Satan is rejoicing at his triumph, his hope expounding like a blazing fire.
Satan
Vocabulary

Eve

So glistered the dire Snake

Reporting
clauses

To whom thus Eve yet sinless builds


anticipation and suspense foreshadowing.
credulous mother (gullible)
impregned with reason, to her seeming, and
with truth

Evaluative
language

the Tempter

Central in the line central contradiction


pulls all apart; they are deceiving her; and the
deception is ongoing.
Her rash hand in evil hour

Semantic field of trickery/deceit

Emotive
language

guileful Tempter wilie adder, blithe


and glad guilefully replied words
replete with guile
into her heart too easy entrance won

Epic simile

Satans movement is described by


Satan is compared to a famous Orator, namely
Milton as when a wandering Fire /
Cicero, who used to tremble before a speech:
Compact of unctuous vapor, which the
marks it out as the climactic beginning New
Night / Condenses, and the cold environs parts put on, and as to passion moved, /
round, / Kindld through agitation to a
Flame, / Which oft. they say, some evil Fluctuates disturbed, yet comely and in act /
Spirit attends / hovering and blazing
Raised, as of some greater matter to begin. /
with delusive Light
This fire is said to mislead the amazed
Night-wanderer into Bogg and Mires As when of old som Orator renowned /
/ Pond or Poole
In Athens or free Rome, where Eloquence /
Reflects how it will mislead Eve
delusive Light fire is
perverse/destructive not the Holy

Flourished, since mute

light of God.

Connotation

made intricate seem straight he


makes the dubious seem inconsequential
and genuine.

Sibilance

so talked the spirited sly snake

Grammatical
inversion

Poetic form

* Begins 3 lines with a verb, building up to the


proleptic speech of Satan.

yet more amazed unwairie (adjectives in


succession)
Alliteration Fixed on the fruit she
gazed f the attention to the fruit
consumes her entirely.

into the heart of Eve his words made


Personification way into her heart too easy entrance
won

Repeated use of verbs in present participle


form Sp standing, moving builds up the pace.
Use of asyndeton she plucked, she ate
crescendo.
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her
seat / Sighing through all her Works gave
signs of woe / That all was lost

Satans Techniques of Persuasion


Flattery: Sovran mistress / rhetorical questions Who sees thee? (And what is one?) who shouldst
been / A Goddess among Gods, adored and served / By angels numberless (use of duplication paired
synonyms creates flattery)
Description of his ascendance: I was at first / Till on a day time phrases Aspiration to higher
form of being Apprehended nothing high
Sensual descriptions of taste: seduction: fairest colours mixed, ruddie and gold savorie odour
blown, grateful to appetite, more pleased my sense the smell of sweetest
Plosive alliteration: powerful persuaders strength of hunger and thirst legitimises the fill
Descriptions of consequences: with capacious mind considered all things Visible in heaven, or earth,
or middle, all things fair and good (asyndetic repetition)
Personal subjugation: appeals to Eves aspirations to power and Godhead Empress If thou accept my
conduct, I can bring thee thither soon
Rhetorical questions: Indeed? / Shall that be shut to an, which to the Beast / is open?
Use of imperatives: Do not believe / Those rigid threats of Death; ye shalt not die (since he has not)
confused logic he then assures Eve God will not kill her because he will be impressed at her facing
death; Satans ability to reason is flailing

Undermines the pretenses of Eden that Eve rests her arguments on just as Eve did to Adam and again plays to her want to aspire to greatness: Why but to awe / Why but to keep ye low and
ignorant ye should be as Gods, since I as Man

Why does Eve Eat the Fruit? Miltons Exploration of Temptation (compared to
Jonsons presentation of greed)
Forbids us then to taste, but his
forbidding /

[He forbids us to taste, but his forbidding

Commends thee more

Makes you more attractive, as it speaks of the good

While it infers the good

Which you can bring, and how we need it:]

By thee communicated, and our want


For good unknown, sure is not had, or had
And yet unknown, is as not had at all.
In plain then, what forbids he but to know,
Forbids us good, forbids us to be wise?
[For if we dont know we are given good
things, then there is no good,
Or if we do have them and dont know it,
then its as if we dont really have them.

Defended freedom of the press (books were licensed by a


govt. official). But Milton argued that evil was allowed into
the world to show good by contrast and to enable us to
exercise out virtue in choosing to reject it.
It was from out the rind of one apple tasted, that the
knowledge of good and evilleapt forth into the World.
And perhaps this is the doom which Adam feel into of
knowing good and evil, that is to say of knowing good by
evil

It was from the skin of a single apple that the knowledge


Put simply then, what is he forbidding us but
of good and evil leapt forward into the world; perhaps
knowledge? Is he forbidding us good,
Adams real punishment was that thereafter he would need
forbidding us to be wise?
the contrast of evil to discover what is good.
Such rules cannot be binding.]

Possibility that Milton is suggesting that decision to eat


These lines relate directly to Miltons ideas the apple was the right decision for the future of
about censorship and the suggestion that humankind.
the decision to eat the apple may have
been best for man in the long run.
She rejects the possibility of death,
assurance by the Serpents survival. She is
deceived, believing the Serpent farr from
deceit or guile
She is further won over by its sensual
attraction, as if she has been seduced: this
Fruit Divine, / Fair to the Eye, inviting to
the Taste

She eats out of ignorance; she wants to remedy her


obliviousness Under this ignorance of good and Evil / Of
God or Death, of Law or Penaltie? Here grows the Cure of
all

Temptation: in what ways can it be described as a seduction?


Movement of the serpent: Circular motion Fould above could a surging maze, his Head / crested aloft
symbol of deception: circling spires semantic field associated with furtive, deceptive trickery.
Milton represents circling as symbolic of deception; and Satan being trapped in error
Relates to Satans false logic in his speeches as circular rhetoric contradictions e.g. in tempting Eve he
assures her she will not die, since he has not: Ye shall not Dielook on me, me who have touched and
tasted, yet both live but then succeeds this argument by saying that God will applaud her dauntless
virtue, whom the pain / of death denounced

Group of wandering words; tract oblique side-long way shifts varied torturous
implications about Satans methods of creating a maze
seduction words: wanton fawning sexual temptation; glory of his shape Pleasing was his
shape, / And lovely, never since of Serpent kind / lovelier and colours His head crested aloft,
and Carbuncle his neck, with burnish Neck of verdant Gold attraction, beauty and
sophistication the pre-lapsarian serpent will not just deceive but seduce Eve.

Form

Milton uses monologue/soliloquy in his epic poem, since he intended to write Paradise Lost as a
tragedy there are dramatic qualities to the poem.

Use of monologue/soliloquy engages audience sympathy in Paradise Lost, and to some extent
achieves the same in Volpone though Mosca/Volpone display negative qualities in their soliloquy
to a greater extent than Satan in Paradise Lost.

Critical Viewpoints on the Fall

Peter Weston
Her passions, as a result of flattery, are ruling
her reason

Sensual desire for the fruit: this Fruit Divine, /


Fair to the Eye, inviting to the Taste
His words replete with guile / Into her heart too
easy entrance won

Alastair Fowler

Redouble then this miracle, and say,

Milton is unusually favourable to Evein making


her asking the serpent how it came by its voice.

How can though speakable of mute?

The Eve of Genesis is carried away by the


words, and makes no enquiry to their source
Genesis less favourable to Eve but as claimed by
Diana K. McColley Milton raises her
immeasurably above other Eves of art and story,
opening new possibilities of dialogue for the

The Bible:
One-dimensional, superficial Eve; we gain no insight
into her internal thoughts or reasoning not does
she question the Serpent as she does here (the
questioning presents a degree of interrogation, she
is not a wholly credulous mother)

reading family at every turn

And the woman said unto the serpent No


indication of her skepticism as in Paradise Lost

Sandra M Gilbert

Satan uses these misogynistic undertones:

Milton tells the story of womans secondness,


Why [would God forbid you to eat if only to] keep
her otherness, and how that otherness leads
you low and ignorant.
inexorably to her demonic anger, her sin, her fall
This entices Eve because she feels that she can
surpass her seemingly weaker state, and maybe be
considered Adams equal, which compels her to eat.
Eve refers to herself as the weaker sex:
Nor much expect / A foe so proud would first the
weaker seek
Milton shows that through flattery, Eve is easily
turned from Gods grace to sin, showing her
superficial nature a common conception of women.
Line positioning: Goddess humane, reach then, and
freely taste
He ended and his words replete with guile / into
her heart too easy entrance won
Later refers to the fruit as divine associates
herself with the Godhead the Serpent has
dedicated to her: the serpent appeals to her sense
of pride (one of the Seven Deadly Sins).
C.S. Lewis
Thus Eve, as C.S. Lewis demonstrates in A
Preface to Paradise Lost, fell, like Satan himself
before her, of her own free will, through appeals
to her personal pride.
The serpent, Lewis reminds us, tells her first
that she is very beautiful (9, 532-41)she ought
to be adored and served by angels: she would be
queen of heaven if all had their rights (9,54248).
The freedom of conscience to do ones duty with
dignity and humility, avoiding an exaggerated or
obsessive sense of self-worth, is possibly the
great legacy of Miltons career as poet, patriot
and politician, and the need for us to make free,
inspired choices, as its poet does continually, is

Serpents use of flattery


Sovran mistress / rhetorical questions Who sees
thee? (And what is one?) who shouldst been / A
Goddess among Gods, adored and served / By angels
numberless
Eves responses: into the heart of Eve his words
made way
Milton criticises Eves choice but defends her right
to choose it: he demonstrates the important of free
will but underlines that an obsessive sense of selfworth should be avoided.

lodged at the heart of his masterpiece, Paradise


Lost.
Dr Johnson
There appears in his books something like a
Turkish contempt of females, as subordinate and
inferior beings

In lines 423-444 the reader is exposed to Satans


wish and hope that he find Eve alone is fulfilled.
As stated above, this is an important part of book 9
because it shows that women are thought of to be
vulnerable and incapable of resisting temptation.
Satan indicates that Eve is intellectual inferior Her
husband.whose higher intellectual more I shun, and
strength, of courage hautie, and of limb heroic
built
This turns out to be true because Satan is able to
convince Eve to eat the fruit. The reasons for Eve
indulging in this one guilt, one crime (Line 971) is
to defy death and prove that she is in charge of her
own will:
This is ironic in a way because she is completely
persuaded by Satan to eat the fruit.
Eve refers to herself as the weaker sex:
Nor much expect / A foe so proud would first the
weaker seek
Modern readers will be surprised to hear Miltons
narrator absolve Adam of some of the guilt for the
Fall because he was fondly overcome with female
charm;
Another sexist moment comes at ll. 232-33, where
Adam tells us nothing lovelier can be found / In
woman than to study household good

Diana K. McColley
It should be pointed out that in the twentieth
century feminist commentators tended to find
Eves hints of sturdy independence attractive,
and also (sometimes) as recalling Miltons own
tendency to question authority and rebel. In the
separation colloquy (Book 9) writes Diane K.
McColley in a recent Milton Companion, principles
very like Miltons own move Eve to decline to
let Satans threat interfere with their
liberties and the pursuit of their callings.

Eve:
If this be our condition, thus to dwell
In narrow circuit straitnd by a Foe,
Suttle or violent, we not endud
Single with like defence, wherever met,
How are we happie, still in fear of harm

The Fruit: What is on Offer for Volpone and Eve?


The fruits impact is delusory it acts of
Passion and Appetites not reason: it takes
the eater away from Godhead on a downward
path.

She who thought it beneath her dignity to bow to


Adam or to God, now worships a vegetable

O sovran, vertuous, precious of all Trees

Volpones worship of gold as a god:

In Paradise, of operation blest


To Sapience

Hail the worlds soul, and mine.


O, though son of Sol.

C. S. Lewis

Volpone as a play demonstrates the effects of gold to


be delusory just as the fruit; it shows the folly of
human perceptions.
Eve deludes herself about the effects of the Eve cannot comprehend Adam enjoying happiness
fruit?
wedded to another Eve and so decides that Adam
shall share with me in bliss or woe: so dear I love him
Perhaps may
C. S. Lewis referred to this plan as murder

Temptation
Eve is tempted by Satan; Adam is tempted by Eve.

The legacy hunters and tempted by Mosca (and


Volpone); Celia is tempted by Volpone.

Promise of knowledge; taste; Godhead.

Promise of material wealth; promise of


restorative qualities of ointment.

Techniques used:

Techniques used:

The Serpents bid for Eve to enjoy the sensual


delights of the fruit, and its promise of Godhead.

Volpones Faustus-like bid for Celias imagination

Ye Eate thereof, your eyes that seem so cleere,


Yet are but dim, shall perfectly be then
Opened and cleerd, and ye shall be as Gods,
Knowing both Good and Evil as they know.
Personal ye repeated
Future tense shall
Appeals to Godhead ye shall be as Gods

(and person) in 3:7:


If thou hast wisdom, hear me, Celia.
Thy baths shall be the juice of July-flowers,
Spirit of roses, and of violets,
The milk of unicorns, and panthers breath
Gatherd in bags, and mixt with Cretan wines
(3:7, 411-14).
Celia resists Volpones sensual advances;
retorting that her minds innocence is all I can
think wealthy and she Cannot be taken by these

sensual baits
Appeals to the senses a better life
Personal me Celia If thou
Future tense shall

Seduction
Movement of the serpent: Circular motion Fould
above could a surging maze, his Head / crested
aloft symbol of deception: circling spires
semantic field associated with furtive, deceptive
trickery.
* Group of wandering words; tract oblique sidelong way shifts varied torturous
implications about Satans methods of creating a
maze

* seduction words: wanton fawning sexual


temptation; glory of his shape Pleasing was his
shape, / And lovely, never since of Serpent kind /
lovelier and colours His head crested aloft, and
Carbuncle his neck, with burnish Neck of verdant
Gold attraction, beauty and sophistication the
pre-lapsarian serpent will not just deceive but
seduce Eve.

Volpone Comparison
Aye, before
I would have left my practice for thy love,
In varying figures I would have contended
With the blue Proteus, or the horned flood.
Now, art thou welcome
Use of flattery: for thy love just as Serpent
adores Eve as his Sovran mistress universally
admired; both appeal to the vanity of the women
(rather misognistic) however, to different
results:
Eve: into the heart of Eve his words made way
Celia: Sir! / These things might move a mind
affect by such delights Celia transcends
sensual appeals and rejects the temptation
she is unaffected by the flattery and appeals to
personal pride.
But: Volpones persuasion is far more superficial
than the Serpents; he only ever offers her
material acquisitions score up sums of pleasures
but the Serpent offers knowledge of Good and
Evil and deceptively promises that Eve can
better her mind; there are two levels to Satans
seduction (flattery but also the promise of
ascension), therefore whilst Celia rejects sensual
delights, Eve submits to the promise of
Godhead feed at once both Bodie and Mind.
Celias virtue is stronger than Eves, she has
stronger resolution to retaining her innocence
innocence is all I can think wealthy but Eve is

willing to sacrifice this for the promise of


ascension; agreeing with the Serpent she will
die (her innocence) to become a God So ye
shall die perhaps, by putting off /Human, to put
on Gods

Relationships
Attempts at Diplomacy: Sharing the Labour in Eden (I. 192 384)
The commune how that day they best may ply / Their growing work: for much their work outgrew / The hands
dispatch of two gardening so wide
Eve: We labour still to dress / This garden, still to tend plant, herb and flour, / Our pleasant task enjoyed, but
till more hands / Aid us, the work under our labour grows, / Luxurious by restraint
Let us divide our labours
Our days works brought to little, though begun / Early, and the hour of supper comes unearned
Adam: Yet not so strictly hath our Lord imposed / Labour, as to debar us when we need / Refreshment
For not to irksome toil, but to delight / He made us
Adam and Eve have differing responses to the work: Eve considers the tasks necessary to be completed
with efficiency, with this being the primary aim, not enjoyment. Adam however asserts that God allowed
them to enjoy their labours leisurely, with the refreshment of smiles/talk/food, and not have to toil
endlessly.
Husband and wife
Adam praises Eves concern over how best to carry out their work, saying nothing lovelier can be found / in
woman, then to studio household good, / and good works in her husband to promote
Adam demonstrates his bounding love for Eve willingness to pacify her by granting her request reluctantly,
saying But if much converse perhaps / thee satiate, to short absence I could yield. / For solitude sometimes is
best society, / And short retirement urges sweet return
Affection for Eve is at the forefront of Adams mind; he wishes to work with her to enjoy her company, sweet
intercourse, and sees the possibility of increasing his love if she was to depart.
Adam stresses how husband and wife can help each other: Each / to other speedy aide might lend at need

Thee wife, where danger o dishonour lurks, safest and seemliest by her Husband stays, who guards her, or
with her the worst endures
Evident that Adam sees his role as Eves protecter but that he also expects the same of her Not then mistrust,
but tender love enjoins, That I should mind thee oft, and mind thou me
Eve bargains with her husband intent on her separation.
Eve and Adams understanding of the possible threat that faces them
For thou knows / What hath bin warned us, what malicious foe / Envying our happiness, and of his own /
Despairing, seeks to work us woe and shame / By sly assault
What does the malicious foe threaten?
Whether his first design be to withdraw / Our fealty from God, or to disturb /Conjugal Love, then which
perhaps no bliss / Enjoyed by us excites his envie more
Adam suggests that the beast envies their Conjugal Love more than anything again Milton stresses Adams
affection for Eve.

The Separation Debate


The only extended prelapsarian conversation of Adam and Eve they are they first parents of humanity
and its proto-types
Adam 227 270

Eve 273 290

How Adam is persuaded:

Eves revelation of the threat is distinct from


Adams: Adam displayed a threat of assault but
Eve responds by saying that the threat is, and can
only be, only of possible temptation his fraud is
then thy fear (as neither can imagine pain/death
and therefore cannot fear it)

For solitude sometimes is best societie,


And short retirement urges sweet return
How he reveals the threat:
Whether his first design be to withdraw / Our
fealty from God, or to disturb / Conjugal Love,
then which perhaps no bliss / Enjoyed by us
excites his envie more
Threat to obedience of God / marital love
Threat is sly malicious

How do Eves responses relate to the marriage


relationship?
Eves sweet austere composure and refusal to
submit to Adams warnings and direction suggests
that the relationship Milton presents is distinctly
pre-lapsarian

Use of buts structure the argument and


directly contest, and then yield to, Eve: but to
delight he made us / but if much covers
perhaps thee satiate / but other doubt
possesses me

After the Fall, in Genesis, Adam is given the


position as ruler, but here Milton presents a more
egalitarian view of marriage where Eves
arguments are as reasons and strong as Adams.

Adam 291 321

Eve 322 343

Adam uses key terms of argument: Says to Eve


that he wants to prevent an assault altogether,
because of the insult it will cause: dishonour
foul

Eve directly rebuts Adam using the same words he


used in his speech J Martin Evans Milton has
balanced the argument between Adam and Eve so
evenly that its hard to know which side to be on

Proclaims the strength of them together, using


the key term virtue: I from the influence of
the thy looks receive access in every Vertue

Structures argument using ifs whilst Adam uses


buts

Uses the word trial: and thy trial choose with


me, best witness of thy virtue tried

If this be our conditionHow are we happy?


If this be so, And Eden were no Eden thus
exposed

Eve presents the threat as tempting then, Adam


focuses purely on the insult and dishonour caused Use of rhetorical questions has persuasive force:
she questions the foundations of Adams arguments
by the attempt (and not the success) of such as
the questioning tone undermines Adams response
threat.
by forcing him to consider the consequences of
what he has suggested.
The use of persistent questioning is accusatory: this
manner of speech suggests Adam and Eve are
equated in their marital tiff, and if anything, Adam
is the submissive to Eve.
Adam 342 375

Eve 378 384

Adam is persuaded to let Eve go as he come to


the conclusion that he should not force Eve to
work alongside side him against his will: Go; for
thy stay, not free, absents thee more

Fredson Bowers argued that Adam, as the


embodiment of reason, should have commanded
Eve, he embodiment of passion, not to go but
Bowers maintains that Miltons Eve is not
independently rational as well as sensual, and
thus he improperly denies Eve the full human
dignity that Milton gives her in the poem; he
denies that she is sufficient to stand, though
free to fall.

Adam allows Eve to Go emphatically position


as first syllable, marked further by a caesura
and therefore allows her autonomy; this
demonstrates Miltons progressive attitude to
marriage after his second and third wife more
egalitarian and independent.
Adam uses rhetorical questions Not seeing
thee attempted, who attest? trials will prove
the calibre of each of the,/
Adams final capitulation; not forcing Eve to stay

Yet submits, though last, replied Eve persists


humbly, though she has the last word.
She doesnt expect the enemy to seek the weaker,
and if he does, so much more will his humiliation be
when Eve refuses.

and allowing her to rely on what she hast of


vertue, summon all does this make him implicit
in her fall?

After she says this, she lets go of Adams hand


from her Husbands hand her hand soft she
withdrew this is an emblem. Clapsed hands
signified faithful love, so when Eve soft withdrew
By granting permission Adam becomes involved her hand from Adams Miltons encourages it to be
in what happens to her (Dennis H Burden)
seen as a betrayal.
And the comes the tragedy. Adam, whom Eve
expects to be firm, suddenly weakens (E. M.
W. Tillyard)
But Adam had to let Eve go to preserve her
liberty Joan S. Bennett
Things have gone awry from the startshe
assumes an air of injured dignityshe feels her
power, gets her way
Further Critics and Context: Adam and Eve
Basil Willey suggested that Milton had to attribute to Adam and Eve some of the frailties of
fallen humanity in order to make the prelapsarian perfection humanly convincing Miltons Adam
and Eve possessed vanity, curiosity and other passions that a perfect person would not feel.
Another suggestion is than Milton a Puritan viewed these emotional forces as not fallen or evil but
are the energies of creation that require restraining (just like the plants in Eden that tend to wild)
Milton in Areopagitica Wherefore did God create passions with us, pleasures round about us, but that
these rightly tempered are the very ingredients of vert?

Husbands and Wives


Corvino and Celia patriarchal, abusive,
hierarchal relationship devoid of love or
affection; retains regressive attitudes still
present in 17th Century than husband should
dominate the wife, Jonsons negative
representation suggests a critique.
Direct contrast: Corvino threatens to physically
harm Celia, but Adam deliberately avoids the use
of force: beyond this had bin force, /
And force upon free Will hath here no place.

Adam and Eves pre-lapsarian mutuality is distinctly


opposed; Miltons experiences of his second/third
marriages imbued in him a more egalitarian view of
married relationships, and the presentation of
affection of Adam for Eve and Eves independence
and autonomy represents the more progressive
attitudes present in the 17th Century; but implicit
suggestion that Eves independence constitutes her
demise, so some critics have suggests that Milton
argues for greater control.
Presentation of Celia in ACT II, Scene V and ACT
III, Scene VII compared to Eve; are they both
equally innocent? How strong is each of these
female characters and in what ways? How do they
use language to assert their individuality, honour and
independence?

The Importance Natural World (I. 192 384)


Still to tend Plant, Herb and Flour
What we by day lop overgrown, or prune, or prop, or bind, one night or two with wanton growth series
tending to wilde
Whether to wind the woodbine round this Ardour, or direct the clasping ivy where to climb, while I in
younger spring of roses intermix with myrtle
The natural world is wild, and until it receives human intervention, unkempt. Milton suggests through this
depiction that nature requires order via humans.
Creatures of the natural world are inferior to Adams view of Eve Sole eve, Associate sole, to me
beyond / Compare above all living creatures dear
Necessity for Adam and Eve to retrain nature: keep from Wilderness
The plants tend to wild (Evans) reflecting the dynamic emotional passions of mankind that must be
rightly tempered to gain virtue
Edens natural, sensuous beauty: Sweetest scents and airs (superlative) humid flours SACRED:
sacred light Earths great Altar
Appeals to sense of smell, adds temperature and personification of the flowers that breathed the
morning incense sensually charged description
Wider implications of the physical, natural beauty of Eden: Adam and Eve joined their vocal worship
to the Quire to praise the Creator
Irony of Eves desire to control nature: she restrains nature, but does not restrain her own natures
allows pride to overcome obedience to God; aspires to Godhead.
There is also a contrast stressed by the use of the word tend; This Garden still to tend and later
(Satan) The way which to her ruin now I tend; Milton uses tend to establish a contrast between
Adam and Eves prelapsarian labour, which involves tending the garden of Eden, and Satans fallen labor,
which involves intending to do Adam and Eve harm. The overarching contrast is between an ethic of care
and stewardship and the anti-ethic of temptation and ruination.
Relate to Golden Age idea: the paradisiacal Garden of Eden relates to the Golden Age in its
prelapsarian state it is sweet/uncorrupted and the sensual connotations echo Volpones sensual desire
for gold (where corruption overlays what seems attractive, rather than succeeding)

Satans corrupt sensuality threatens the virginal Eve the pollution of Eve will bring the end of the
Golden Age in Eden and the establishment of lust and death of earth both Paradise Lost and Volpone
shows a process of transgression
Use of emblems: Plants in Paradise Lost express Adam and Eves relationship in Book 9 myrtle
appears to stand for marriage and roses for passion: In yonder spring of Roses intermix with myrtle
Eve using myrtle to supporting drooping roses she is the emblem of married love; contrast to later
when Adam brings Eve a crown of flowers wove of choicest flours a Garland to adorn her tress and her
rural labours crown, as reapers oft are wont their Harvest Queen Milton compares the pair to reapers
and harvesters, both common emblems of DEATH.
Are there similar uses of emblems in Volpone?
Eves arguments: vocabulary that alerts the reader to the ironic anticipations of the Fall; describes the
plants tending to wild Luxurious by restraint (frolicking growth) / (One night of two with wanton
growth derides tending to wilde) Eve will deride Adams attempts to bind her, restrain her, and will
indeed undergo her own wanton growth in submitting to temptation similar of course to Celia against
Corvinos constraints.
Comparison: Volpone and Paradise Lost
Volpones invocation of The Golden Age versus
the paradise of the Garden of Eden:
Volpone: Well did wise poets, by thy glorious
name, Title that age, which they would have been
the best
Presents an entirely corrupt version of the Golden
Age, where his love of material wealth transcends
all other pleasures far transcending / All style of
joy

Moscas celebration of his avoidance of work (Scene


1) contrasts with the vision of work presented in
Paradise Lost Book 9:
Mosca: describes all the forms of work he avoids
Not like the merchant, who hath filled his vaults
with Romagna, and rich Canadian wines, yet drinks
the lees of Lombard vinegar

Yet in Eden, whilst Adam and Eve both have


differing priorities (Eve efficiency, Adam
enjoyment) they never question the need to
Whereas the pre-lapsarian Adam and Eve
complete the work assigned to them by God: Adam
represent the uncorrupted GOLDEN AGE; the
about Eve how we might best fulfil the work which
paradise of Eden, the worshipping of God, presents here / God hath assigned us
a religious ideal of natural, sensual beauty and
tranquility the true Golden Age completely
Adam and Eve reflect a Puritan work ethic hard
misconstrued by Volpone who is utterly consumed
work, frugality and diligence a constant display of
by greed
a persons salvation in the Christian faith; in direct
contrast to Mosca who rejects hard work/frugality

Heroic Characters: Satan and Volpone


John Carey, Miltons Satan

Miltons effort to encapsulate evil in Satan was not successful. That is, those readers who have
left their reactions on record have seldom been able to regard Satan as a depiction of pure evil,
and some of the most distinguished have claimed he is superior in character to Miltons God.
Carey argues that critics can be divided into Satanist and anti-Satanist the poem is
insolubly ambivalent at least as far as Satans character is concerned so it is impossible to
decide between pro/anti Satan.
Satanist critics generally emphasise Satans courage, anti-Satanist his selfishness or folly
Satanist:
William Hazlitt: Satans capacity to admire makes him sympathetic as a character: not irrevocably
hardened or incapable of gentle emotion. Only shows as a source of temptation and avarice in
Volpone, the potential beneficiaries and the Would-Bes but more understandably in Mosca.
William Hazlitt: Satan is not irrevocably hardened or incapable of gentle emotion All their
known virtue appears productive in herb, plant and nobler birth of creatures sweet interchange
of hill, and valley, rivers, woods and plaines
William Hazlitt: The most heroic subject ever chosen in a poem he wins our admiration the
more firmly because he is ultimately real, while the inhabitants of Heaven are remote and
strange.
NB: Satan finds sympathy is being the outsider (perhaps like Mosca): Terristrial heaven, danced
around by other heavens that shine, yet bear their bright officious lamps, light about light, for thee
alone, as seems, in thee con centring all their precious beams of sacred influence
However, unlike Mosca, Satan fights against a hateful siege of contraries while Mosca furthers
himself and creates opportunities through his parasitical nature.
Rebellious element in Miltons Satan influenced the Romantic poets in the conception of the satanic
hero; a lonely outsider who struggles against everything and everybody, isolated from the rest of
mankind.
Anti-Satanist
Tillyard: Satan a terrible warning embodiment of the unrestrained passions, inspiring horror and
detestation rather than sympathy. (He is meant to incarnate those bad passions that entered man
at the Fall, expression of mans unappeasable dissatisfaction with what he has)
Aside from Satans immorality and foolishness, he is frequently depicted as self-glorifying: To me shall
be the glorie sole among the infernal powers, in one day to have marred what he Almightie styled.

Interesting: Embodies Miltons Puritan ideals of independence and liberty since he is seen as a rebel
fighting against the absolute power of a tyrannical God, just as Milton, defender of liberties, struggles
his battle against a despotic king. As Blake said, Milton is on the Devils party without knowing.
Others, like literary critic William Empson argued that "Milton deserves credit for making God
wicked, since the God of Christianity is 'a wicked God.'"
Leonard points out that "Empson never denies that Satan's plan is wicked. What he does deny is
that God is innocent of its wickedness: 'Milton steadily drives home that the inmost counsel of God
was the Fortunate Fall of man; however wicked Satan's plan may be, it is God's plan too [since
God in Paradise Lost is depicted as being both omniscient and omnipotent].'
Regarding the war in the poem between Heaven and Hell, the Milton scholar John Leonard writes:

Paradise Lost is, among other things, a poem about civil war. Satan raises 'impious war in Heav'n'
(i 43) by leading a third of the angels in revolt against God. The term 'impious war'. . .implies
that civil war is impious. But Milton applauded the English people for having the courage to depose
and execute King Charles I. In his poem, however, he takes the side of 'Heav'n's awful Monarch'
(iv 960). Critics have long wrestled with the question of why an antimonarchist and defender of
regicide should have chosen a subject that obliged him to defend monarchical authority
However, some argue that Milton's criticism of the English monarchy was being directed
specifically at the Stuart monarchy and not at the monarchy system in general.

How does Volpone relate in terms of heroism and bravery?


Heroic: the waning trickster exulting in his piracy and the waning hero who is made to endure
mortification he exploits qualities of greed, corruption, artificiality and contradiction in the legacy
hunters.
Or: Volpone as the anti-hero Jonson manipulates the audience into sympathising with his anti-hero,
but, then ending suddenly makes the audience aware that it has hitherto sided with malevolence and
sin (attempted rape of Celia, and punishment of Scrutineo reverses the loyalties of the audience)

Animal Imagery
The Bible and Milton both embody and anthropomorphise temptation in Satan, the serpent the fittest
imp of fraud - with all its subtlety and ability to glide obscure.
Satanwith inspection deep
Considered every creature, which of all
Most opportune might serve his wiles, and found
The serpent subtlest beast of all the field (Book IX, 83-86)

Jonson uses animal references (from fable and bestiary) to indicate and characterise vices, a
development from the medieval morality play. Like fables, these animals participate in a tale of moral
lessons. It also implies the behaviour of most characters (not celestial Celia though) is sub-human,
instinctive and savage. All of Venice are arguably predators of prey or perhaps therefore both.

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