Hello Readers!
What do you call heaven or paradise ? Do you imagine utopia while thinking of paradise ? Well, in the Holy Bible, it is said that the earth was paradise.In The Book of Genesis we find reference of creation of the world and creation of Adam. Here is one painting by Michelangelo, which is now situated in the ceiling of Sistine Chapel, Vatican City.
John Milton was a renaissance poet who brought the imagination of paradise in our reading. Based on the Holy Bible, Paradise Lost is the book originally written in ten books but later on it was republished in twelve volumes. Book IX is the part of the syllabus in MA English course, M.K. Bhavnagar University. This thinking activity is assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad, and a part of critical thinking about human perspective and divine perspective. Click here to visit his blog.
Que 1. What is your understanding of human perspective and divine perspective? Give illustrations to support your understanding.
Ans:
Thoughts and arguments mostly have perspectives. The number 6 and 9 can be seen from both the sides and both are correct. In the context of Paradise Lost, Milton has portrayed some characters in such a way that they can be seen as a human perspective. Such as Eve's character is shown very different from the Bible, she is argumentative and bold by nature, she doesn't easily gets tempted by Satan, who is in disguise of the Serpent. She has her willingness to eat the fruit of Knowledge, which is also human perspective. In the Bible, we can see the narration has divine perspective, in which God is in the center but in Milton's Paradise Lost we find long narration which deals with human perspective, because it includes some of the common human qualities like envy, lust, temptation, reason, arguments, etc. Eve commits first disobedience, by eating the fruit of knowledge, so Adam thinks that even if I offer my another rib to The Maker Wise/God, I won't be able to get Eve like this whom I dearly love. We can read this Adam's soliloquy in our current matrimonial system also. Thus, Milton has used human perspective, and in The Book of Genesis, we find divine perspective.
Que 2. How do your read the character of Eve as transgresser and yet defendable?
Ans:
Serpent tempts Eve to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Even after knowing the words of The Maker Wise (God), she eats the fruit and gets the knowledge of her body. She also goes to Adam and tells the incident about eating the fruit, then she tells that serpent told me to do so. Here, she blames serpent but doesn't accepts that I willingly ate the fruit even though I was knowing that it will lead me to a big Fall. Here, Eve is making an impression of a transgresser. Yet, we also read Eve's character as defendable one, because she gives strong arguments in the dialogue with Adam and she says if we are inferior then who is Free? If we rad the character of Eve as feminist view point, we can state that Eve is still defendable, because God cursed Eve very harshly to bear the painful childbirth and her husband will rule over her. Yet, God is seems little merciful to Adam and curses that your shall work hard throughout your life and eat the breads and plants of the fields and you will be mixed up with the dust at your death. Here we see two things, God is partial in doing justice and the other, Satan should be punished the most, but it's not happening so. Thus we can read the character of Eve as Transgresser yet defendable.
Thank You!
What do you call heaven or paradise ? Do you imagine utopia while thinking of paradise ? Well, in the Holy Bible, it is said that the earth was paradise.In The Book of Genesis we find reference of creation of the world and creation of Adam. Here is one painting by Michelangelo, which is now situated in the ceiling of Sistine Chapel, Vatican City.
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| Adam (left) was created by God (right with cupids) |
John Milton was a renaissance poet who brought the imagination of paradise in our reading. Based on the Holy Bible, Paradise Lost is the book originally written in ten books but later on it was republished in twelve volumes. Book IX is the part of the syllabus in MA English course, M.K. Bhavnagar University. This thinking activity is assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad, and a part of critical thinking about human perspective and divine perspective. Click here to visit his blog.
Que 1. What is your understanding of human perspective and divine perspective? Give illustrations to support your understanding.
Ans:
Human Perspective & Divine Perspective
Thoughts and arguments mostly have perspectives. The number 6 and 9 can be seen from both the sides and both are correct. In the context of Paradise Lost, Milton has portrayed some characters in such a way that they can be seen as a human perspective. Such as Eve's character is shown very different from the Bible, she is argumentative and bold by nature, she doesn't easily gets tempted by Satan, who is in disguise of the Serpent. She has her willingness to eat the fruit of Knowledge, which is also human perspective. In the Bible, we can see the narration has divine perspective, in which God is in the center but in Milton's Paradise Lost we find long narration which deals with human perspective, because it includes some of the common human qualities like envy, lust, temptation, reason, arguments, etc. Eve commits first disobedience, by eating the fruit of knowledge, so Adam thinks that even if I offer my another rib to The Maker Wise/God, I won't be able to get Eve like this whom I dearly love. We can read this Adam's soliloquy in our current matrimonial system also. Thus, Milton has used human perspective, and in The Book of Genesis, we find divine perspective.
Ans:
Eve as Transgresser, yet Defendable
Serpent tempts Eve to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Even after knowing the words of The Maker Wise (God), she eats the fruit and gets the knowledge of her body. She also goes to Adam and tells the incident about eating the fruit, then she tells that serpent told me to do so. Here, she blames serpent but doesn't accepts that I willingly ate the fruit even though I was knowing that it will lead me to a big Fall. Here, Eve is making an impression of a transgresser. Yet, we also read Eve's character as defendable one, because she gives strong arguments in the dialogue with Adam and she says if we are inferior then who is Free? If we rad the character of Eve as feminist view point, we can state that Eve is still defendable, because God cursed Eve very harshly to bear the painful childbirth and her husband will rule over her. Yet, God is seems little merciful to Adam and curses that your shall work hard throughout your life and eat the breads and plants of the fields and you will be mixed up with the dust at your death. Here we see two things, God is partial in doing justice and the other, Satan should be punished the most, but it's not happening so. Thus we can read the character of Eve as Transgresser yet defendable.
Thank You!
Well written 👍
ReplyDeleteWell drafted keep writing
ReplyDeleteWell summaraise all things...
ReplyDeleteGood to see the relevant reference of Michaelangelo's painting with properly presented perspectives and agreeable arguments.
ReplyDeleteKeep Writing, Keep Improving, Keep Sharing!
Amazing! Rohit, with perfect and daedal writing from starting to end with good example. Keep it up.👌👍
ReplyDelete