3. Eve’s Fall, and Adam’s

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we think about the Fall of Man – first Eve, then Adam. We begin by analysing the arguments made by Satan in his long speech to Eve (9.679-732) as well as her (equally lengthy) response (9.745-79). After that, we consider Adam’s Fall. Is Adam deceived by Eve as she had been deceived by the serpent? Or does Adam taste the forbidden fruit in full knowledge of what he is doing and its consequences?

Course

In this course, Professor Karen Edwards (University of Exeter) explores of Books 9 and 10 of John Milton’s Paradise Lost through five key questions: (1) What do we learn from Satan’s soliloquy and his return to hell? (2) What is the function of Adam and Eve’s argument at the beginning of Book 9? (3) Are Adam and Eve’s falls the same? (4) How are Adam and Eve reconciled after the Fall? (5) What kind of poem is Paradise Lost?

Lecturer

Karen Edwards is Professor of English at the University of Exeter. Her research and teaching focuses on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English literature, especially the works of John Milton, in the context of natural history, the Bible and religion, and politics. Her recent publications include Milton and the Natural World (1999) and Milton’s Reformed Animals: An Early Modern Bestiary (2005-2009).