Essay on Pointing the Finger in John Milton’s Paradise Lost

Pointing the Finger in paradise woolly After the fall in Miltons Paradise Lost, spell and Eve bicker and blame mavin another for their decent. First, Adam accuses Eve for her physical act of accepting the apple from Satan and eating it, thus defying Gods decree not to eat from the channelize of Knowledge. In retaliation, Eve responds and attempts to not only justify her act, but in like manner to place the blame on Adam. Eves reaction is emblematic of someone who does not like to admit he is wrong. Eve begins by challenging Adam with an argument that he would have done the resembling thing had he been in her situation. Hadst thou been there,/ Or here th attempt, thou couldst not have discernd/ Fraud in the Serpent, speaking as he spake (IX 1148-1150). She is trying to justify her action in Adams mind by making him realize he would have acted the same way, and in effect she also hopes to gain his sympathy. This tactics is often effective because we do not tend to choose to secernate faults in others when we realize we are susceptible to the same mis concerns. Aristotle recognizes the relationship surrounded by eliciting sympathy and making the audition relate to the situation in his Poetics when he describes the ideal character as one who is true to life (81). An audience must be able to relate to a falling character, or else they w tired of(p) not pity his plight. In other words, if a verbaliser losss sympathy from his audience, he must make them feel his pain. Eve reappearance in her rebuttal with justification for her action based on the dowry of the scenario. She argues, No ground of enmity between us known,/ Why hee should me ill of seek to harm (II 1151-1152). She seems to imply that a less trusting soulfulness would not have listened to the se... ...ccusation that he did not try hard sufficiency to keep her at his side when he asks, What could I more?/ I warnd thee, I admonishd thee, foretold/ The danger, and the lurking Enemy/ That define in wait (IX 1170-1172). No matter how developed any one piece of Aristotles triangle seems, it is useless without the other two parts. If you take a step back and observe this scene of Paradise Lost with your own experiences in mind, you realize how petty the blame game chamberpot be. Eve tries very hard to use persuasion as a finger pointing tool so she can alleviate any guiltiness of her own. However, she fails. We all must know what it feels like to fail in an argument, that we still test situations like these sometimes when we do not want to accept full responsibility for something that has gone wrong. Works Cited Milton, John. Paradise Lost. revolutionary York W.W. Norton, 1993.