Authority Flashcards
(8 cards)
Introduction
Authority in Paradise Lost, particularly in Book 9, is complex, layered and deeply contested. Though ostensibly structured around divine order- God over angels, Adam over Eve, humanity over nature- Milton’s poem interrogates how authority is interpreted, enacted and subverted. Book 9, the poem’s tragic centre, presents Eden as a moral and hierarchical structure on the brink of collapse. Yet authority here is not simply a theological fixture; it is presented as a site of struggle- between God and Satan, between Adam and Eve, and ultimately between the narrator and the reader. Milton’s invocation of the Muse Urania, and his framing of the poem as **”not less but more heroic than the wrath/ Of stem Achilles”, elevates the moral conflict over divine law above classical models of epic conquest. In doing so, Milton stretches the idea of authority beyond Eden, suggesting that it resides not just in God or creation, but in free will, rhetoric and the interpretative responsibility of both character and reader.
1: Satan’s Entrance: the challenge to divine and spatial authority
Quotes and analyses
-Satan’s entrance into Eden calls into question the efficacy and integrity of divine spatial authority. If Eden is a sanctified, impenetrable sphere of order, how can Satan, a fallen being, infiltrate it so easily? His success in Book 9 is not the result of brute force but of linguistic subversion and psychological manipulation.
-”In meditated fraud and malice, bent/ On Man’s destruction”. The participial clause “meditated fraud” draws immediate contrast with Milton’s own “unpremeditated verse”, making Satan’s speech the antithesis of inspired truth. His rhetorical control- a mark of epic heroism earlier- now becomes and emblem of perverted authority.
-**”the more i see/ Pleasures about me, so much more i feel/ Torment within me”. This signals internal torment where the use of syntactic balance exposes profound moral imbalance. Here Milton employs paradox and chiasmus to suggest that Satan’s rebellion renders him incapable of perceiving goodness without corruption: Eden’s perfection only deepens his sense of exile.
-when Satan watches Eve from the shadows- ”Wished his hap might find/ Eve separate” “his purposed prey”- he reduces her to an object of exploitation. The language of predation replaces reverence; authority becomes violated not by force, but by opportunistic cunning. The Edenic chain of command is destabilised before Eve even speaks- because spatial proximity alone offers no moral protection without vigilance or consent.
1: Satan’s Entrance: the challenge to divine and spatial authority
Critics and context lcc
- CRITIC: Stanley Fish argues that Milton forces the reader into complicity- Satan’s rhetorical charisma seduces not only Eve, but the reader, exposing the instability of interpretative authority. However, Satan’s eloquence is laced with markers of falsehood- ”delusive light”, ”fraudulent temptation”- ensuring that Milton builds reader resistance through form as well as content.
-CONTEXT: Milton’s political writing, especially Eikonoklastes (1649) condemns tyrannical rulers like Charles 1 who use rhetorical manipulation to mask illegitimate power. Similarly, Satan’s invasion of Eden and persuasive deception reflect Milton’s concern that rhetoric can corrupt strutures of authority from within, even in supposedly sacred spaces.
-Satan’s subversion of Eden reveals that divine authority, when left unguarded or misinterpreted, can be manipulated from within- undermining the very spatial and hierarchical protections designed to defend it.
2: Gender, free will, and the disintegration of edenic order
Quotes and analyses
-Authority in Eden is structured along gendered lines- Adam as rational head, Eve as supportive helpmeet- but Book 9 reveals how rhetoric, reason and relational dynamics gradually erode this design.
-Eve’s proposal ”let us divide our labours” appears cooperative, yet the imperative subtly asserts autonomy. Her reasoning- ”Grows luxurious by restraint” employs oxymoron and inversion, reimagining divine command as indulgent limitation. In this moment, Eve does not disobey- she reinterprets authority as restriction, preparing the intellectual grounds for rebellion.
-Milton presents Eve’s rhetoric as increasingly self-reliant: ”Here grows the cure of all, this fruit divine,/ Fair to the eye, inviting to the taste,/ of virtue to make wise”. The tricolon of visual, sensual and intellectual appeal echoes Genesis 3:6 but is rendered through Eve’s subjective filter. Her diction- “cure”, “divine”, “virtue” suggests not temptation, but remedy and moral empowerment. Milton uses enjambement and soft consonants to create a tone of seductive reason, masking theological horror beneath rhetorical grace.
-Adam’s response is similarly tragic. His decision- **”how can i live without thee?”- subverts divine hierarchy with emotional prioritisation. His love for Eve is not sinful, but misaligned- he places personal fidelity over spiritual duty/ his final surrender- ”with thee/ certain my resolution is to die”- is couched in epic diction but reveals a tragic failure of leadership, as Adam chooses companionship over command.
2: Gender, free will, and the disintegration of edenic order
Critics and context
-CRITIC: Diana McColley reads Eve’s fall as an attempt to exercise rational moral agency, not vanity. However, Milton does not vilify Eve for thinking- but warns that reason without submission to rightful authority leads to the collapse of relational and cosmic order.
-CONTEXT: Milton’s Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643) asserts that marriage should be based on rational and spiritual compatibility, not hierarchical dominance. This informs his portrayal of Adam and Eve- not as caricatures of male superiority and female weakness but as complex moral agents whose misuse of freedom and reason within hierarchical relationships leads to the disintegration of divine order.
-through Eve’s rhetorical independence and Adam’s emotional surrender, Milton stages the Fall as a tragedy of fractured authority, showing how love, logic and freedom- unanchored from divine ordinance- unravel Eden’s moral architecture.
3: Post-Fall repentance and the displacement of authority to the reader
Quotes and analyses
-following the fall, Eden ceases to be the site of divine authority; instead, Milton shifts moral gravity inward, to conscience, and outward, to the reader’s interpretative role. Adam’s grief ”O Eve, in evil hour thou didst give ear/ to that false Worm” marks the transformation of Eden into a space of recrimination and regret.
-”How shall i behold the face henceforth of god or angel, erst with joy/ and rapture so oft behelf”. In this moment of anguished introspection, Adam’s question marks a pivotal shift in the poem’s treatment of authority. Formerly a participant in joyful, unmeditated communion with the divine, Adam now feels morally and spiritually disqualified. The phrase **”henceforth” introduces a rupture in time and relationship: the repetition of “beheld” underscores the contrast between his prior joy and his current alienation. Authority is no longer experienced externally through proximity to God or angels, but internally, as guilt, shame and moral awareness. Milton thereby displaces the locus of divine authority into the conscience of the fallen, anticipating the redemptive arc that will unfold only through repentance, not divine intervention.
-from a structural point of view, the phrase “erst with joy and rapture” is loaded with tonal nostalgia. The lyricism of the past is in direct tension with the present’s moral despair reinforcing the tragic peripeteia at the heart of Christian tragedy. The moment is cathartic not in death, bit in psychic disintegration- the loss of one’s rightful place in creation, and more crucially one’s own moral self-image.
-but it is Eve who initiates the first act of spiritual restoration: ”Both have sinned, but thou/ Against God only, i against God and thee”. Her use of inclusive plural and the recognition of layered offence reflects a theologically mature grasp of accountability. The rhythm slows; the syntax becomes confessional. Milton subtly shifts the authority from divine command to penitent self-awareness.
-the moral recalibration finds culmination in the closing line ”the world was all before them, where to choose/ their place of rest, and Providence their guide”. Here Milton reframes Eden’s loss not as abandonment but as a new beginning of chose submission. The structure mirrors that of epic closure- open journey, internal transformation- but repurposed for Christian moral trajectory. God no longer rules through proximity; now, authority is embedded in Providence, grace and human volition.
3: Post-Fall repentance and the displacement of authority to the reader
Critics and contexts
-CRITIC: Barbara Lewalski argues that Paradise Lost is fundamentally about “knowing and choosing”- not merely for characters, but for readers. Adam’s lament is part of that invitation. He models not heroic death, bit heroic recognition- a tragedy in the Christian sense where conscience replaces chorus, and internal judgement replaces divine thunder. This reflects Areopagitica where Milton claims that virtue cannot exist without freedom to err- thus the reader’s task is also to discern true authority amid rhetorical complexity.
-CONTEXT: in Areopagitica (1644), Milton argues that true virtue arises from the ability to choose between good and evil, asserting that trial is necessary for moral development. After the Fall, Adam and Eve- and by extension, the reader- must navigate a world where authority is no longer enforced but discerned, making interpretation and conscience central to Milton’s moral vision.
-by relocating authority into internal conscience and external interpretation, Milton transforms the Fall into a test not just for humanity, but for the reader- of judgement, obedience and moral clarity.
Conclusion
In Book 9, Milton presents authority not as a fixed structure but as something unstable, tested and redefined through language, conscience and choice. Whether through Satan’s rhetorical subversion, Eve’s moral reasoning or Adam’s postlapsarian self-judgement, authority shifts from external command to internal recognition. By displacing Edenic order and engaging the reader in moral discernment, Milton stretches the theme of authority beyond the garden, presenting it as a spiritual burden carried in freedom, error and the hope of repentance.
