Paradise Lost: Milton’s Use of Imagery in the Garden of Eden as a Means of Reinforcing His Argument About the Nature of Good and Evil
In Paradise Lost, John Milton’s six hundred and forty nine line epic on the fall of Man, Milton doesn’t merely write about the events as they are related in The Old Testament, he uses literary techniques to make substantive arguments about major philosophical questions. He addresses issues ranging from what is the nature of good and what is the nature of evil; to why would an omnipotent, omniscient, and loving God let Man fall from grace; to what is the nature of freedom versus obedience; to is Satan actually a sympathetic figure? Milton spends time on each of these topics in turn, weaving a complex moral and philosophical tapestry that is so densely beautiful it is worthy of study and criticism some three hundred and sixty years after its publication.
Perhaps the technique most worth noting is Milton’s use of imagery in his depiction of The Garden of Eden. Genesis 2 describes the creation of the garden and Man thus:
“Now no bush of the field was yet on the earth. And no plant of the field had started to grow. For the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth. And there was no man to work the ground. 6 But a fog came from the earth and watered the whole top of the ground. 7 Then the Lord God made man from the dust of the ground. And He breathed into his nose the breath of life. Man became a living being. 8 The Lord God planted a garden to the east in Eden. He put the man there whom He had made. 9 And the Lord God made to grow out of the ground every tree that is pleasing to the eyes and good for food. And He made the tree of life grow in the center of the garden, and the tree of learning of good and bad.”
It is a rather straightforward, practical, almost sterile description of the creation of Paradise and Man. Its schema is that A lead to B, which lead to C, and so forth, until Paradise was in existence.
Milton, on the other hand, describes Eden as richly as the hues of its many ever-blooming flowers. He details a place of verdant trees, lofty and shade- giving; of vines that grow wild and free; and of blossoms of every sort singing out with colors rich and luxurious:
“Of Eden, where delicious Paradise,
Now nearer, Crowns with her enclosure green,
As with a rural mound the champain head
Of a steep wilderness, whose hairie sides [ 135 ]
With thicket overgrown, grottesque and wilde,
Access deni’d; and over head up grew
Insuperable highth of loftiest shade,
Cedar, and Pine, and Firr, and branching Palm
A Silvan Scene, and as the ranks ascend [ 140 ]
Shade above shade, a woodie Theatre
Of stateliest view. Yet higher then thir tops
The verdurous wall of paradise up sprung:
Which to our general Sire gave prospect large” (133-144)
In Eden, Man and Woman (Adam and Eve) are free to do as they please: they till the soil, tend to the roses, and eat and drink freely of the delectable variety of fruits and clear waters. They sleep when tired and wake when rested and, though nude, are innocent of their state of nakedness. Milton describes the garden in this manner to underscore his argument that innocence must be perfect, must be alive and dynamic, and, most importantly, must be vulnerable to change. This is a crucial distinction: Eden is not static; it is goodness that must be maintained through making good choices. God created Paradise and protected it with a wall and a single entry point guarded by angels and then provided all that a being could need or want for life and contentment, but this gift is contingent on Adam and Eve adhering to God’s instructions. They are endowed with free will, allowing the pair agency, but they must trust in the will of God if they are to maintain their place in Paradise. Any change or deviance from this trust would render the formerly perfect innocence imperfect, but it is precisely this vulnerability to change that makes innocence so precious: once lost, it can never be recovered.
A second theme that Milton wished to highlight is that the garden is abundant, but it is not decadent. True, the fruit overflows, the flowers bloom spontaneously, and nature is in her primal, perfect state, but there is no hoarding, indulgence, or waste. Adam and Eve do not consume with greed, they enjoy the abundance without exploiting it. This illustrates a core prelapsarian principle: that desire exists, but it is proportionate. In contrast with Satan and Hell, nothing yearns for more than it needs, nothing consumes beyond what it requires. Thus, while satisfaction and contentment are possible in Eden, nay, they are the reality, they can never be attained in Hell. This is made apparent when Milton writes of Satan:
“Sometimes towards Eden which now in his view
Lay pleasant, his grievd look he fixes sad,
Sometimes towards Heav’n and the full-blazing Sun,” (27-29)
Satan, through his rebellion, has forfeited his place beside God, and he gazes upon Eden sadly and with envy, for he knows that such delights are no longer his domain. Satan’s decadence and presumption have robbed him of eternal bliss in Heaven and he is damned to rue this loss for eternity.
Another notion present in Milton’s description of the abundance and harmony of Eden is that nature in the garden works in a state of perfection: there is no hierarchy based on fear and nature does not need to be subjugated to the will of humans (or any one human). In this Paradise, everything coexists in concord: the lion and lamb are not predator and prey, they sustain themselves side by side. Want, desire, enviousness, labor, disease, fear, and death are simply not factors in Eden. In the absence of these negative elements and threats, everything thrives. This theme can easily be interpreted as a political and social comment by Milton, who was a staunch Republican and was vehemently against the Stuart monarchy. Milton believed in the inherent freedom of man and held that authority was not divinely endowed but, rather, stemmed from the support of the masses. He also maintained that, should a ruling body prove itself unworthy of wielding power, it was the right of the people to remove it in favor of a more worthy form of authority. Milton’s political views were informed by his religious ones: he was a Puritan who supported separation of church and state, believing that each Christian should be free to interact with the word of God without the interference of clerical hierarchies or external mandates. These points of view are clearly reflected in his presentation of Eden as a place where there are no hierarchies or authority upheld by fear or compulsion; only the word of God carries any importance.
Milton describes a Paradise of unimaginable sensory delights:
“…Yet higher then thir tops
The verdurous wall of paradise up sprung:
Which to our general Sire gave prospect large
Into his neather Empire neighbouring round.
And higher then that Wall a circling row
Of goodliest Trees loaden with fairest Fruit,
Blossoms and Fruits at once of golden hue
Appeerd, with gay enameld colours mixt:
On which the Sun more glad impress’d his beams
Then in fair Evening Cloud, or humid Bow,
When God hath showrd the earth;..” (142-52)
The text goes on to detail the sweetness of the pure air and the blue of the crystal waters coursing through the Garden. Every sense, from sight to sound to taste to touch, is presented with pleasant corresponding stimuli: the fruit is “of golden hue” (148) and the blooms are resplendent with “gay enameld colours mixt” (149); it is such a sublime scene that even “…the Sun more glad impress’d his beams” (150), that is to say, that sunlight shone more brightly in Eden, as if crowning the scene. Adam and Eve enjoy these sensual treasures without shame or guilt, just as they are not ashamed by their own nudity. This is vital: Milton is asserting that these unsavory emotions were not present in a prelapsarian world. Again, this can be viewed as influenced by Milton’s personal beliefs: in a world untainted by corrupt authority, greed, and moral failings where the word of God reigns supreme, life is more perfect and pleasurable. It’s as if Milton is using his imagery to reinforce his stance on many arenas: the monarchy, the clergy, authority, freedom, and the ultimate power: that of the word of God.
Analysis of his approach to depicting Eden and the imagery he chose reveals Milton to be radical in his ideas while simultaneously exuding an unshakable orthodoxy. His description details a Paradise of pleasure, innocence, abundance, concord, and contented freedom; one where there are no hardships or dissonance. Adam and Eve are free to behave as they wish, so long as they respect the word of the Lord. This directly mirrors Milton’s own beliefs in the inherent worth and freedom of all men, so long as they behaved morally and reserved reverence for the Creator. Such notions would become cornerstones of The Age of Enlightenment and would even influence the doctrines upon which a nascent United States of America was founded.