some flaws with Milton

This is in response to: Anonymous No Subject June 11th, 2003 Rating: 8.7647, I read this somewhere and was drawn in by the comparison of Milton's Paradise to Geensis, and how severly Milton deviates . I noted your intense interest in PL and thought I would pass this along... God's response to Adam in Paradise Lost also centers on uxoriousness more than it does in Genesis. In Genesis, the only hint of uxoriousness lies in God's condemnation of Adam as one who has "harkened unto the voice of [his] wife"; the main emphasis, however, is on the fact that Adam has "eaten of the tree, of which [God] commanded [him], saying, Thou shalt not eat" (3.17). Milton's God, on the other hand, emphasizes the uxoriousness rather than the actual eating: Was she thy God, that thou didst obey Before his voice, or was she made thy guide, Superior, or but equal, that to her Thou didst resign thy manhood, and the place Wherein God set thee above her made of thee, And for thee, whose perfection far excelled Hers in all real dignity. . . . (10.145-151) Straight from God's own mouth, we are told that Adam's sin is uxoriousness. God's response also tells us that Adam sins because he is excessively devoted to an inferior, not to an equal. Were Eve "but equal," Adam's sin might not have been so terrible, but he far excels her in "all real dignity." Whatever reasons Milton may have for adding to the Genesis account of creation, emphasizing man's uxoriousness is certainly one of them. The added details of Eve's inferiority, the separation scene, and the expanded dialogue between fallen Adam and God all serve to upbraid Adam for devoting himself to his inferior wife rather than to his superior God. Yet, for all that, Milton's God shows more mercy to Adam than to the fallen angels who follow Satan into rebellion, presumably because Eve was deceived by Satan. Yet Satan's angels were also deceived by him. It seems that Milton's God has a particularly soft place in His heart for the man who was made in His own image, however much He may upbraid him for his uxoriousness. *something else I came across was very convincing that god is presented as extremely cruel... no where more prominent that at the opening of Book 3, is God's tone. He sounds like an irascible, peevish, irrational tyrant, filled with a self-defensiveness that, in a surprising way, makes some of the conclusions the rebel angels had reached about him in the previous books sound at times quite accurate. All of a sudden their desire for rebellion, the possibility that God lured them into rebellion so that He can punish them to satisfy His desire to punish, and their decision to support Satan in his desire to tempt Adam and Eve make a lot more sense. If this is a vision of divine mercy and justice, the figure seems badly flawed. This problem gets emphasized by the narrative incident in which God calls for a volunteer to suffer crucifixion and death on behalf of mankind, so as to make their redemption possible. Milton presents this matter as high drama: God outlines (with some pleasure, it seems) the pain and sacrifice involved, so that one wonders why He has to resort to such torture in order to demonstrate mercy for human beings. The angels are so horror struck that no volunteer steps forward. This may be designed to make the Son's putting himself forward all the more extraordinary, but, if so, the gesture is dearly bought, because it forces us to match the embarrassing lack of courage and love of the angels against what we have just witnessed, the courage and resolution of the rebel angels.