Satan’s ‘wandering mazes’ of logic – he undermines Eve’s belief in God’s authority in various
contradictory ways
Lines 679-732
Before you start closely analysing this passage, highlight all the rhetorical questions. What is the
effect of Satan’s intensive layers of questioning?
How many times does Satan use “knowledge” or “know”? Satan is suggesting that Eve needs to gain
greater knowledge. However, is this argument theological sound? What is more important,
obedience or reason/knowledge?
Lines
684-692
Argument
Eating the Fruit does
not lead to death
692-702
God will praise your
courage and is too just
to punish you
703-709
The Fruit was forbidden
to prevent you
becoming gods
710-717
The Fruit’s power works
proportionately
718-725
The Fruit’s power of the
Tree is greater than that
of God
Eating the Fruit cannot
be an offence
725-730
730-732
Concluding, persuasive
comment
Close analysis
• How does Satan flatter Eve?
• Find a declarative that is simply untrue
• Why does Satan refer to God as “the Threatener”
or “fate”
• What is the effect of anadiplosis? What words
are repeated and why?
• Adam tells Eve to “rely on what thou hast of
virtue” (lines 373-374). What sort of virtue is
Adam referring to here? How does Satan
redefine the meaning of “virtue” line 694
• Why does Satan suggest that knowledge is
important? Is this a convincing theological
argument, according to Milton?
• What is the effect of the anaphora?
• Satan suggests that God wants to keep Adam and
Eve “low and ignorant”. Why is this logic simply
incorrect? According to Milton, what does
obedience to God give you?
• What is the effect of the chiasmus and the
inverted first foot in line 709?
• How does Satan make death seem desirable?
Does this contradict an earlier declarative in line
685?
• Why does Satan refer to “gods” in the plural?
What is he trying to do?
• What is the effect of the spondee on line 722 and
the inverted first food on line 723
•
•
•
•
Why is it ironic that Satan suggests that the
knowledge they gain will not “hurt” God? Who
will it hurt?
What is the effect of the verb “need”?
How does Satan imply that his advice to “freely
taste” comes from reasoned, logical argument?
How does Satan continue to flatter Eve?
Critical Comments
“The final assault on Eve’s virtue is a flurry of half-formed metaphysical and theological
arguments.” Caroline Moore
“He confronts Eve with a barrage of definition, false syllogisms and rhetorical powers wherein she
knows herself inferior to Adam. His strategy is to force her to think very quickly about a host of
difficult questions and his answers to them, to reel before the shifting meaning he ascribes to such
terms as God, the gods, death, knowledge, good and evil. By such means he leads her to analyse
the prohibition she once knew to be outside the province of reason, as if it were some obscure
oracle requiring critical interpretation.” Babara Lewinski
“None of Satan’s arguments are quite coherent, and cunningly he does not rest on any single one
of them: “These and many more / Import your need of this fair fruit.” Pure slick advertising: the
fruit is now a “must-have item,” which is how modern tempters describe something entirely
unnecessary and hideously over-priced. Indeed, What Satan is saying to Eve throughout his
temptation is “because you’re worth it”. Caroline Moore
“…yet all the time we see that [Satan] is exploiting [Eve’s] lack of Reason, winding her in a rational
yet absurd chain of self-contradicting arguments which invite us to feel not pity for her but
contempt, not contempt for him, but pleasure in his skill.” Anna Baldwin
Write down the critical
quotation you will use:
AO3 – Engaging with Critical Quotations template
Pick out 2-3 key words. Write them below:
Key word 1
What similarities do they have to the text? Write down
some key words/phrases from quotations in the boxes
below to correlate to the key words.
Key word 2
Key word 3
Explain here to what extent you agree with the critical quotation.
Peer-assess this paragraph:
‘Literature rarely shows power being used well’
Satan's power resides in his deceptive sophistry: he builds manipulative, contradictory arguments in
order to pursue his malicious revenge and to deceive Eve. When convincing Eve to eat from the tree,
Satan commands: "...look on me / Me who have touched and tasted, yet both live, / And life more
perfect have attained than fate." Satan's authoritative imperative wrongly asks Eve to find proof of
the tree's goodness in visible evidence. Stanley Fish suggests that Eve "substitutes the law of reason
and the evidence of things seen for the law of God." Certainly, we see Satan layering deceptive
arguments to confuse Eve’s reason. Satan's use of anadiplosis and an inverted first foot emphasises
the personal pronoun "me", revealing Satan's powerful manipulation of language to create a tone of
earnest entreaty and to emphasise himself as visible evidence of the goodness of the Fruit. However,
the repetition of personal pronoun also reminds us of the selfish ends to which Satan puts his
powerful rhetoric, which is again emphasised when Satan dismissively refers to God's divine
authority as "fate". Clearly, we see Satan's power of rhetoric, a reminder of Milton’s own persuasive
skills which he put to use in the multitude of political pamphlets he wrote. However, here we see
Satan’s power of rhetoric being used for wrong. Furthermore, Satan's power to persuade can be
seen when he cleverly manipulates meanings of words, creating false logic. Satan suggests that God
will praise Eve's "dauntless virtue" if she eats from the tree. Milton's use of the abstract noun
"virtue" is incredibly clever here, as Satan is clearly redefining and corrupting its meaning. Adam
earlier tells Eve to "rely on what thou hath of virtue", referring to goodness and strength derived
from obedience to God. However, here, Satan explicitly equates virtue with disobedience. Milton
shows how language is slippery and can attain deceptive layers of meaning, which gives Satan power
over Eve.