A Creation of the Mind
-Satan’s Soliloquy
Sight hateful, sight tormenting! thus these two [ 505 ]
Imparadis't in one anothers arms
The happier Eden, shall enjoy thir fill
Of bliss on bliss, while I to Hell am thrust,
Where neither joy nor love, but fierce desire,
Among our other torments not the least, [ 510 ]
Still unfulfill'd with pain of longing pines;
Yet let me not forget what I have gain'd
From thir own mouths; all is not theirs it seems:
One fatal Tree there stands of Knowledge call'd,
Forbidden them to taste: Knowledge forbidd'n? [515]
Suspicious, reasonless. Why should thir Lord
Envie them that? can it be sin to know,
Can it be death? and do they onely stand
By Ignorance, is that thir happie state,
The proof of thir obedience and thir faith? [ 520 ]
Paradise Lost revolves around the relationships of characters throughout the different layers of Heaven, Hell and Paradise. In book IV of Paradise Lost, Milton’s primary relationship focuses on the un-fallen characters living in Paradise, Adam and Eve and the fallen character from Hell, Satan. Instead of having the narrator explain the dynamics of the relationship, Milton eerily, shows the relationship between Adam, Eve and Satan in the first person through Satan’s soliloquy. Having Satan explain Adam and Eve in Paradise, from his perspective is unnerving because Satan’s perspective even in looking at paradise will be of hell. In book I the narrator says “ the mind is its own place, and in itself/ Can make Heav’n of hell, a hell of heaven (Milton 244-245).” In Satan’s mind everywhere he goes hell is produced. Even in Paradise, Satan can create a hell in his mind. Therefore, the relationship...