The Art of Temptation in Lewis’ Perelandra and Milton’s Paradise Lost
Temptation is one of the greatest enemies of humanity. The devil uses many artful forms of temptation to coerce humans to sin. One of the most common, and perhaps the most dangerous, forms of temptation is when the devil takes the truth and slightly twists it so it becomes a sin. The devil’s act seems harmless and even good to human eyes because it is based off truth. John Milton portrays the way in which in the devil twists the truth in his poem Paradise Lost. Milton describes what Satan’s temptation of Eve might have looked like and in so doing brings to light some of the tactics Satan uses to twist the truth. C.S. Lewis critiques and adds to this conversation started by Milton in his book Perelandra. Lewis takes many of the same ideas about how Satan tempts humanity and expands upon them. The tactics Satan uses in both books are very similar because Lewis takes many of his ideas directly from Milton, whether agreeing or disagreeing with how Milton portrayed them. Through the artful portrayals of how the devil tempts each author’s representation of Eve, Lewis and Milton similarly explain three ways in which the devil twists the truth, making something intended for good into a sin. According to the authors, Satan tempts humanity to break God’s laws so that they may become stronger and more independent, to set the soul after a transitory good that makes true goodness unsatisfying, and to delight in one’s own beauty instead of delighting in God.
When Milton brought up this idea of how the devil tempts humanity, he did it through his own representation of how Satan might have actually tempted Eve at the time of the fall. When Lewis presents this same idea, he creates his own fictional world that is in the same state as earth before the fall. Lewis’ representation of Eve, a magnificent Green Lady, is tempted to sin by a human named Weston that is possessed by the devil, also referred to as the...