Satan’s final speech to Eve, 11. 679-732, Book IX, in Milton’s Paradise Lost, is a persuasive masterpiece carefully structured to appeal to her ambitious tendencies and to expand her already existing doubts (which Satan has implanted) as to the perfect nature of God. Satan begins by worshipping the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, as Eve will do after she has made her choice. Throughout the remainder of the speech, he attempts to present the tree as an alternative focus of her faith. Satan endeavours to weaken Eve’s admiration and fear of God, and to reinforce her faith in herself, or the potential of what she could be if she had the courage to eat of the fruit. Satan’s speech is primarily interrogative – – he poses provocative questions, and then provides what he represents as all of the possible answers. Of course, every solution he offers supports her tasting of the tree. By the close of the oration, whether or not we have any Biblical knowledge, it is evident that Eve cannot possibly resist the brilliance of Satan’s argument.
Satan’s first words are addressed not to Eve but constitute an exultation of the tree. He speaks of the power it has provided, of the near ecstasy and knowledge that has welled up within him since (allegedly) tasting the fruit. Satan’s emphasis on the power that the tree contains is perhaps a shrewd recognition of Eve’s feelings of inferiority. He realizes that Eve agonizes over Adam’s predominant position, and possibly even resents the supremacy of God Himself. Satan indirectly presents the tree as a means of bridging this gap. Through one simple action, she can instantly assert her independence, as well as acquire the wisdom and …
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…ever been exposed to evil, and cannot recognize it. She is an easy target. Satan introduces ideas that had never occurred to her before in the form of questions in order to latch Eve’s mind onto these concepts and to have her mull them over. However, he does not give her much room for independent thought – Satan provides the answers to all of the questions he has posed. Eve is pressured to make a decision as soon as possible, and is not awarded the leisure to work out the fallacies in his argument. She does not have the tools to combat Satan’s superior intellect. With Eve’s faith in God severely shaken and her hopes raised for the future, her decision to eat of the tree is a foregone conclusion.
Works Cited
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Major Authors. Ed. M. H. Abrams. 6th ed. New York: Norton, 1990. 770-71.
Flaubert as Emma in Madame Bovary
Flaubert as Emma in Madame Bovary
During the Nineteenth Century, Europe experienced a literary movement known as Romanticism. This movement “valu[ed] emotion, intuition, and imagination” (Rosenbaum 1075). Gustave Flaubert, born in 1821, grew up during this innovative movement and became entranced by the romantics. Unfortunately, Romanticism was a “passing affair in France,” and young Flaubert realized it consistently encouraged illusions it could not satisfy” (Bart 54). His later disgust for the movement would lead Flaubert to writing his greatest novels.
His most famous and widely renowned novel, Madame Bovary, is largely an autobiography; however, it also contains partial biographies of Flaubert’s most intimate friends and mistresses. Flaubert and Ernest Chevalier, a childhood friend, were inseparable youths, until Ernest left for Paris to study law. When Flaubert visited his friend, he discovered that Ernest “had set himself up with a mistress in the Latin Quarter” and “knew of number of Paris brothels” (Bart 64). Later when Flaubert wrote Madame Bovary, his friend Ernest became the mature Leon who was determined to have Emma. “The time had at last come . . . when he must firmly resolve to possess her (Flaubert 199). As Ernest rose in the legal profession, his intimate friendship with Flaubert waned and gave “up [his] imagination as too dangerous” (Bart 305). Leon would also decide to give up certain follies which included Emma. “He was about to be promoted to head clerk; it was time to settle down and work hard. He therefore gave up . . . exalted sentiments and flights of fancy” (Flaubert 251).
Flaubert also found inspiration for Madame Bovary in Louise Colet, one of his numerous mistresses. She…
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…dame Bovary was published in 1856 Flaubert had poured “all of his loves and his hatreds into his book” (Bart 261). He had learned not to count on happiness because such romantic notions never fulfill their promises. Flaubert realized that “one should live like a bourgeois and think like a demigod” (Bart 261). A man should enjoy his dreams and hopes; however, he should never try to actualize them. “This Emma would never know” (Bart 261).
Works Cited
Bart, Benjamin. Flaubert. Syracuse: Syracuse UP 1967.
Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary. Trans. Lowell Bair. New York: Bantam 1972.
Rosenbaum, Robert A. “Romanticism.” The New American Desk Encyclopedia. New York: Signet 1989. 1075.
Steegmuller, Francis. Flaubert and Madame Bovary: A Double Portrait. New York: Vintage 1939.
Tillet, Margaret G. On Reading Flaubert. London: Oxford UP 1961. 13-36.