Before the Fall, the relationship Adam and Eve had was ideal. There were no arguments and they worked as a team to take care of the Garden of Eden. However, after the Fall, their relationship disintegrated into something far less perfect. When Adam and Eve received the knowledge of good and evil, they began to blame themselves and others. It is guilt, in John Milton's Paradise Lost, that separates Adam and Eve. However, just as there is hope for the complete regeneration of Adam, Eve, and the rest of humanity, the love in their relationship can be regenerated with the help of the Son. I will argue that the Son prevents the collapse of the relationship between Adam and Eve by teaching them how to communicate without guilt, making it possible for them to remain united in the face of the post-lapsarian world. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In this passage, Milton uses very simple and unambiguous language to explain their love. Unlike their fallen counterparts (i.e. the humanity they give birth to), post-lapsarian Adam and Eve do not have to worry about guilt or dishonesty. Furthermore, the ability to make “honor dishonorable” is not available to either Adam or Eve regarding their displays of affection or their nakedness. In these lines, Milton also makes it clear that we, as readers, can be sure that Adam and Eve's displays of love for each other are not "spectacles." Their inability to lie prevents them from displaying insincere love. Milton's description of their love, therefore, leaves no room for doubt that, after their creation, Adam and Eve had a perfect love. Although Adam and Eve reside in Paradise and have perfect love, this does not mean that they are free from problems and obstacles. When Satan enters the Garden of Eden in the form of a toad, he puts a dream in Eve's ear. Upon awakening, she discusses the dream with Adam, being openly honest in the process. In this way, their communication allows for an analysis of Eva's dream and reassurance that Eva is still blameless. After Eva's explanation. Next, the narrator states "Thus all was made clear" (5.136), indicating that Eve had a clear conscience after the dream and her conversation with Adam. By telling Adam about the strange and evil dream she had had, she chased away the evil thoughts from herself. Although there is some dramatic irony in Adam's comment about how Eve "will never consent upon awakening" to eat the fruit, there is no reason to think that the residual thoughts from Eve's dream contributed to her later actions when tempted from Satan. the Tree of Knowledge. The narrator says that she is freed from all evil, and she herself appears repentant as “a sweet tear silently falls” (5.130). As I mentioned earlier in the article, both Adam and Eve are incapable of dishonesty (4.113-118). With this argument Eve cannot deceive Adam into believing a demonstration of repentance. Even though Adam and Eve had to face and reconcile the dream that Satan had placed in Eve's mind, they remained pure and blameless by communicating and repenting openly. This is the model of the perfect relationship that is established before the Fall. Although Eve is pointing out how ridiculous Adam's concern is, there is no cruel retort from Adam. Nor is Eve actually criticizing Adam for his unnecessary worry. Instead, she reminds him of the food that is “ripe for use” and the abundance in the Garden of Eden, which is so new to both of them. Eve even addresses Adam in an affectionate way, starting with “the hallowed ground” rather than another less familiar epithet.affectionate. Again, although this epithet may seem false because it sounds exaggerated or too sweet, neither Adam nor Eve are capable of insincere displays of affection or sarcasm (4.113-118). Any artificiality we might see in those lines is based on an assumption we make based on our fallen nature as readers. Therefore, even at times when their relationship might seem unstable, neither of them is vindictive. The moments where their relationship really seems to be crumbling begin in book 9, when Eve tries to persuade Adam to allow her to work in the garden away from him. Their conversation, in fact, continues for many verses of the poem (5.205-384). However, even if this disagreement and its consequences ultimately lead to Eve's temptation and the Fall, the disagreement itself is not to blame. For example, in Adam's last discussion with Eve before she leaves him, he says: "Not therefore distrust, but tender love commands, / That I should look after you often, and you look after me" (9.357-358 ). Although this is one of Adam's last statements, he doesn't try to force her to stay, and he doesn't get angry that she's a little stubborn in her desires. Instead, try to help her understand that her worry is based on concern and love. Additionally, Adam reminds Eve that they should take care of each other. Adam's statements, although not strong enough to prevent Eve from leaving, do not indicate any guilt on either Adam's or Eve's part. Without Satan there to tempt Eve, the disagreement would likely have resolved itself since Adam was only concerned about Eve's well-being. If Eva had returned to him intact and unharmed, the entire focus of the disagreement would have been negated and it would no longer be an issue. But, because there is no time before the Fall for Adam and Eve to reconcile this disagreement, it becomes a point of contention and blame after the Fall. Once Eve returns to Adam and convinces him to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, much about their relationship changes. The knowledge the tree gives them includes reason and logic that allows one to blame the other. Although Adam and Eve had some innate goodness and a sense of justice, those qualities are removed after the Fall. The innocence they lose, which previously protected them from dishonesty, sarcasm, and guilt, creates a new dynamic in their relationship. Adam and Eve must now speak and act without innocence, and since all their communication is now fallen, their relationship becomes just as fallen as they are as individuals. Upon waking up after eating the fruit, the first thing Adam does is accuse Eve of tempting him. This is the first time guilt enters their relationship. Adam says, “O Eve, in the evil hour you gave ear/to that false worm” (9.1067-1068), which is a moral judgment of Eve's actions. At this point Eve does not respond, but, later, Adam continues by saying: "If you had listened to my words and remained / With me, as I begged you... we would still have remained happy" (9.1134-1138) . . By saying that they would not have fallen if Eve had listened to him and stayed with him, Adam is placing all the blame on her. He also refers to the previously unreconciled disagreement from earlier in Book 9 and believes his concern was justified. By blaming Eve, Adam pushes their relationship into further degeneration. Since no one likes to be blamed, Eve also retorts and refers to the same disagreement by saying, “Being as I am, why have you no boss/ Didn't you absolutely command me not to go, / running into the danger you said?” (9.1155-1157) Using the example of Adam blaming her, she accuses him of neglecting his duties as “head” of theirsrelation. This is a failed argument because Eva insists that if he really wanted her to stay with him, he would have commanded her “absolutely” not to go. In order to rule Eve absolutely, Adam would have had to exercise a type of tyrannical power over her, which did not exist before the Fall. We can tell that this did not exist before the Fall by looking at the Son's punishment of Eve in Book 10. As part of Eve's punishment, the Son declares to Eve "to the will of your husband / yours will submit, he will rule over you" (10.195-196). If this kind of tyrannical patriarchy already existed in Heaven, then it would not be logical to use it as punishment. Therefore, Eve's accusation of Adam regarding his lack of absolute command is illogical and fallen. By blaming Adam in this illogical way, the degeneration of their relationship also continues. If the Son had not intervened to prevent Adam and Eve from completely destroying their relationship, it is reasonable to assume that Adam and Eve would have continued to blame each other illogically. . At the end of Book 9, the narrator states: “Thus they passed in mutual accusation/ The fruitless, but not self-condemned hours,/ And their vain strife seemed to have no end” (9.1187-1189). Since neither Adam nor Eve were willing to accept any blame for their actions respectively, there was no possibility for them to reconcile or regenerate their relationship on their own. If their relationship had been allowed to degenerate, Adam and Eve might have died alone without giving rise to the rest of humanity. This could not happen, however, because, in Book 3, God says “because [man] spares/ [the Son] from my bosom and from my right hand, to save,/ losing [the Son] for a little while , the whole race." lost" (3.278-280). Since God has already decreed that the Son will be the salvation of all mankind, the relationship between Adam and Eve must be regenerated in some way. Fittingly, the Son is the first to attempt to remedy the fallen relationship between Adam and Eve. Immediately after the Son finds Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Adam uses the same arguments with the Son that he had previously used with Eve. However, instead of diminishing or absolving his guilt as Adam hopes, the arguments incriminate him further. Instead of taking responsibility for his actions, Adam immediately begins to blame Eve for the Fall, even as he says that his failure is something he “should hide, and not expose to blame/By [his] complaint.” His own statement makes it clear that he knows blaming her is wrong. However, he convinces himself to give it up for his own ends because he wants to avoid punishment if possible. Adam also assumes that the Son would realize that he was hiding Eve's sin even if he tried to hide it. This exemplifies the illogical thought pattern that Adam based on fallen logic and guilt. Even though Adam knows that the Son can sense what is being hidden, he still believes that by blaming Eve, he can hide his own sin and redirect the Son's anger and judgment onto Eve. Without the Son's rebuke, Adam would likely have continued with his illogical thought patterns, and there would have been little or no chance of regenerating the relationship between Adam and Eve. By saying that it was not necessary for Adam to listen to Eve and by reminding Adam that God's word is superior to his wife's words, the Son takes away from him Adam's excuses that he has no one to blame but himself. This is the first instance in which Adam is trained to take the blame, and in doing so, he is one step closer to promoting the regeneration of his relationship with Eve. Once he stops blaming Eve, Adam can be realistic and apply methods to the situation at hand.