Alexandra Clark

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 therefore the authority of God.

When Satan assures Eve that "Ye shall not die" (9, 1. 685), he is being truthful. This is characteristic of much of his dialogue. He selectively intersperses truth with falsehood to achieve what appears to be a wholly genuine argument. However, although Satan's claim that Eve will not physically die is accurate, this does not necessarily entail that God has deceived her. Some aspect of her will die when she eats of the fruit, including her innocence and closeness to God. In effect, the essence of what Eve is will perish. Satan manipulates God's words and chooses to interpret them literally when they were intended as a figurative warning. Satan's assurance that the fruit "gives you life to knowledge" (11. 686-87) is also correct. Eating of the tree will give Eve a new life, marked by an increased enlightenment. However, he neglects to mention that this new life will occasion a death to her previously untroubled existence. With knowledge comes a great burden.

God is referred to as "the Threatener" (1.687), rather than by His proper title. This label diminishes Him enormously. It implies that God does not follow through on his threats or promises. He scolds, nags, and dominates Adam and Eve without justification, and uses fear to keep them in their place. Eve has presumably never come across any derogatory references to her Creator before she comes into contact with Satan. As a result, his words affect her deeply. Satan is opening up an entire line of thinking that Eve has never considered. He is sowing within her seeds of doubt in God.

Satan presents himself (in the guise of the serpent) as an example of one who has "touched and tasted" (l. 688) of the tree, and lives. Satan is a physically immediate, material, concrete example, whereas God is set up as distant and abstract. Satan's assertion that he has eaten of the fruit is an outright lie, but he knows that this lie is absolutely necessary in order to convince Eve. She may be intellectually persuaded that it would be beneficial to eat from the tree, but without tangible proof that she will not die, this fear might overcome all "logic."

Satan tells Eve that "life more perfect have attained than Fate/ Meant me, by venturing higher than my lot" (11. 689-90). Eve is meant to grasp that Satan was not simply handed greatness. He had to gamble and reach for what he desired. By taking a risk, Satan was able to rise from animal status to that of human by virtue of his newly acquired speech and intellect. He has moved up one rung on the Chain of Being. It is therefore conceivable that if Eve were to take a similar chance, she would experience a similar increase in status. However, the only way Eve can expect to advance is if she is willing to break the rules, to dare to go beyond the boundaries that have been set for her. Satan emphasizes that if Eve wants to get ahead she must take action.

Eve is then prompted to ask herself whether to eat of the tree would really be such a large risk. After all, surely God would realize that it is only a "petty trespass" (l. 693), and not become too angry. In fact, He might even admire her "dauntless virtue" (l. 694) in defying His orders and death itself. Once again, Satan is manipulating Eve's ego -- he is effectively daring her to prove her bravery. Eve has an innocent, pure, childish mind, and this is therefore a very clever tactic to adopt. It is possible that Eve would consider this a chance to demonstrate to God that she is every bit as "manly" or determined as Adam. Satan has suggested that eating of the tree is an opportunity to display her strong, self-reliant character. He has turned it into a chance to show off.

Satan contends that to taste the fruit would actually cause Eve to become a better subject of God: "Of evil, if what is evil / Be real, why not known, since easier shunned?" (11. 698-99) This is a nearly flawless argument, and a direct refutation of Adam's earlier warning to avoid temptation altogether. It is only logical that a person cannot truly be righteous if she cannot recognize good from evil -- she simply does not have the knowledge to make an informed choice. Eve is given moral justification to break God's law.

Eve is assured by Satan that God "cannot hurt ye, and be just"(l. 700). If God inflicts death, He will not be just, and therefore will not be God. This is clearly a confusing, difficult argument, but he nevertheless succeeds in making it sound convincing. Satan would like to have things both ways, and holds that God is neither truly "God" nor will He kill Eve. Both of these options would support a choice by Eve to carry out the deed -- she does not have to fear death, and she does not have the ethical obligation to follow God's orders that she did when she revered Him as a perfect, absolutely just ruler. Satan also questions God's motives for naming this particular tree off limits. He suggests to Eve that the only possible reason for doing so would be "To keep ye low and ignorant" (l. 704). This would indicate that God does not rule by divine right, but by power that is accessible to anyone. In fact, if Adam and Eve eat of the tree, they "shall be as gods" (l. 708).

The excitement level is escalated noticeably as Satan nears the end of his speech. As the importance and danger of the act become more apparent, so too does the act's attractiveness. Satan is now prepared to acknowledge that eating the fruit may bring death. Although God takes great pains to portray this death as a negative thing, Satan has transformed it into a state which liberates one into a godlike being.

It is at this point that Satan begins referring to "the gods" in the plural. He explains that "The gods are first, and that advantage use / On our belief that all from them proceeds" (11. 718-719). Satan has presumably already succeeded in convincing Eve that God is not worthy of her uncritical devotion, and now is actually proposing that He is, or they are, scheming to maintain their unwarranted paramount position. They are not in fact all-powerful, nor do they deserve to be. If humans, and even animals, can attain wisdom without the god's permission by simply eating from a tree, these gods must be very weak indeed.

In the last lines of his speech, Satan's logic grows increasingly disjointed and disordered. Rather than the scrupulously constructed arguments he presented before, Satan spews forth a barrage of questions designed to anger Eve. She is teetering on the edge, and he is launching a final intense assault to push her over. He inquires why God would wish to hold her back from reaching her full potential. Could He be envious of her? This certainly would be less than heavenly. Satan concludes, triumphant and seeming nearly out of breath, "These, these, and many more / Causes import your need of this fair fruit. / Goddess humane, reach then, and freely taste!" (11. 730-32). Everything has added up to an overwhelming case, and there is no longer any doubt as to the correct course. Satan's absolute confidence would surely give Eve conviction in the rightness of the action. As far as she knows, he has no personal interest in seeing her eat the fruit. Only our privileged knowledge of Satan's true identity and intentions prevents us as readers from being taken in by his rhetoric.

Throughout his dealings with Eve Satan displays an intimate understanding of the psychology of persuasion, and an insight into her personal weaknesses. In Eve he finds a simple mind that has never 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. 6^th ed. New York: Norton, 1990. 770-71.