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| The God of Paradise Lost as a Father Figure | |||||||||||||||||
| 06 December 1999 | |||||||||||||||||
| Ward Cleaver and Bob Cratchit may not be analogous in many ways, but both have exhibited features of fatherhood that the current generation has lauded and extolled as exemplary and paradigmatic. According to tabletop psychologists and television talk-show hosts, parenting requires a great amount of energy, time, resources, wisdom, and usually an investment in the latest "How To" book. With the ongoing debate concerning nature versus nurture, many parents are left feeling partially to blame for their children's actions and, in some cases, are held in social contempt for their lack of parental skills. Taking these current beliefs into consideration, one has to wonder how God in John Milton's Paradise Lost would fare under such scrutiny. Based on modern norms and ideals, it appears that Milton's God would be quickly indicted as being injudicious, inequitable, and generally undeserving of respect. This can be deduced by examining his relationships with Satan, Adam and Eve, his son, and the other angels. | |||||||||||||||||
| God, as presented by Milton, is supposed to be the determinant of justice and judgement. Yet he repeatedly shows inconsistency in his punishments without clear reasons as to these discrepancies. For instance, Satan and his cohorts are punished severely and absolutely, with no chance for grace and forgiveness. Their sin? The group, with Satan as the ringleader, had aspired to God's throne. This throne was in great demand, for in Book Nine Eve herself succumbs to the possibility of attaining Godhead status. Yet for the same crime, Eve's penalty consists only of pain in child-bearing and death, which is hardly as dire as it may sound, considering that God's Son has chosen to intervene and thus grant Eve and her fellow man an escape to Heaven. God explains this vast difference in punishments by focusing on the motivations of the respective criminals; Satan, being "self-tempted, self-deprav'd" (3.130), earned himself an incontrovertible sentence, while Eve and her adoring Adam receive less punishment because they had fallen "deceiv'd/ By the other first" (3.130-1). Yet Adam and Eve were not the only ones led astray by Satan. His own legions had fallen prey to his insidious plans while in heaven: "So spake the false Arch-Angel, and infus'd/ Bad influence into th' unwarie brest | |||||||||||||||||
| Of his Associate/....and casts between/ Ambiguous words and jealousies, to sound/ Or taint integritie" (5.694-704). These angels, legions of Satan though they were, began their careers in evil as innocent creatures, led only into the fray by the conniving Satan. But God does not find enough compassion in his limitless supply to pardon these angels or give them the chance of finding grace; instead, having been judged and sentenced, these duped angels shall be thrown into Hell, where "her numbers full, / Thenceforth shall be for ever shut" (3.332-3). By God's own precedence and admission, this is not justice. Satan, Adam, and Eve are not the only ones to suffer in this world; though he heaps undue attention on his Son by allowing him to actually create the new world of Adam and Eve and to defeat Satan and his rogues on the last day of the battle in Heaven, he also requires him to sacrifice himself to save mankind. The Son is a completely innocent figure in this whole debacle over the crown. If anyone deserves punishment, it is the transgressors themselves and not some intermediary. God, if he is indeed all-powerful, should have been able to protect the race of humans by his own divine will without the need for his Son's blood.� Instead, the Son must pay for a crime he did not commit. Instead, God requires that innocent blood must be shed. He evidently does not treat his creations with justice, but he could still treat them equally. | |||||||||||||||||
| Every family therapist knows that parents with more than one child must strive to make all their children feel equally loved and appreciated. God, it seems, would not quite embrace this advice. On the contrary, God explicitly decrees that his Son, "in whom my Soul hath chief delight" (3.169) will inherit the kingdom and have eternal power. It is only at this point that | |||||||||||||||||
| ...He of the first, | |||||||||||||||||
| If not the first Arch-Angel, great in Power, | |||||||||||||||||
| In favour and pr�eminence, yet fraught | |||||||||||||||||
| With envie against the Son of God, that day | |||||||||||||||||
| Honourd by his great Father, and proclaimd | |||||||||||||||||
| Messiah King anointed, could not beare | |||||||||||||||||
| Through pride that sight, & thought himself impaird (5.659-665). | |||||||||||||||||
| Feeling thus unloved and fearing the tumult that this decree could have on his life, Satan understandably sought to protect his place in Heaven's realm. God should have known what kind of effect such a decree would have; like Edmond who knew Edgar should succeed their father, Satan as a ranking Archangel would feel obliged to fight for what he considered to be his. Likewise, God must have known in what a state of naivete Adam and Eve existed. The two had never heard a falsehood; they had never known death. Sure, Raphael warned them of the dangers of temptation, but they had never beheld a temptation before; unlike the Son, whom God had endowed with all-encompassing wisdom and knowledge (3.170), these two were acting completely on their own wits when Satan tempted them. God could not possibly expect Adam and Eve to be able to accomplish what so many angels in heaven, with their knowledge of God's ways and longer relationships with God, were unable to do. | |||||||||||||||||
| Beyond their lack of ability to withstand the temptation of Satan and the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve also lacked a sufficiently powerful role model in their father figure. Though he purports himself to be the definitive power to whom the two must answer, even God admits to a "high Decree/ Unchangeable, Eternal, which ordain'd/ Their freedom" (3.126-7). Besides this elusive Decree, other factors point to God not being all-powerful. For instance, he cannot revoke the sentence upon Adam and Eve without the intercession and sacrifice of a being in Heaven (3.213). God cannot save mankind all by himself. God is also bad at doling out the discipline he decrees. Rather than take the responsibility of punishment upon himself, God sends his Son to do his dirty work - the Son is sent to dispose of the legions of Satan (6.699), to create the new earth of man which will eventually require his own doom (7.164), and to defeat Satan and Death once and for all (3.259), even die for man's sins. To Adam and Eve, it might have thus appeared that their God lacked a spine, something of which their tempter Satan had more than enough. In a strange twist of partisanship and noninvolvement, God allows his Son to judge both the apostate angels and man rather than take the burden and displeasure of the sentenced on himself (3.333-4). This God that cannot carry out his own choices also seems to have a problem with his temper, an undeniably bad trait. Once again, it is his Son who attempts to appease his father's wrath (3.409). With this knowledge of God's ire and impotence to act, it really is no surprise that Adam and Eve chose to behave disobediently. | |||||||||||||||||
| If God were involved in a custody battle over his creations to be judged by a modern-day court, there is a good chance that he would lose. Based on societal norms for good parenting like judiciousness, impartiality, and taking an active role in a child's life, the God of Paradise Lost would fail miserably. That said, it is clear that the character of God does not provide an exemplary example of fatherhood for the modern audience.� | |||||||||||||||||
| Works Cited | |||||||||||||||||
| Milton, John. Paradise Lost: A Poem in Twelve Books. 2nd ed. London: S. Simmons, 1674. [ONLINE] http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/pl/note/index.html | |||||||||||||||||