There is no
reason to apply modern theories to Milton if we do not care whether Milton
remains alive. However, if we wish him to be more than a historical artifact,
we must do more than just study him against the background of his time. We must
reinterpret him in light of the germane thought of our own age.
-James Driscoll
The Unfolding God Of Jung and Milton
Images and
allusions to sex and death are intermingled throughout John Milton's Paradise
Lost . The character of Satan serves as
not only an embodiment of death and sin, but also insatiated sexual lust. The
combination of sex and lust has significant philosophical implications,
especially in relation to themes of creation, destruction, and the nature of
existence. Milton, in Paradise Lost, establishes that with sex, as with
religion, he is of no particular hierarchical establishment. However, Milton
does not want to be confused with the stereotypical puritan. Milton the poet,
seems to celebrate the ideal of sex; yet, he deplores concupiscence and warns against the evils of lust, insisting lust
leads to sin, violence and death.
From the
beginning, Satan, like fallen humanity, not only blames others; but also makes
comic and grandiose reasons for his evil
behavior. Yet, despite his reasoning to seek revenge against God,
"his true motivation for escaping from hell and perverting paradise is, at
least partly, something more basic: Satan needs sex" (Daniel 26).
In the opening
books of the poem, Satan is cast into a fiery hell that is not only is
miserable, but devoid of sex. As Satan describes when he has escaped to Eden,
in hell: "neigh joy nor love, but fierce desire, / Among our other
torments not the least, / Still unfulfilled with pain of longing pine"
(Book IV, 509-11). The phallic
implications of "pain of longing
pine" is quite clear. In this metaphor, Milton expresses that sex itself
is not a sin; to be without it is a "hellish" punishment. However,
Milton rejects the morality of lusting
for sex, equating it with: death, sin, violence and Satan. Milton elucidates
the lustful desires of Satan throughout the first few books. For example, liquid, a common
symbol of femininity is depicted seven times in the first two books in the form
of a "lake" (Daniel 26). The
"lake" serves as a metaphor to the waters of the womb. Further
metaphors to female anatomy and the womb are made through references of hell as a "pit" (Book I, 91). Therefore,
Satan's fall into hell is an allusion
to being thrust back into the
womb(hell) where Satan and his rebels
are sexually inhibited. As Daniels
states, "These images suggest that Satan has been, in regard to the
perfect sex that he enjoyed in Heaven, emasculated, rendered impotent but
burning, in a feminine, inactive in hell." (27). Similarly, Frank Kermode
comments, "Milton boldly hints that the fallen angel [Satan] is sexually
deprived . . . the price of warring against omnipotence is impotence (114).
This is exemplified in book II, when Milton writes, " Beyond his potent
arm, to live exempt/ From Heaven's high jurisdiction, in a new league / Banded
against his throne, but to remain. In strictest bondage" (318-321).
Furthermore,
Satan's sexual despair is intensified by the very notion that it was the Son of
God, who caused his malady. As Satan says, he and his "associates and
copartners" (Book I, 265) were "transfix[ed]" by the Son's
"Thunderbolts" (Book I. 328-329) to a "fiery Couch" (Book
I, 377). Thus, Satan blames his sexual despair on the Son of God, who is his
arch-rival for the favor of God. In Satan's eyes, it is "as if it were a
sexual assault by the triumphant Son."(Daniels 27).
Satan lusts for
sex, as does his rebels; sexual tensions saturate the images in the first few
books. To elucidate, Satan's consult begins amidst:
a plethora of
phallic symbols: standards, staffs, ensigns, "a Forest huge of
spears," pipes, flutes, and, amidst the uproar there is the "painful
steps over the burnt soil" of phallic feet . (Daniel, 30).
Even when Satan
views his consult of demons, the images used by Milton conjure images of a
potential erection: "his heart /
Distends with pride, and hardening in his strength " (Book II,
571-573), Satan "stood like a
Tower" (Book II, 591). Furthermore, when Satan arrives at the walls of
Eden, the sexual imagery continues,
Eden is seen as mons Veneris:
"a rural mound, the champaign head / Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy
sides / With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild, / Access denied" (Book
Iv. 134-37).
In Paradise Lost,
Milton equates lust with evil, Satan is seen as a foil to Christ, God's good
son, and references are made to Christ being: "by merit more than
birthright Son of God, / Found worthiest to be so by being good, / Love hath
abounded more than glory abounds;" (Book III, 309-312). Furthermore,
although Eve is seduced by Satan, it is her lust for the fruit from the Tree of
Knowledge that causes her downfall.
However, unlike
lust, sex itself is not presented in Paradise Lost as impure. Milton takes a
different attitude towards sex than what would be expected of the doctrines of
the time. He passes no moral judgment in Paradise Lost that sex itself may or
may not be engaged solely to procreate. For Milton, "chastity is rather `purity of life',
the aggregate of `the duties that touch the purities of ones person'. Her
[chastity] proper companions are `modestie and temperance', and if she appears
at all as abstinence it is only in the sense of `abstaining from straggling
lusts and al impurity'"(Patrides, 166). In Eden, before the fall, sex is
perfect, as Adam and Eve are sinless nor do they feel guilt about themselves.
In fact, it is when Adam and Eve must engage in sex to procreate that guilty
feelings arise: "After the fall, both Adam and Eve agonize that the devil
has devastated their sex lives by turning the personal pleasure of sex into the
source of a race of beings doomed to suffer" (Daniels 36). Before the
fall, Satan while observing Adam and Eve in Heaven becomes hateful and jealous
at the sight of this universal and harmonious fornication, and writhes with
hateful envy at the memory of his state in Heaven: "I hate thy beams /That
bring to my remembrance from what state / I fell"(Book IV, 37-39). Before
the fall, Adam and Eve are amorous and like God, delight in love. As Patrides states, "No Protestant
commentator ever denied that Adam and Eve `knew' each other before the Fall,
and neither does Milton" (167).
Milton asserts outside of Paradise Lost that love is "as a fire
sent from Heaven to be ever kept alive upon the altar of our hearts, be the
first principle of all godly and vertous [sic] actions in men " (Patrides,
168) . Most renaissance writers regard love as a positive passion. But they
also believed that if love is cut off from its true source, which is God, it
grows perverted, immoderate and irrational. Burton, wrote, "if it rage . .
. it is no more love but a burning lust, a disease, Phrensie[sic], Madness, Hell."(440) and according to
Peter Sterry "All lust is Love degenerated, Love corrupted"
(Patrides, 170). In Eden, before the fall Adam and Eve are guiltless of "dishonest shame / Of
Nature's works, honor dishonorable, / Sin bred "(Book Iv, 313-315) and are
"god like erect, with native Honor clad / In naked Majesty" (Book IV,
289-90). This stands also as a phallic metaphor to contrast Satan's impotence.
He is a fallen angel, not "God-like" as is Adam, having cut himself
off from God, his love has been corrupted and turned into a madness. Through
Raphael, Milton expresses a concern for
sexual gratification without love as reducing man to the level of animals:
if the sense of
touch whereby mankind
Is propagated
seem such dear delight
Beyond all other,
think the same voutsafed
To Cattle and
each Beast
(Book
VIII, 579-82)
The pain caused
by Satan's sexual frustration and lust is incalculable, as he whines:
Sight hateful,
sight tormenting! thus these two
Imparadised in
one another's arms
The happier Eden
shall enjoy their fill
Of bliss, while I
to Hell am thrust,
Where neither joy
nor love, but fierce desire,
(Book IV, 505-509)
The above passage
contains several sexual connotations; Eden provides a blissful "fill" while Satan is
"thrust" into hell, devoid of joy or love. Satan's building lustful
hate becomes perverted into thoughts of forceful rape. God, seeing Satan winging
his way to earth, has sent angels Ithuriel and Zephon, to prevent Satan from
overwhelming the humans against their will(Book IV, 800-900). Through Satan's
plot against humanity, the lust/love relationship becomes elucidated further
when compared to biblical references. James I:15 states: "That when lust
hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished bringeth
forth death". Milton painstakingly reiterates this ideology throughout
Paradise Lost.
By the end of Paradise Lost, lust brings
forth death. Most readers recognize the erotic nature of Satan's encounter with
eve. The tasting of the forbidden fruit by Eve is based on a lust created by
Satan as the serpent. Eve returns to Adam "defaced",
"deflowered" and "now to Death devote" (Book IX, 901). When
Satan ruined Eve, he knew that Adam would soon follow. Satan realizes the consequences of his
actions; in agony of lust and despair he needs sex so badly he is willing to
murder Adam and Eve, for in order to sate his lust, the humans must die, and
consequently so must all humans.
After the fall,
Eve is distraught as she contemplates
abstaining from having sex in order to thwart death. She states to risk bringing children into
"this cursed world" is unconscionable (Book X, 981-91). From here,
the theme of sex and lust moves towards lust and violence. As Daniels writes:
"Milton subtly modulates the theme of lust and death to one of lust and
violence, a theme that already has been heard in the catalog of devils as well
as in the sexual dimension of the war and Heaven" (44).
According to
Milton, lust gives rise to warfare, when mankind is not busy: "marrying or
prostituting , as befell, /Rape or Adultery, where passing fair / Allured
them" (Book XII, 716-18), it wars: "With cruel Tournament the
Squadrons join; / Where cattle pastured late, now scattered lies / With
Carcasses and Arms the ensanguined Field / Deserted. Others to a city strong /
Lay siege " (Book XI, 652-55). Furthermore, he describes "just men they seemed, and all their
study bent / To worship God aright, and know his works / Not hid, nor things
last which might preserve / Freedom and peace to men" (Book XI, 577-580).
Even these "just men" succomb to lust:
They on the plain
Long had not walked, when from the tents behold
A bevy of fair women, richly gay
In gems and wanton dress; to the harp they
sung
Soft amorous ditties, and in dance came on:
The men, through grave, eyed them, and let
their
eyes
Rove without
rein, till in the amorous net
Fast Caught...
(Book XI, 580-587)
These "just men" become corrupted by
their lust for these women and their
"perverted love" brings forth violence, and eventually their death:
Bred only and completed to the taste
Of lustful appetence, to sing, to dance
to dress and troll the tongue, and roll the
eye.
To these that sober race of men, whose lives
Religious titled them the Sons of God,
Shall yield up all their virtue, all the fame
Ignobly, to the trains and to the smiles
Of these fair atheists" (Book XI,
618-625)
Thus, reiterating
the renaissance and Milton's notion that love cannot by cut off from its true
source, which is God; otherwise, it develops perverted lust. The punishment for
the ensuing spread of lust is the cataclysm of universal death by the flooding
of the earth; also death on a less universal scale caused by the violence
of "slaughter and gigantic
deeds" (Book XI, 659) lust creates:
... great
conquerors
Patrons of
Mankind, Gods, and Sons of Gods,
Destroyers
rightlier called and Plagues of men
(Book XI, 695-697)
In reviewing
Milton's lethal nature of lust, it would be helpful to also examine another
work, Samson Agonsistes, in comparison to Paradise Lost. In Samson Agonistes,
Samson like the "just men" in Paradise Lost also becomes lost in lust
and violence and fears the consequence of death: "My race of glory run,
and race of shame, . And I shall shortly be with them that rest." (Samson,
597-598). As Daniels states,
"Samson is ruined not so much because he is garrulous but because he is
violent and licentious"(77).
Milton viewed
violence as another guise of a perverse satanic energy. However, it may be argued
as to weather or not Milton is a pacifist. James A. Freeman, in Milton and the
Martial Muse maintains Milton was anti-violence/war to the point of pacifism.
According to Freemen, Milton in Paradise Lost gives to the devil the
traditional warrior ethos and by doing so undoubtedly, "startled early
readers who were conditioned to respect military men... By identifying demonic
[and/or lustful] actions as martial, Milton attacks the `double speak' of his
time(220-221)...war is the utmost that vice [evil] promises to her
followers" (45). In contrast,
Michael Lieb, in Poetics of the Holy: A reading Paradise Lost of, argues:
Peace was valued
by Milton as much as anyone in the Renaissance, and yet this love of peace and
detestation of war should not blind one to the extent to which Milton was
imbued with the fervor of what he considered to be a just war undertaken in a
righteous cause (265-266).
Based on Paradise
Lost alone, it would appear that Milton regards lust and violence as two
related issues. It is lust that gives rise to violence and hatred. Even today,
debate rages over the nature of violence. Often discussed is the issue of
whether the word denotes only physical harm or whether certain kinds of
emotional or psychological harm constitute violence. In Paradise Lost, violence
is linked with satanic energy and lust which alienates one from God. Milton
connects violence with lust in some of his early works as well; in his mask
Comus, the character of Comus and his crew, are compared with "stabled
wolves or tigers at their prey" (534) who surprise their victims with
"unjust force" (590) and with "the sons of Vulcan" who
"fierce sign of battle make, and menace high" with "brandished
blade"(651-56). As well, sexual connotations are very evident in
Comus; Comus himself experiences the
same sexual despair and frustration of Satan in Paradise Lost. This lust
creates a hell for Comus similar to that depicted in Paradise Lost:
Of midnight
torches burns; mysterious dame,
that never art
called but when the dragon womb
Of stygian
darkness spets her thickest gloom,
And makes one
blot of all the air
(130-133)
Furthermore, as
Comus lusts after the lady in the mask, this lust turns to thoughts of violence. In the mask, the two brothers
debate the possibility that Comus and his crew could conceive of trying to rape
her. The second brother states: "the rash hand of blood Incontinence"
(397) will not allow "a single helpless maiden pass /Uninjured"
(402-403).
Without a doubt,
it may be argued that Milton may or may not agree with a "just holy
war", but he does believe that lust and excess will lead to violence. Such
violence created by lust, alienates man from God and is therefore, sinful.
In conclusion,
Milton is consistent in his approach to sex, lust, violence and death
throughout Paradise Lost and many of his other works. The downfall of humankind
was caused by lust for the forbidden fruit, as was Satan's motive for revenge.
Milton explicitly points out that lust leads to violence and alienates man from
God. The punishment according to Milton is justly, death. Throughout Paradise Lost, Milton emphasis
moderation, and love that becomes an obsession, becomes lust. In Milton's eyes
lust is very dangerous and leads to violence and death of mankind. Like other
writers of his time, Milton warns of the consequences of "falling"
into lust as removing oneself from Godhead.
WORKS CITED
Daniel, Clay.
Death in Milton's Poetry. (London: Ass. Univ. Press, 1994)
Freeman, James A.
Milton and the Martial Muse: Paradise Lost and the European
Traditions of War. (Princeton: Princeton
Univ. Press, 1980)
Kermode, Frank.
Ed. "Adam Unparadised" in The Living Milton: Essays by Various
Hands (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul,
1960)
Lieb, Michael.
Poetics of the Holy: A Reading of Paradise Lost. (Chapel Hill: University
of North Carolina Press, 1981)
Milton, John.
Comus in The Portable Milton. Editor
Douglas Bush (New York: Viking
Press, 1977)
----, Paradise
Lost in The Portable Milton. Editor Douglas Bush (New York: Viking
Press, 1977)
----, Samson
Agonistes in The Portable Milton. Editor
Douglas Bush (New York: Viking
Press, 1977)
Patrides, C.A.
Milton and The Christian Tradition. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966)
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