The paradox between Christianity and the fall of man is one of the most dramatic themes in Milton's poem, Paradise Loss. The theme of morality is quite evident in the poem, along with slightly less important themes such as human nature and religion. The main characters in the poem are, God, Satan, Adam and Eve. The beginning of the poem describes how Satan and his angels came to be in hell. Book one of Paradise loss is closely linked to the first story of the creation of man in Genesis located in the Bible.
OF Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Many scholars have said that the Satan appears as a heroic figure in Milton's poem. Milton gives the “lead” role of the poem to the character of Satan, which is so ironic given the fact that poem theme is so intertwined with being a good Christian. However, Milton does this to demonstrate how ones desires in life, (sin) can lead to a dark place-and in Paradise Loss the dark place is Hell. If Milton were to have begun the poem with Adam being the heroic figure, it would have turned many readers off, possible. They may not want to read a story so full of “do's and don't” be good or you will be punished to hell, like being in a religious sermon. No, Milton uses Satan to pull the reader in, make them curious to find out what this character will do being cursed to Hell. Adam, is also viewed as a hero figure of the poem, however his roles is not quite as dramatized as Satan's, he is viewed in the piece as the hero of Christianity and is not even brought in to the poem as a “hero” figure until much later in the story.
The moral of the poem is to abide by the Christian faith, live without sin and to follow the commandments set forth by the creator of the world, God. If a person does not obey Gods law they will be condemned to live in the dark cave of hell where there is caucus, pain, and regret. God is not showed as a forgiving father in this poem which makes gives readers more to think about in terms of being disobedient to God and loosing the Paradise he has created for the ones who have decided to live their lives by the rules set fourth during the creation of the Earth. This are other issues of morality in the poem, however this seems to be the most prevalent.
In the Rape of Locke, issues of Morality take on a slightly different context than that of Milton's, “Paradise Lost.”
The title of the poem The Rape of Locke, suggest a woman who has been victimized, (raped). It is safe to say after reading the story that the word “rape,” does not signify a brutal attack at all. Pope created the satire to demonstrate to a small audience of people, namely the rich female characters who cared more about the way they appeared than how they acted around people. The word, “rape,” is used to suggest that being brutally attacked by an assailant is far worse of an event than having a piece of hair cut off of.
In Paradise Lost, the issue of morality and human behavior was geared to a much larger audience, quite possibly the entire civilized world. In The Rape of Locke, Pope points on a certain class of people upper class females, the ones who value their looks and objects of beauty beyond all other matters in life.
Pope describes how the females act, their attire is extremely important in this story because it describes who they are, it is more about how they look, being beautiful on the outside, opposed of the real important features Pope tries to point out with having the Locke of hair cut off, this was supposed to teach them that it is not your hair that is loved, but it is the person inside. Pope describes the characteristics of the whining female character who has had her hair brutal swiped away to influence a society where the most important values are more often, the wrong ones to actually value. The morality issues in, Paradise Lost focuses on religion, life and death, sin, and forgiveness by God. Where as, The Rape of Locke focuses on issues of the upper class, vanity, and selfishness behaviors.
Changing Behaviors by way of persuasive writing in Pope's, The Rape of the Lock, and Samuel Johnson's Raasselas and in A Modest Proposal.
