Cecutti 1

Todd Cecutti

ENGL 250

Dr. David Summers

April 28, 2016

Envy as the Cause of the Fall

John Miltons Paradise Lost is a maze of meaning-making that attempts to uncover the

cause of the Fall of man. Many may say that it was simply evil, or Satan, that caused the fall, but

this would be to ignore the free will with which God created man; free will not only allowed for

man to stand in the good graces of God, but to fall as well. Beyond free will, though, there are

essential human feelings that Milton, apparently, believes are inherent to not just man, but Satan

as well. Characters like Adam and Satan in Paradise Lost share feelings such as incompleteness,

loneliness, and displacement, but it was the deadly sin of envy that was the systemic cause of the

Fall of man.

It was Satans envy that began the war in Heaven that resulted in his exile. When looking

for the original cause or the introduction of envy in Paradise Lost, one must consider Satans

reasoning for beginning the battle between good and evil that lays the foundation for the Fall.

Satan is envious of the glory and honour with which God has graced Adam and the world He

has given him (KJV, Psalms 8.5).

There is a place

(If ancient and prophetic fame in Heaven

Err not), another world, the happy seat

Of some new race called man, about this time

To be created like to us, though less

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In power and excellence but favored more

Of him who rules above; (2.345-351)

In this address to the fallen angels, Satan suggests that since his army cannot get into Heaven to

battle a strong and secure God, they must By force or subtlety find human weakness (2.358).

This declaration marks the beginning of the war between good and evil and identifies the pawn

in the match, who is man.

Satans grief and his envy of man swell when, in Book IV, he stands gazing upon Adam

and Eve in Eden and recognizes that the world was created by God to replace the fallen angels.

In their defeat, this is hard for Satan to swallow. He also recognizes their beauty, which is just

short of heavenly spirits, again echoing Psalm 8.5.

O hell! What do mine eyes with grief behold?

Into our room of bliss thus high advanced

Creatures of other mold, earth-born perhaps,

Not spirits, yet to heavenly spirits bright

Little inferior, whom my thoughts pursue

With wonder, and could love, so lively shines

In them divine resemblance, and such grace

The hand that formed them on their shape hath poured. (4.358-365)

It is clear from this passage, specifically the phrase that expresses that Satan could love them,

that he feels a connection to these humans for they are two of Gods other creations. As the most

beautiful creature that God had ever created, Satan certainly feels betrayed and envious of Adam

and Eve, for God has replaced him. The only creations that Satan spawned were Sin and Death,
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two ugly forms and the tools of his evil. Satan eventually finds his way into Eden with the intent

to infect the new creations with his envy.

In Book IX, Satan passes the burden and curse of envy onto Eve. In this way, it can be

reasoned that envy is the ultimate cause of mans Fall. Satan tricked Eve into eating the fruit

from the Tree of Knowledge, rendering her sinful and therefore mortal. Eves thoughts before

she comprehends the severity of her action are filled with envy. She first considers sharing her

newfound happiness with Adam, then:

Or rather not,

But keep the odds of knowledge in my power,

Without copartner, so to add what wants

In female sex, the more to draw his love

And render me more equal and, perhaps,

A think not undesirable, sometime

Superior, for inferior who is free?

This may be well, but what if God have seen

And death ensue? Then I shall be no more,

And Adam, wedded to another Eve,

Shall live with her enjoying, I extinct: (9.819-829)

First, Eve thinks to share her knowledge unselfishly, but her mind quickly turns to the

advantages of keeping it to herself; she could be more equal to Adam (or the male sex), more

desirable to him, and at times superior to him, for being inferior is a prison in which woman is

doomed to be kept. Her envy is even more focused in her next thought, which is that if God did

see her eat the fruit and punishes her with death, then He will simply make Adam a new wife
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with whom he will exist happily. Therefore, as a result of her envy, Adam must share with [her]

in bliss or woe (9.831). Later in Book IX, Adam has the same thought about God creating a

new partner for him while he considers whether or not to join Eve in sin: though his

power/Creation could repeat (9.945-946). In the end, Adam chooses to join Eve in sin and

mortality for he cannot live without her. This decision is eventually revealed by Michael to

Adam to be the cause of much more evil.

Atop a hill of Paradise in Book XI, Michael reveals the result of Adams decision to

fall: the story of Cain and Abel, two more victims of envy (11.377-378). Adam watches Cain

slay Abel and asks Michael, in ignorance of death, if this was an act of devotion, to which

Michael replies:

These two are brethren, Adam, and to come

Out of thy loins; the unjust the just hath slain

For envy that his brothers offering found

From Heaven acceptance; (11.454-457).

This mountaintop lesson from Michael mirrors Satans temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4 of the

Bible. Jesus was not envious of Gods ownership of all the lands, so he would not give in to evil

by bowing to Satan when they were offered to him. By having Michael show Adam Cain and

Abel the story of envy Milton established that envy is central to Paradise Lost, not just a

peripheral sin. Despite the fact that Adams free will allowed him to choose to eat the fruit from

the Tree of Knowledge, Michael still places the blame for the terrible diseases to come on Eve:

Before thee shall appear that thou mayst know / What misery the inabstinence of Eve / Shall

bring on men (11.475-477). This may be due to the underlying causes attitudes and

motivations behind Adam and Eves decision to fall.

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Eves temptation reveals in her a selfish envy, unlike Adam whose incompleteness led to

his envious attraction to Eve upon their first meeting; he merely sought companionship. Though

Adam saw Eve as less exact, he did see her as complete, unlike himself, for a maker makes the

second creation better than the first: Authority and reason on her wait / As one intended first

not after made / Occasionally; (8.539, 8.554-556). Eve, on the other hand, was most interested

in gazing at her own image in a lake. Maybe it is for this reason that Satan chose to tempt Eve

and not Adam, or it may be due to her submissive charms, which Satan observed as God

guided her away from the lake (4. 498). Out of envy, Satan exclaimed:

Sight hateful, sight tormenting! Thus these two

Imparadised in one anothers arms,

The happier Eden, shall enjoy their fill

Of bliss on bliss, while I to hell am thrust, (4.505-508)

So it was both Satan and Eve, together, whose envious ways laid the foundation for the Fall of

man before Adam was able to decide to commit to sin.

From the moment that Satan thought to take over Heaven, envy consumed him. Even

after he and his fallen angels were cast out of Heaven, he drew upon his envy in order to create a

Hell that rivaled Heaven and stood for everything it was not. If Heaven was Trinitarian, Hell

was to be anti-Trinitarian. If Adam and Eve were to be good by God, they were to be sinful by

Satan. If God meant to create a world where no man looked upon his neighbors good fortune in

selfishness, Satan set out to make sure that envy consumed mans every thought. Like Chaucer

before him in The Parsons Tale, Milton believed that envy was the worst of sins. Envy was

paraded by Spenser in The Faerie Queene: He hated all good works and virtuous deeds, /

So every good to bad he doth abuse: / Such one vile Envie was, that fifte row did sitt.
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(1.4.32). Dante sewed shut the eyes of the envious with leaden wire. Paradise Lost, though, was

the greatest literary nod to envy as one of the evils inherent inside of man; Milton believed it to

be the cause of Satans fall, the cause of Sin and Death, and ultimately the reason for the Fall of

man, the greatest fault that ever was.

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Works Cited

Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2005. Print.

Spenser, Edmund. "The First Booke of the Faerie Queene." The Norton

Anthology of English

Literature. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. Ninth ed. Vol. B. New York: Norton,

2012. 781-

934. Print.

The Holy Bible, King James Version. Cambridge Edition: 1769; King James

Bible Online, 2016.

www.kingjamesbibleonline.org.