I highlight the idea of divinity—what it means to be a god and what these gods, by means of their status, should have. The title of god is a desirable one—if one is a god, they are “first” and have access to “wisdom without…offence” (9.725-726). Satan plants this seed of desire in the depths of Eve’s psyche, which brings about Eve’s feelings of longing for the opportunity to be more than just Eve, to be anything she desires to be. As a goddess, Eve would have complete autonomy over her actions and speech, allowing her to say and do as she pleases without consequence. Although Eve may not have previously had this desire, Satan’s specific word choice not only introduces this possibility of god-like status to her mind, but fosters it until she believes it to be “with truth.” As the orator-Satan skillfully repeats the alluring idea of Eve as a goddess within his dialogue, he triggers her imagination and she sees a vision of who she could be: a beautiful goddess who can think, speak, and act without fear of consequence. As she imagines this parallel reality in her mind, her next question would surely be how can I be her? Satan’s response to it is to “[f]reely taste”the fruit (9.732). At this moment, Eve falls under the spell of Satan’s oratorical skill. My poem works in tandem with Satan’s dialogue in Book 9 lines 714 through 723. While I do not change any of Satan's lines, my excision poem emphasizes certain words to highlight just how effective his persuasion is. In highlighting “Gods,” “Knowledge,” and “Wisdom without…offense,” Satan’s method becomes exceptionally clear: by bombarding Eve’s mind with images of who she could be, he ensures that it will be extremely difficult for Eve to resist the temptation to eat the fruit that has the power to make her anything she desires to be. To close off my poem, I chose guile as the last word, as, in the end, Eve was no match for Milton’s master orator.
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