17. Paradise Lost, Book IX

Milton (ENGL 220)

Book Nine and the depiction of the Fall are presented. Adam and Eve's dialogue -- especially their perspectives on labor, temptation, and the nature of the garden -- is examined. Satan's strategic temptation of Eve is closely analyzed. At the lecture's conclusion, Adam and Eve's new fallen sight is discussed, with particular emphasis placed on the reference to the "veil" of pre-fallen innocence. Overall, the tension between doctrinal and subversive perspectives on the pre-fallen hierarchy of Eden is underscored.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction: "Paradise Lost" Book IX
03:01 - Chapter 2. Adam and Eve, Arguing?
10:19 - Chapter 3. The Argument between Adam and Eve on the Morning of the Fall
36:03 - Chapter 4. The Promise of Equality and its Importance to Eve after the Fall

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2007.