Dual temptation : a comparison between the temptations of Eve in Paradise Lost and the lady in Comus.

Abstract

In Paradise Lost and Comus, John Milton portrays the two tempters, Satan and Comus, as having similar skills and character traits and using similar approaches to tempt their victims. Yet Comus fails in his temptation of the Lady while Satan succeeds in his temptation of Eve. To determine why one tempter fails and the other succeeds, one must first understand that in developing the outcomes ofthe temptations, Milton was bound, to some degree, by the Genesis story and the conventions of the masque. Furthermore, an analysis of the Lady and Eve and their responses to the tempters shows that the two women are helped or hindered in their resistance by their different states of existence and environments. The Lady, living in a fallen world, has acquired knowledge of good and evil and a solid inner voice, her conscience, both of which help her identify her tempter for what he is. She is thus able to withstand the temptation. Eve, in contrast, lives in the unfallen world of the Garden of Eden, where acquiring knowledge of good and evil is specifically forbidden to her. Not having developed the inner voice that comes with learning how to choose good over evil and having to rely on outer voices for guidance, Eve falls prey to her tempter. The thesis attempts to show that in the two poems, knowledge of good and evil is a pre-requisite to resisting temptation, putting the unfallen Eve at a disadvantage in comparison to the Lady.