Jealousy and Vanity- Sydney Snow

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Alright folks, I do not completely understand what I have read. This is mainly due to my lack of understanding poetry, especially an old piece like this. But, I do have some understanding of the big picture Milton is creating. Reading this, I began to feel overwhelmed, but after some explaining from upperclassmen, I think I know a bit of what's going on.

So, everyone has always told me that you will feel sympathy towards Satan when reading this, but I never understood why until now. He feels a feeling that some of us can relate to, but definitely not in the same way. He is being replaced. He is forced to bow down to God's Son, someone who has not been there as long and who is better than him. So what does he do? He gets jealous and gets himself kicked out. We all know how the story goes. But we feel for him because we may have experienced being replaced or thought of as second best after years of being first. In my head I can just picture an only child becoming an older sibling and not being given the same amount of attention, so he/she begins to lash out. It's a very funny thing to imagine to me, but I do not know why I imagined that. 
But, we also see where Satan sees man and their paradise, thinks they are beautiful, and reconsiders his evil plan for a moment. We can sympathize with that small moment. But, at the end of the day, Satan is still the bad guy that none of us like.

Can we also talk about Eve for a moment? Let's talk about how Eve compared her reflection to Adam and saw herself as more beautiful. She is really all about herself, and not in a "yay, female empowerment" type way (more in a vanity type way).  On pages 90 and 91 of book four (I don't know if I went too far back with this), she sees herself for the first time and she keeps looking with her eyes "pined with vain desire." But, when she looks at Adam, she thinks he is "less fair, less winning soft, less amiable mild than that smooth wat'ry image." She sees herself as more fair. She sets herself higher than him in terms of looks, yet she is lower than him when it comes to order.

I commented on Hannah's and Ezra's posts.

Comments

Clabo said…
I do completely agree with you in the fact that we very easily sympathize with Satan throughout the story. He made the choice that he did not want to spend his existence serving and worshiping the God, and Son, as you said, he was jealous of. But, after going against the purpose he was made for, he struggles to find the reason or purpose for his existence, and he chooses to devote himself to being evil and wicked. He devotes himself to being everything that stands against God. Also, I feel as if Eve does see herself as more fair, but more in a soft sense. The book also says that they are equally beautiful, but in the sense that Adam is the strong and sturdy while Eve is the soft and graceful.
September 2, 2019 at 9:35 PM
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