In His Time // Haylee Lynd

     "On the ground / Outstretched he lay, on the cold ground, and oft / Cursed his creation, Death as oft accused / Of tardy execution... / ...Why comes not Death, / Said he, with one thrice-acceptable stroke / to end me?" (X.850-856)

    In Book X, Adam is laying on the ground where I imagine him just yelling at the sky. He has ate of the forbidden fruit. Jesus has come down to earth and declared the curses which will now be on the serpent, on man, and on woman, and Adam has observed everything, including the weather change for the worse.  He is feeling every kind of anxiety and negative emotion because he has been told that he is supposed to die, yet he has not died. He agonizes about his situation for 142 lines before Eve does her best to comfort him. Because Adam is so stressed and angry, however, he responds only by yelling at her. The dialogue involves both of them, at some point, considering suicide and having to talk themselves or each other out of it. 

     Now, if I was in Adam's situation, I would probably be doing the same thing, grieving the life I lost and worrying over the little bit of life I have left that I know I'm going to lose. However, it is ironic how long it takes Adam to realize that God stated that Adam's offspring would crush the serpent's head, and thus, such a thing has to happen. Because of his anxiety, Adam forgets the promise of God. He states, "...To crush his head / Would be revenge indeed, which will be lost / By death brought on ourselves or childless days.." (X.1035-1037). Essentially, he says, the thing God said is not going to happen though because we do not have children. Like, Adam, bud, come on. You and Eve are the only people on earth. Why would the Lord waste His breath to say Eve will have pains in child-birth if she was not going to have a child?

    Eventually, Adam realizes that they have to have children because of what God has said to them regarding the crushing of the serpents's head. However, Adam does not realize, just like with his death, how long it will be before such a thing actually occurs. From what I understand, Adam believes one of his children (not his great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great...you get the point... grandchildren) is going to be the one to crush the serpent's head. He does not realize it will be centuries before that occurs, at a time when Adam is not alive to witness it. It goes to show that we will rarely be able to understand God's will, but that's okay because His will and His plan will accomplish the greatest good. He will be glorified as He deserves to be. Praise God for giving insight to Adam so that he did not kill himself(if that is something Adam really thought about after the fall) and praise God for redeeming the earth.


P.S. I commented on Taylor's and Emily's posts.

Comments

  1. Ian BlairSeptember 27, 2021 at 9:25 PM

    Adam's perspective shifts drastically over the course of his monologue, & I definitely can see the scene in my mind of how it's playing out. Good job pointing out the detail that Eve & Adam are going to have to have children if one of their children are going to crush the serpent's head; it shows that not all hope is lost despite Paradise & the connection with God being broken. Adam's stress could have its own dissertation written analyzing it, but its intriguing how his stress seems to constantly build the more he knows, perhaps hinting to Milton trying to say that knowing too much is bad for the mind?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Emmett BryantSeptember 27, 2021 at 9:51 PM

    I think you really hit the nail on the head about how complex God's will can be. Though in His view it is simple and perfect, to us at times it makes no sense at all. I think that is the beauty in it though. We have a creator that cares for us and loves us that even when we do not understand, He still chooses to guide us along His path patiently. -Emmett Bryant

    ReplyDelete
  3. Song WhittingtonSeptember 27, 2021 at 10:49 PM

    I like your thought process on this one. It inspired my post a little bit, in all honesty. I appreciate that you highlighted the darker fact of Adam and Eve considering suicide. Very well worded.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Justin JSeptember 27, 2021 at 11:48 PM

    I think that's something we all do. when we reach our lowest points in life we tend to forget the promises of God. Adam at this point in the story is at the lowest point any human has ever been in EVER, so I can't say I exactly blame him for his forgetfulness in despair. Adam is within this narrative both figuratively and literally the representation of all mankind, and so it makes sense to me for him to assume the worst and go into a depressive state when confronted with the reality of his depravity

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A House Divided//Emily Otts

The words Jesus spoke in Matthew 12 remind me so much of this play: "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand." (Matthew 12:25) King Lear, at the end of the day, is about a family being divided multiple ways. These divisions arise over greed and hatred for one another and cause the whole family to be ruined because of it. King Lear first divides the kingdom after his daughter Cordelia does not proclaim her love to him, so he banishes her. Later, his daughters go against him for not doing as they asked, believing he is unfit and unworthy to be king, secretly plotting against him. But all of this comes to a head in Act 5. After capturing King Lear and Cordelia, Edmund plans to have them killed. You would believe the sisters would be able to work together because their plan is working, but an even greater division has risen between them. Both of them wish to have Edmund for themselves, and they plot against each o...
Read more

The Plague in Everyone// Emily Otts

     In part 4 of the Plague , Tarrou tells Rieux about how he has had the plague forever. Except, this is not the same plague as the one ravaging the town. Tarrou speaks of how his father was a lawyer who believed in the death penalty, how he saw so many people support it and be comfortable about it, and how he had to witness the executions of prisoners. He explains how this sort of mindset is a plague itself, one Tarrou had been fighting for a long time. " That's why everybody in the world looks so tired; everyone is more or less sick of plague. But that is also why some of us, those who want to get the plague out of their systems, feel such desperate weariness, a weariness from which nothing remains to set us free except death" (Camus, part 4, chapter 6). Tarrou wants to desperately not submit to such awful ways of thinking.      Tarrou does not realize it, but the plague he is talking about is sin. Everyone has it, some people give in to it and let...
Read more

The Thirst for Knowledge

     With Book Seven of Milton's Paradise Lost, Raphael is continuing his exposition on Satan's apostasy. The plan is to expose Adam and Eve to the wretched fate of those who cross God's will. The more he shed's light on the subject, however, the more Adam is inclined to ask for more information. He wants to know everything about the subject, as well as God and His creation.      However, while the taste of such knowledge leaves Adam yearning for more, there are boundaries. It is like a toddler eating a cookie... and eventually begging her mother for the rest of the jar. Is it a coincidence that the one thing Adam and Eve are not to touch is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil? Most readers know how the story ends: these toddlers are never going to be content with a few cookies. They're going in for the jar.   There is a statement in the Bible that is constantly being repeated throughout the Old Testament: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of ...
Read more