Jealousy, Jealousy/ Emily Otts

 In Book 4 of Paradise Lost, Satan goes down to earth to hopefully ruin God's newest creation, Man. While wondering through Paradise, he comes across Adam and Eve in the garden. Satan watches them as they relax under a tree and then go on to have sex. He continues to watch, mostly focused on Eve. He turns away, and is described as being envious. He is clearly envy of their happiness, but also focuses on Eve. It seems as if he is jealous of her and wishes to have her for himself. Later, that night when they go to bed, Satan goes to Eve's ear to fill her head with temptation, not Adam. He wants to corrupt her and have her. When captured by some of the angels, he's upset they stopped him from corrupting here. "Abashed the devil stood/ And felt how awful goodness is and saw/ Virtue in her shape,how lovely, saw and pined/ His loss, but chiefly to find here observed/ His luster visibly impaired." (Paradise Lost, Book 4, 846-850). Satan going after Eve is a deliberate choice. He not only wants man's fall, but also wants her to fall with him. He wants her to be stuck where he is so he can have her. It is truly interesting to see how envy can control anyone, even the devil. 

I commented on Emma Kate Paterson's and Abigale Bell's posts.

Comments

  1. The Mahn-sterSeptember 13, 2021 at 11:21 PM

    I would also say that envy is what caused his fall in the first place. Satan was envious of God's power, as such, it is no wonder that envy would remain a characteristic trait of Satan.

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  2. Braylan StringfellowSeptember 14, 2021 at 8:51 AM

    Envy is a very powerful sin that can control anyone. For some reason a lot of my extended family has a lot of envy for each other, and its to the point that some of them hate everyone. It does make for some interesting family Christmas’s but the control that envy has on them to where its hard to have just a basic conversation with them is awful.

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