Satisfied Desire: Temptation in Paradise Regained - Essay Example

Satisfied Desire: Temptation in Paradise Regained John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost is an iconic part of the English literary tradition, but his companion poem Paradise Regained, published just four years later in 1671, is often overlooked by literary scholars. Perhaps it’s not surprising. The epic elements that so eloquently shape the forces of good and evil are notably absent in Paradise Regained. The enigmatic, seductively wily Satan returns, but outside of his serpent form, he is utterly resistible. And Jesus’ noble dedication to good is unshakable and unshaken: When Adam struggles with making the right decision in Paradise Lost, we experience his every doubt. We know how the story ends up, but we are rooting for Adam to come through on the side of right. Jesus, on the other hand, is somehow less intrinsically likable than Adam was in Milton’s second take on paradise. He says and does the right things, but there is no passion in his choice. As the story begins, Jesus goes to Bethabara on the Jordan River, heeding the call of John the Baptist. In the famous scene from the New Testament, Jesus is baptized, and the descending dove and voice of God mark him as God’s own son on Earth. Seeing that the Son of God has become the Son of Man, Satan resolves to protect his dominion over mankind by outwitting Jesus. In the first of many references to hunger in this poem, Jesus is fasting in the desert when Satan (disguised as an old man) approaches him. "If thou be the Son of God, Command/ That out of these hard stones be made thee bread; / So shalt thou save thyself and us relieve / With Food, whereof we wretched seldom taste,” says Satan. (19) In other words, if you’re the Son of God, why in the world don’t you make us something to eat? But Jesus isn’t hungry. Unlike Adam, he is not even tempted. He easily dismisses Satan’s inquiry, reminding him that “Man does not live by bread alone” (20) and of the manna that fed the wandering Jews in the desert. When the second book begins, Jesus has been fasting for 40 days, and at last he is hungry. He describes his hunger as a physical sensation: But now I feel I hunger, which declares, Nature hath need of what she asks; yet God Can satisfy that need some other way, Though hunger still remain: so it remain Without this body’s wasting, I content me, And from the sting of Famine fear no harm … (38) In fact, though, I would argue that Jesus is not hungry for physical sustenance but for spiritual sustenance. Though he dreams of food, it is in the context of the heroes of the Old Testament — Elijah and Daniel — not a simple meal at home with his family. He is seeking spiritual feeding, and so when Satan appears again, this time disguised as a wealthy merchant, and entices him with richly laden tables piled with exquisite foods and fine wines, with beautiful young women and men waiting at the table to serve him and beautiful melodies floating in the air, we know that Jesus will refuse the offer because the food is not really what he wants, though Satan reminds him that rightfully, all foods belong to him as the Lord of Earth and Heaven. (Slyly, he compares the wholesomeness of the foods he offers with the “forbidden fruits” (43) consumed by Eve and Adam: “Their taste no knowledge works, at least of evil.” (43)) Satan is an adept at temptation. He realizes that the hunger he senses in Jesus is not for food and attempts to fill it in other ways. First, he offers to put all the riches of the world at Jesus’ disposal if Jesus will only listen to him: Therefore, if at great things thou wouldst arrive, Get Riches first, get Wealth, and Treasure heap, Not difficult, if thou hearken to me, Riches are mine, Fortune is in my hand; They whom I favour thrive in wealth amain, While Virtue, Valour, Wisdom sit in want. (46) It is a reasonable argument: If Jesus wants to bring about great things, it will be much more efficient for him to do it if he has a strong financial foundation. But again, Jesus isn’t tempted because he knows exactly what he wants, and it isn’t riches. Jesus dismisses Satan’s offer easily, reminding him of “those ancient Empires of the Earth, In highth of all their flowing wealth dissolv’d.” (46) Satan then tempts Jesus with his fatherland — the kingdom of David, currently held under the Roman yoke: “If Kingdom move thee not, let move thee Zeal, / And Duty.” (57) It’s a smart move on Satan’s part: Jesus is clearly looking for something, and if it’s not to fill his physical needs and desires, it must be something more intangible. Ordinary glory would be too obvious and too easy to reject — Milton’s Jesus has already proven himself to be a little bit of a prig — but the pride of restoring the land of the Jews, freeing them from Roman oppression as Jesus’ ancestor Moses had freed the Jews from Egyptian oppression, might be enough to sway him. But it’s not: Jesus isn’t willing to settle for political satisfaction. “All things are best fulfill’d in their due time,” he tells Satan. “And time there is for all things, Truth hath said.” (58) If we needed proof that here is the temptation that comes nearest the bone, we get it: Jesus turns angrily on Satan, telling him that he is under his Father’s rule and asking why Satan is so interested in helping him out anyway, when both Satan and Jesus know that Jesus’ reign means the end of Satan’s power. Satan’s answer is sheer matter-of-factness: My error was my error, and my crime My crime; whatever for itself condemn’d, And will alike be punish’d; whether thou Reign or reign not. (59) He goes on to tell Jesus that he’s making a mistake living so that he knows only the meanest things in life and takes him high up into the mountains to show him the eastern kingdoms of the earth, whose power is breathtaking and alliance with whom would ensure the successful return of the kingdom of David. He then takes Jesus to the other side of the mountain and shows him the reach of the Roman Empire, reminding him of the evils of its emperor Tiberius, but the specific and prosaic does not appeal to the Son of God. Satan will keep fighting, but this is where he has lost the argument. Jesus asks Satan who made Tiberius evil and turns his back on the conquest of Rome and on the cultural achievements of ancient Greece. The next night when Satan returns to deposit Jesus on a pinnacle of the Temple and exhorts him to get down if he really is the Son of God, the ridiculousness of the situation makes it easy to understand why Jesus rejects him, ordering him not to tempt God. Satan has failed to give Jesus what he wants. Which begs the question: What would tempt Jesus? The all-too-godly hero of Paradise Regained is clearly the reason that Milton’s second poem of Creation hasn’t had the critical or popular appeal that Paradise Lost had. Jesus is a Boy Scout. He has no doubt. He cannot be swayed … Or can he? I think Milton might suggest that Satan failed to tempt Jesus not because Christ was incorruptible but because he did not know what would corrupt him. Jesus in Paradise Regained isn’t a practical man — he’s a philosopher. That’s why Satan loses his hold when he turns to the practical matters of how to regain Jerusalem — make this alliance, confront this emperor. Jesus wants spiritual food. He is in the desert looking not for solutions but for ideas. Ever practical, Satan tempts him with tools for success when Jesus could only be won over with words and a sense of purpose. He gets that — or can imagine that he gets it — from God. And so, poor Satan with “his weak arguing, and fallacious drift” (50) misses the opportunity to tempt Jesus because he doesn’t understand the philosophical soul. Works Consulted Lanier, Douglas M. “’Unmarkt, unknown’: Paradise Regained and the return of the expressed.” Criticism. Spring 1995. Milton, John. Paradise Lost. New York: Pocket Books, 1978. -- Paradise Regained. New York: Pocket Books, 1978. Pruitt, Kristin A. And Charles W. Durham, eds. Living Texts: Interpreting Milton. Selinsgrove, PA: Susquehanna University Press, 2000. Read More