Final Exam essay on Paradise Lost Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Final Exam on Paradise Lost - Essay Example However, this degree of expansion, as one might predict, takes a bit of liberty with the original storyline that is developed within the first few chapters of Genesis. As a means of analyzing this differential, the following analysis will seek to engage the reader with a further explanation and discussion of the ways in which John Milton deviates from an understanding of biblical theology that is represented within Genesis 1. As such, rather than taking the entire point in seeking to categorize and differentiate the ways in which deviation occurs, the following analysis will be concentric upon book 7 lines 387 to 448. In such a way, and analysis and discussion of the fifth day of creation will be leveraged. Firstly, the corresponding Scripture that this particular passage in Milton’s book 7 references is Genesis 1 verses 20 through 22. As might be expected, the level of development and discussion that exists within the few verses is quite sustained and brief. Ultimately, Genes is 1 verses 20-22 merely denote that God created fish, sea life, and all birds, reptiles, and other winged creatures. Yet, with this in mind, an interesting oversight that John Milton evidently made within book 7 is with respect to the assumption that reptiles, at the very least snakes, could somehow be separated from other winged and flying creatures. Although this may seem as an obvious assumption, a further reading and interpretation of the Genesis story, made by many Biblical scholars to include Martin Luther, relates the fact that serpents were originally a creature of intense beauty that were only cursed to crawl on their belly after the deception that Satan perpetrated (Pelham 367). Within such an understanding, John Milton’s book 7 lines 388 through 389 denote something of a different understanding. Says Milton â€Å"reptile with spawn abundant, living soul: and let fowl fly above the earth, with wings† (Milton book VII 388-389). Although he comes short of outr ight saying it, the obvious assertion is that serpents and reptiles were separate from flying creatures and therefore need to be categorized in a different way. Whereas it is obviously true that such a reality existed for Milton within his own lifetime, a full and complete understanding of Genesis reveals a slightly different reality. A further element that is not discussed specifically within the Bible or within Milton’s â€Å"Paradise Lost† is with respect to an understanding and discussion of mutating creation. After the fall of man, within the biblical narrative, God instructed the earth to bring forth vessels and man to struggle with hard labor as a function of the rebellion that he had committed against God. By much the same token, the harmony that the animal kingdom had lived in was changed so that beast preyed upon beast and a type of mutating creation came to be in existence. Once again, Milton’s approach to this was merely to gloss over such a reality and exhibit creation from the perspective of being unchanged since God spake it into existence. Says Milton within lines 408 and 409, â€Å"moist nutriment; or under rocks their food/in jointed armor watch: on smooth the seal† (Milton Book VII 408-409). As such, a clear understanding of the fact that the fifth day of creation saw a time in which God created armor and scales or animals to protect themselves from predators is clearly denoted. However, a further understanding and analysis of the book of