Summary: Book IX, Lines 404–1189

Satan, in the form of the serpent, searches for the couple. He is delighted to
find Eve alone. Coiling up, he gets her attention, and begins flattering her beauty, grace,
and godliness. Eve is amazed to see a creature of the Garden speak. He tells her in
enticing language that he gained the gifts of speech and intellect by eating the savory
fruit of one of the trees in the garden. He flatters Eve by saying that eating the apple
also made him seek her out in order to worship her beauty.
Eve is amazed by the power that this fruit supposedly gives the snake. Curious to know which
tree holds this fruit, Eve follows Satan until he brings her to the Tree of Knowledge. She recoils,
telling him that God has forbidden them to eat from this tree, but Satan persists, arguing that God
actually wants them to eat from the tree. Satan says that God forbids it only because he wants
them to show their independence. Eve is now seriously tempted. The flattery has made her desire
to know more. She reasons that God claimed that eating from this tree meant death, but the
serpent ate (or so he claims) and not only does he still live, but can speak and think. God would
have no reason to forbid the fruit unless it were powerful, Eve thinks, and seeing it right before
her eyes makes all of the warnings seem exaggerated. It looks so perfect to Eve. She reaches for
an apple, plucks it from the tree, and takes a bite. The Earth then feels wounded and nature sighs
in woe, for with this act, humankind has fallen.
Eve’s first fallen thought is to find Adam and to have him eat of the forbidden fruit too so that
they might be equal. She finds him nearby, and in hurried words tells him that she has eaten the
fruit, and that her eyes have been opened. Adam drops the wreath of flowers he made for her. He
is horrified because he knows that they are now doomed, but immediately decides that he cannot
possibly live without Eve. Eve does not want Adam to remain and have another woman; she
wants him to suffer the same fate as she. Adam realizes that if she is to be doomed, then he must
follow. He eats the fruit. He too feels invigorated at first. He turns a lustful eye on Eve, and they
run off into the woods for sexual play.
Adam and Eve fall asleep briefly, but upon awakening they see the world in a new way. They
recognize their sin, and realize that they have lost Paradise. At first, Adam and Eve both believe
that they will gain glorious amounts of knowledge, but the knowledge that they gained by eating
the apple was only of the good that they had lost and the evil that they had brought upon
themselves. They now see each other’s nakedness and are filled with shame. They cover
themselves with leaves. Milton explains that their appetite for knowledge has been fulfilled, and
their hunger for God has been quenched. Angry and confused, they continue to blame each other
for committing the sin, while neither will admit any fault. Their shameful and tearful argument
continues for hours.
Analysis: Book IX, Lines 404–1189
The ease with which Satan persuades Eve to sin paints an unflattering portrayal of woman, one
that accords with Milton’s portrayal throughout the poem of women as the weaker sex. Eve
allows the serpent’s compliments to win her over, demonstrating that she cares more about
superficial things such as beauty than profound things such as God’s grace. Furthermore, that
Eve gives in to the serpent after only a few deceptive arguments reveals her inability to reason
soundly. Not only is she herself corruptible, however, but she also seeks to corrupt others: her
immediate reaction upon discovering her sin is to lure Adam into her fate. Rather than repent and
take full responsibility for her actions, she moves instinctively to drag Adam down with her to
make him share her suffering. Eve thus comes across as an immoral and harmful being, one
whose values are skewed and who has a bad influence on others.
Satan’s argument that knowledge is good because knowing what is good and evil makes it easier
to do what is good wrongfully assumes that knowledge is always good. This flaw in his
argument is the theological thrust of this book: though the intellect is powerful and god-like,
obeying God is a higher priority than feeding the intellect. Milton believes that one cannot first
obey reason and then obey God; rather one must trust God and then trust reason. Raphael’s wise
argument from Book VIII about the limitations of human knowledge and the need to feel
comfortable with this limited knowledge, is blatantly neglected or forgotten. If Eve had stayed to
listen to Raphael and Adam’s discussion and had recognized the dangers of working separately,
then she could have been safer from Satan’s temptation. Or if Adam had relayed Raphael’s
warning message to Eve more thoroughly and persuasively, and if he had denied Eve’s
suggestion that they work separately, then the fall might have been avoidable. Eve overestimates
the powers of her ability to protect herself and to resist temptation, and Adam underestimates the
need to protect Eve and share his knowledge with her. Both must suffer from each other’s
shortfalls.

Adam sins not out of a desire to gain the knowledge from eating the fruit, but out of recognition
that Eve has left him with little or no alternative. Adam needs even less persuading than Eve to
eat the apple, and does so knowing that he is disobeying God. He knows that he could not be
happy if Eve were banished, and his desire to stay with Eve overwhelms his desire to obey God.
Adam’s sin of temptation is choosing Eve over God, letting physical and emotional impulses
overtake reason. The wreath of flowers he makes for Eve symbolizes his love for her. When he
sees that she has eaten from the Tree of Knowledge, he drops the wreath, symbolizing her fallen
state. The dropping of the wreath may also hint at Adam’s disappointment in Eve as a spiritual
lover and companion, and even his falling out of pure love with her. After Adam eats from the
apple, his attraction to Eve changes subtly, and he looks at her more like a connoisseur, eager to
indulge. The sexuality the two display is now perverted, their love in the dark forest more lustful
and animal-like than their earlier love in the lush, bright bower. Their arguing and blaming of
each other demonstrate their lack of unity and peace, and demonstrate, as does the Earth’s
sighing, their fallen state.

Themes
Themes

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The Importance of Obedience to God

The first words of Paradise Lost state that the poem’s main theme will be “Man’s first
Disobedience.” Milton narrates the story of Adam and Eve’s disobedience, explains how and
why it happens, and places the story within the larger context of Satan’s rebellion and Jesus’
resurrection. Raphael tells Adam about Satan’s disobedience in an effort to give him a firm grasp
of the threat that Satan and humankind’s disobedience poses. In essence, Paradise Lost presents
two moral paths that one can take after disobedience: the downward spiral of increasing sin and
degradation, represented by Satan, and the road to redemption, represented by Adam and Eve.
While Adam and Eve are the first humans to disobey God, Satan is the first of all God’s creation
to disobey. His decision to rebel comes only from himself—he was not persuaded or provoked
by others. Also, his decision to continue to disobey God after his fall into Hell ensures that God
will not forgive him. Adam and Eve, on the other hand, decide to repent for their sins and seek
forgiveness. Unlike Satan, Adam and Eve understand that their disobedience to God will be
corrected through generations of toil on Earth. This path is obviously the correct one to take: the
visions in Books XI and XII demonstrate that obedience to God, even after repeated falls, can
lead to humankind’s salvation.

The Hierarchical Nature of the Universe

Paradise Lost is about hierarchy as much as it is about obedience. The layout of the universe—
with Heaven above, Hell below, and Earth in the middle—presents the universe as a hierarchy
based on proximity to God and his grace. This spatial hierarchy leads to a social hierarchy of
angels, humans, animals, and devils: the Son is closest to God, with the archangels and cherubs
behind him. Adam and Eve and Earth’s animals come next, with Satan and the other fallen
angels following last. To obey God is to respect this hierarchy.

Satan refuses to honor the Son as his superior, thereby questioning God’s hierarchy. As the
angels in Satan’s camp rebel, they hope to beat God and thereby dissolve what they believe to be
an unfair hierarchy in Heaven. When the Son and the good angels defeat the rebel angels, the
rebels are punished by being banished far away from Heaven. At least, Satan argues later, they
can make their own hierarchy in Hell, but they are nevertheless subject to God’s overall
hierarchy, in which they are ranked the lowest. Satan continues to disobey God and his hierarchy
as he seeks to corrupt mankind.

Likewise, humankind’s disobedience is a corruption of God’s hierarchy. Before the fall, Adam
and Eve treat the visiting angels with proper respect and acknowledgement of their closeness to
God, and Eve embraces the subservient role allotted to her in her marriage. God and Raphael
both instruct Adam that Eve is slightly farther removed from God’s grace than Adam because
she was created to serve both God and him. When Eve persuades Adam to let her work alone,
she challenges him, her superior, and he yields to her, his inferior. Again, as Adam eats from the
fruit, he knowingly defies God by obeying Eve and his inner instinct instead of God and his
reason. Adam’s visions in Books XI and XII show more examples of this disobedience to God
and the universe’s hierarchy, but also demonstrate that with the Son’s sacrifice, this hierarchy
will be restored once again.

The Fall as Partly Fortunate

After he sees the vision of Christ’s redemption of humankind in Book XII, Adam refers to his
own sin as a felix culpa or “happy fault,” suggesting that the fall of humankind, while originally
seeming an unmitigated catastrophe, does in fact bring good with it. Adam and Eve’s
disobedience allows God to show his mercy and temperance in their punishments and his eternal
providence toward humankind. This display of love and compassion, given through the Son, is a
gift to humankind. Humankind must now experience pain and death, but humans can also
experience mercy, salvation, and grace in ways they would not have been able to had they not
disobeyed. While humankind has fallen from grace, individuals can redeem and save themselves
through continued devotion and obedience to God. The salvation of humankind, in the form of
The Son’s sacrifice and resurrection, can begin to restore humankind to its former state. In other
words, good will come of sin and death, and humankind will eventually be rewarded. This
fortunate result justifies God’s reasoning and explains his ultimate plan for humankind.

Sin, Knowledge, And The Human Condition

Sin and knowledge are linked in the Judeo-Christian tradition. The Bible begins with the story of
Adam and Eve, who were expelled from the Garden of Eden for eating from the tree of
knowledge of good and evil. As a result of their knowledge, Adam and Eve are made aware of
their humanness, that which separates them from the divine and from other creatures. Once
expelled from the Garden of Eden, they are forced to toil and to procreate—two “labors” that
seem to define the human condition.

The experience of Hester and Dimmesdale recalls the story of Adam and Eve because, in both
cases, sin results in expulsion and suffering. But it also results in knowledge—specifically, in
knowledge of what it means to be human. For Hester, the scarlet letter functions as “her passport
into regions where other women dared not tread,” leading her to “speculate” about her society
and herself more “boldly” than anyone else in New England. As for Dimmesdale, the “burden”
of his sin gives him “sympathies so intimate with the sinful brotherhood of mankind, so that his
heart vibrate[s] in unison with theirs.” His eloquent and powerful sermons derive from this sense
of empathy. Hester and Dimmesdale contemplate their own sinfulness on a daily basis and try to
reconcile it with their lived experiences. The Puritan elders, on the other hand, insist on seeing
earthly experience as merely an obstacle on the path to heaven. Thus, they view sin as a threat to
the community that should be punished and suppressed. Their answer to Hester’s sin is to
ostracize her. Yet, Puritan society is stagnant, while Hester and Dimmesdale’s experience shows
that a state of sinfulness can lead to personal growth, sympathy, and understanding of others.
Paradoxically, these qualities are shown to be incompatible with a state of purity.

The Nature Of Evil

The characters in the novel frequently debate the identity of the “Black Man,” the embodiment of
evil. Over the course of the novel, the “Black Man” is associated with Dimmesdale,
Chillingworth, and Mistress Hibbins, and little Pearl is thought by some to be the Devil’s child.
The characters also try to root out the causes of evil: did Chillingworth’s selfishness in marrying
Hester force her to the “evil” she committed in Dimmesdale’s arms? Is Hester and Dimmesdale’s
deed responsible for Chillingworth’s transformation into a malevolent being? This confusion
over the nature and causes of evil reveals the problems with the Puritan conception of sin.

The book argues that true evil arises from the close relationship between hate and love. As the
narrator points out in the novel’s concluding chapter, both emotions depend upon “a high degree
of intimacy and heart-knowledge; each renders one individual dependent . . . upon another.” Evil
is not found in Hester and Dimmesdale’s lovemaking, nor even in the cruel ignorance of the
Puritan fathers. Evil, in its most poisonous form, is found in the carefully plotted and precisely
aimed revenge of Chillingworth, whose love has been perverted. Perhaps Pearl is not entirely
wrong when she thinks Dimmesdale is the “Black Man,” because her father, too, has perverted
his love. Dimmesdale, who should love Pearl, will not even publicly acknowledge her. His cruel
denial of love to his own child may be seen as further perpetrating evil.

Identity And Society

After Hester is publicly shamed and forced by the people of Boston to wear a badge of
humiliation, her unwillingness to leave the town may seem puzzling. She is not physically
imprisoned, and leaving the Massachusetts Bay Colony would allow her to remove the scarlet
letter and resume a normal life. Surprisingly, Hester reacts with dismay when Chillingworth tells
her that the town fathers are considering letting her remove the letter. Hester’s behavior is
premised on her desire to determine her own identity rather than to allow others to determine it
for her. To her, running away or removing the letter would be an acknowledgment of society’s
power over her: she would be admitting that the letter is a mark of shame and something from
which she desires to escape. Instead, Hester stays, refiguring the scarlet letter as a symbol of her
own experiences and character. Her past sin is a part of who she is; to pretend that it never
happened would mean denying a part of herself. Thus, Hester very determinedly integrates her
sin into her life.

Dimmesdale also struggles against a socially determined identity. As the community’s minister,
he is more symbol than human being. Except for Chillingworth, those around the minister
willfully ignore his obvious anguish, misinterpreting it as holiness. Unfortunately, Dimmesdale
never fully recognizes the truth of what Hester has learned: that individuality and strength are
gained by quiet self-assertion and by a reconfiguration, not a rejection, of one’s assigned
identity.

Female Independence
Hawthorne explores the theme of female independence by showing how Hester boldly makes her
own decisions and is able to take care of herself. Before the novel even begins, Hester has
already violated social expectations by following her heart and choosing to have sex with a man
she is not married to; she will later justify this decision by explaining to Dimmesdale that “What
we did had a consecration of its own.” Because Hester is cast out of the community, she is
liberated from many of the traditional expectations for a woman to be docile and submissive. She
also has practical responsibilities that force her to be independent: she has to earn a living so that
she and her daughter can survive, and she also has to raise a headstrong child as a single parent.
These unusual circumstances make Hester comfortable standing up for herself, such as when she
violently objects to Governor Bellingham trying to take Pearl away.

The novel suggests Hester’s independence comes at a price. The narrator seems sympathetic to
Hester’s vision of a brighter future where “a new truth would be revealed, in order to establish
the whole relation between man and woman on a surer ground of mutual happiness.” However,
the narrator also makes the point that because Hester has been living outside of social
conventions, she seems to have lost touch with key ethical principles: “she had wandered,
without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness.” The novel also ends with Hester returning to
the community to live a humble life, and voluntarily choosing to start wearing the scarlet letter
again, both of which suggest that by the end of the novel she has abandoned some of her
independent and free-thinking ways. The descriptions of Pearl also suggest that female
independence is antithetical to happiness. The narrator says no one knew if Pearl’s “wild, rich
nature had been softened and subdued, and made capable of a woman’s gentle happiness,”
implying that only by forfeiting her independent spirit could Pearl be truly content.

Guilt
Guilt is a major theme in The Scarlet Letter, and appears primarily in the psychology of Arthur
Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale is tormented both by guilt at his sinful act of fathering an illegitimate
child, and then by the guilt of failing to take responsibility for his actions and having to hide his
secret. As he explains, “Had I one friend…to whom… I could daily betake myself and be known
as the vilest of all sinners, methinks my soul might keep itself alive.” The minister’s guilt is also
exaggerated by a sense of hypocrisy, because he is considered by many to be exceptionally holy
and righteous: “It is inconceivable, the agony with which this public veneration tortured him!”
Dimmesdale spends a lot of time lamenting what a sinner he is, but he only takes public
responsibility for having fathered Hester’s child in the final moments of his life, when it is too
late for anything to change. If anything, his sense of guilt is what makes him so vulnerable to
being manipulated by Chillingsworth. Through the character of Dimmesdale, Hawthorne
suggests that guilt is not necessarily virtuous if it is not accompanied by an effort to change or
redeem oneself.

Nature Vs Society
The theme of nature versus society is exemplified by Hester and Dimmesdale’s forbidden
passion, and the product of that passion: Pearl. Hester and Dimmesdale are drawn to each other
by desires that cannot be controlled by the rules of social, legal, and religious institutions. They
follow their impulses, which leads to conception and reproduction. While Hester’s pregnancy is
condemned by society, it is the natural outcome of a basic human impulse. The relationship
between Hester and Dimmesdale explores the tension between natural desires, and the ways in
which society tries to control human nature by imposing rules and laws.

Similarly, Pearl, a product of natural impulses, exhibits a personality that aligns her with nature,
rather than society. She is a wild and impulsive child, and the narrator attributes Pearl’s
personality to the circumstances under which she was conceived: “In giving her existence, a
great law had been broken; and the result was a being, whose elements were perhaps beautiful
and brilliant, but all in disorder.” The novel’s climax, the key scene where Dimmesdale, Hester,
and Pearl are finally reunited, takes place in the woods. This location highlights the tension
between nature and society. In a space that is still untamed and not ruled by social conventions,
Dimmesdale and Hester can speak openly with each other, and even dare to imagine a future in
which they might be able to break free and find happiness together. Hawthorne depicts Nature
being on the side of the lovers: “that wild, heathen Nature of the forest, never subjugated by
human law, nor illumined by higher truth—with the bliss of those two spirits!” Likewise, Pearl
can roam safely through the woods because “all recognized a kindred wildness in the human
child.” However, while nature offers a safe haven to the unconventional family, they are
ultimately still subject to the laws of society, and must eventually live with the consequences.
Empathy
Throughout the novel, characters either achieve or fail to achieve feelings of empathy for their
fellow humans. Both Dimmesdale and Hester achieve greater compassion because they have
suffered, and can sympathize with how a good person might still make mistakes. This ability to
show empathy makes Hester and Dimmesdale highly sought after within the community:
Dimmesdale gains a great reputation as a minister, and by the end of the novel Hester has
become a kind of wise woman: “people brought all their sorrows and perplexities, and besought
her counsel, as one who had herself gone through a mighty trouble.”

Meanwhile, characters like Governor Bellingham fail to show empathy because they are too busy
judging others and focusing on their flaws. For example, Bellingham suggests that little Pearl be
taken away from her mother because he thinks Hester’s sin makes her unfit to raise a child. Both
Hester and Dimmesdale argue that the child can learn from her mother’s mistakes, but
Bellingham shows judgement rather than empathy. Hawthorne connects the experience of
suffering to the growth of empathy as a way to suggest that even tragic events can have meaning
and value.