Wandering in Circles by Jill Martiniuk

Author:Jill Martiniuk
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Academic Studies Press
Published: 2021-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

What better can we do, than to the place

Repairing where he judg’d us, prostrate fall

Before him reverent, and there confess

Humbly our faults, and pardon beg, with tears

Watering the ground . . . (Book X, lines 1087–1090)8

Although their attempt to return to the pre-fallen state fails, Ittzés notes the importance of returning to the previous state in Paradise Lost by pointing out that Eve suggests to Adam that “they return to the place of their judgment and pray there (book XI, lines 932–936).”9 Both characters are aware of the importance of the acts of contrition and in the process of returning to that previous state:

See, Father, what fruits on Earth are sprung

From thy implanted Grace in Man, these Sighs

And Prayers, which in this Golden Censer, mixt

With Incense, I thy Priest before thee bring,

Fruits of more pleasing savour from thy seed

Sow’n with contrition on his heart, then those

Which his own hand manuring all the Trees

Of Paradise could have produc’t ere fall’n

From innocence. (Book XI, lines 22–30)10

However, since they have disobeyed God, earthly redemption is impossible. And yet, God does not completely disown Adam and Eve. Through prayer and loyalty to God, there is the promise of a reward:

Accept me; and, in me, from these receive

The smell of peace toward mankind: let him live

Before thee reconciled, at least his days

Numbered though sad; till death his doom (which I

To mitigate thus plead, not to reverse,)

To better life shall yield him: where with me

All my redeemed may dwell in joy and bliss;

Made one with me, as I with thee am one. (Book XI, lines 37–44)

This reward is not immediate—it occurs after a person has died. In Milton’s world, redemption is not an earthly reward and is instead something that is granted only in death.

Milton gives evidence of God’s redemptive plan by including the death and resurrection of the Son in book XII: “The Son dies/ But soon revives, Death over him no power/ Shall long usurp” (book XII, lines 419–421). God has a plan for redemption in Paradise Lost, and that plan is decided before Adam’s and Eve’s fall. Ittzés points to this line in the poem to show that Adam “has been taught not merely to recognize death in its varied shapes, but chiefly, to understand its true significance not only as punishment for his disobedience but as a gateway to new life.”11 Lieb also notes that death plays a crucial role in the redemptive process because it is “a means of new birth.”12 He points to book XI, lines 62–66 as evidence of this:

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