In his essay “The Bipartite System of Laws in Paradise Lost" Eric Dunnum argues that in John Milton’s Paradise Lost, man’s fall can be attributed to a system, set by God, that reflects that which is also used by historical kings and governments of the world. This system is a set of laws that is, as the title suggests, bipartite, which means that it is composed of two separate entities that come together to form a whole, and Dunnum’s argument often relies on the works of Louis Althusser to expand on the system itself. One half of the system is external, or the Repressive State Apparatus (RSA) as Dunnam explains, which are in this case the laws overtly given and enforced through fear of violence and harsh punishment. The other half is internal,
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As Dunnum eloquently describes, “Even though freedom is the field where God allows for and encourages obedience … it is reason which controls those subjects and leads them to choose the correct actions, and those actions … are similar if not identical to the will of God” (Dunnam, 158). For Adam and Eve, God explicitly instructs them not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, while the angels are told to honor and obey the Son as they would God himself. Both parties fail at upholding these external laws, as both Adam and Eve eat from the Tree after Satan and his followers rebel against God’s command of serving the …show more content…
Satan is another example of how even the most seamlessly-crafted of God’s creations are liable to defy Him, all stemming from the simple notions of freewill and reasonable thought. According to Dunnum, “The Father explicitly mentions that both angels and humans are responsible for their own freedom … so the discourse surrounding the fall of the rebel angels is concerned with (reason)” (Dunnum, 160). One must consider that while Satan is largely blamed for the fall of man, it may have been God’s bipartite system laid out since the beginning that initiated it, something that would not have occurred at all had God not been so distraught by man’s imperfection which He bestowed him. Man has always been innately free-willed and curious about the unknown, and was therefore doomed to fall since the start. The fall would have then occurred even without Satan’s intervention or God’s flawed system spurring it onward, suggesting that it was man’s flawed being that led to his own
As Dunnum eloquently describes, “Even though freedom is the field where God allows for and encourages obedience … it is reason which controls those subjects and leads them to choose the correct actions, and those actions … are similar if not identical to the will of God” (Dunnam, 158). For Adam and Eve, God explicitly instructs them not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, while the angels are told to honor and obey the Son as they would God himself. Both parties fail at upholding these external laws, as both Adam and Eve eat from the Tree after Satan and his followers rebel against God’s command of serving the …show more content…
Satan is another example of how even the most seamlessly-crafted of God’s creations are liable to defy Him, all stemming from the simple notions of freewill and reasonable thought. According to Dunnum, “The Father explicitly mentions that both angels and humans are responsible for their own freedom … so the discourse surrounding the fall of the rebel angels is concerned with (reason)” (Dunnum, 160). One must consider that while Satan is largely blamed for the fall of man, it may have been God’s bipartite system laid out since the beginning that initiated it, something that would not have occurred at all had God not been so distraught by man’s imperfection which He bestowed him. Man has always been innately free-willed and curious about the unknown, and was therefore doomed to fall since the start. The fall would have then occurred even without Satan’s intervention or God’s flawed system spurring it onward, suggesting that it was man’s flawed being that led to his own