![]() Though it is illogical for a serpent to possess the ability to speak, Eve no longer employs logic and transgresses the previous preleapsarian thought processes. Satan’s ability to manipulate language to provoke Eve to taste the forbidden fruit provides the initial descent into a postlapsarian world. When she hears this lowly serpent speaking, he immediately entrances her. This is first demonstrated when Satan inhabits the body of a serpent and enchants Eve. There are numerous fallacies associated with words and the manipulation that exists when language is placed in the hands of deceivers. The very nature of language subsists on a flawed foundation since language is not static, nor dependable. “In a prelapsarian world, the necessity of language is unnecessary and only exists in a postlapsarian world when questions of emotion, nature, and creation come into existence.” Eve offering the forbidden fruit to Adam, from Paradise Lost, and evoking “The Fall of Man.” What transpires is the thunderous wrath of nature responding to the digressions of Adam and Eve who are forever altered from the once innocent creatures in the prelapsarian Eden. The postlapsarian narratives utilized by Adam and Eve is less appealing than the seductive rhetoric implored by Satan. The shift that occurs is signified through rhetorical engagements. A Postlapsarian World Marks the Inception of Language Adam cites the differing physiological feature of Eve, as he no longer views her as a part of him, but as a flawed being. Eve’s narrative becomes explicitly isolating by removing their once existent bond into a state of one versus the other (gender is a misunderstood concept at this point). Eve no longer looks to Adam as her partner, but expresses sentiments of covetousness. ![]() The way in which Milton exemplifies this change in thinking is through the language of narration utilized in Paradise Lost. Pre-fall, Adam and Eve unabashedly engage in sexual relations yet once the fall transpires, innocence is lost, and both become painfully aware of issues of embarrassment, shame, and wrath. The pre fallen world does not necessitate a differentiation between reality and language due to the certainty that prevails in the prelapsarian world, which lacks a need for providing tangibility to abstractions. Postlapsarian language is erratic and dangerous and unnecessary in the prelapsarian world. Yet, the most apparent signifier of this change is the transformation of language between Adam and Eve. Once Eve eats the apple from the tree of knowledge, the Fall is immediately evoked. Paradise Lost: A Shift in Narrative Language After the Fall Rendition of Satan’s attack against God in Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667)
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