Desires

So I know you're all probably going to shoot me for my Charmed references (except for Merideth), but I have another good one, really. There are SOO many episodes I think of when we discuss Paradise Lost, and I think it has something to do with Charmed dealing with so many different types of things. In season 6, the episode "My Three Witches" grasps the concept of desire that is seen in Paradise Lost.

Attached episode:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FTbuELYjeA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9psQpfcBDU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG7nhOzCjv4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIKR37_Yvv8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-56DdNAq44&feature=related


In this particular episode, the three charmed ones are focusing more on their personal lives than on their fight for the "greater good." Their new whitelighter (a guardian angel basically), Chris, tries to warn them that their desires cannot get in the way of their duties. Piper, the eldest sister, wants more of her social and non-magical life since magic and demons keep getting in the way of her having one, Paige wants to focus on her magic and would love a world in which she could be accepted as a witch, and Phoebe is dealing with her love life. These desires are put before their charmed duties, where a vortex demon is trying to kill them (I know, it all sounds bizarre, but it's a really good show). Chris however, is trying to keep them on focus with demons and their job. This reminded me of Raphael and Michael in Paradise Lost.

Adam tells Raphael that he is mesmerized by Eve's beauty and that his passion for her often overwhelms him. In response to this, Raphael says that reason and love for God must always come before his love for Eve (8. 560). Raphael's explanation of reason depicts God's view of reason, where he holds reason as a governing authority. This is similar to Phoebe's situation. Phoebe, in this episode, is dating her boss Jason, who she really believes she loves. However, he seems to be pulling away and this worries her. Her focus is on Jason, instead of a recent demon who attacked her sister Piper. Chris says that she should stop focusing on him right now because she has "wiccan duties" and must stop the demon first. He tries to remind the Charmed One's that personal gain and personal problems must come after their jobs as witches. This echoes Raphael's views as he too says that Adam's love for God, and his reason, must also come before his passion for Eve.

It turns out that this particular demon thrives on people's desires. He places them into an alternate reality, where their greatest desires dominate their new world. However, in these alternate worlds, their greatest desires bring about their downfall. The demon, named Gith, says, "They'll die, you know. Victims of their own desires." This idea of having a downfall based on your desires is seen in Paradise Lost as well. Adam, lost in his love for Eve, ultimately eats the fruit to fall with her. In this situation, the temptation for Eve overrides Adam's ability to reason, and brings about his fall from Paradise as well.

Adam is not the only one to fall because of his desires, however. Satan allows pride and his need for power to overwhelm his rationality. He falls to his desires when he tries to rebel against God.

The fact that these alternate realities are "based on fantasies, desires, and dreams" (according to Chris), helps connect this show to Paradise Lost. Michael, at the end of the poem, says that temperance, and the destruction of reason (or reality) brings about one's fall. These alternate realities, created by Gith but based on the desires of the Charmed Ones, are no longer rational realities. In these "realities," the Charmed Ones face many dangers, where the over indulgence of their desires become their death. For instance, when Piper's son gets very sick, she has no magic to heal him with because she wanted a world with no magic. This extreme world of no magic leads from one terrible event to the next, ending in a dangerous car crash and a fight between a demon and Piper.

Phoebe's world (though actually Jason's due to a twist in plot in the show), based on fame (that she does not necessarily want) and popularity also comes to a deadly situation when her boyfriend, Jason, is shot. A man's wife read Phoebe's advice column and decided to leave him. Obviously angered, this man tries to shoot Phoebe but Jason leaps out in front to take the bullet. Since Phoebe has no active power (she gets premonitions), she is unable to really save Jason until another sister intervenes. The extreme side affect of fame ultimately leads to the shooting of a loved one.

Paige's world is based on magic. Everyone knows she is a witch and has powers. While she is able to save a man's life, she gets stuck in a demonic fight between her and demons that have fireballs. While fighting, Phoebe is transferred into Paige's world (watch the show to find out how because I don't want to focus on all the plot), where they are able to just barely survive. Although Paige's world does not have as bad as a turn out as Piper's or Phoebes, it is only because of Chris's interference that Paige survives her world of desire.

These alternate realities draw a similarity between Chris's and Raphael's/Michael's warnings. They both warn that allowing your desires to overcome rationality and your other duties can lead to dangerous and deadly situations. While all of the characters had ample warning, they chose to ignore the warnings and found themselves in terrible situations. I thought that this episode connected to Paradise Lost pretty well on the basic fact of having desires. Both the book and this episode is suggesting that one can have desires, but one must not allow those desires to be taken to an extreme.

Please feel free to add anything to this post-