Nature and its Role

In Paradise Lost, the role of nature becomes important. Most obviously, nature is used as a weapon against Satan, as well as a way to portray the tones and attitudes toward nature throughout the poem.
This is first evident in the scene of Adam and Eve in the garden. Throughout book 4, lines depict the nature around Adam and Eve. Lines such as "whispering by a fresh fountain side" and "all trees of noblest kind for sigh, smell, taste, and all amid them stood the Tree of Life high eminent blooming ambrosial fruit," depict nature's beauty in the garden (4. 215-220). Though book 4 focuses on Adam and Eve, it does also focus on the nature and animals around them. While the description of paradise is important for setting, it also foreshadows or emphasizes the importance of nature in Milton's poem.

Both Adam and Eve tend the nature. For example, Adam is told to name the animals while Eve is told to name the flowers. Both individuals take care of the land, eat from it, and use it as a resource. It is even possible to say that they found nature beautiful. Right after Eve eats from the tree, Adam is creating a wreath of garland for Eve to give to her. This implies that the wreath will enhance Eve's beauty, or that Eve will appreciate the wreath. Either way, nature is probably appreciated by Adam and Eve, since they take care of it and create gifts out of it.

Nature becomes the weapons of God's angels in book 6. This book describes the war that takes place between Heaven and Hell. While the demons rely on cannons, the angels retaliate with mountains: and to the hills light as lightning glimpse they ran, they flew: From their foundations loos'ning to and fro they plucked the seated hills with all their load, Rocks, waters, woods, and by the shaggy tops uplifting bore them in their hands...The bottom of the mountains upward deep" (6. 642-645). In this scene, the weapon that causes the most damage to Satan's angels is nature. It is interesting that God's natural creations are used as a weapon of war, whereas spears and swords are useless in battle. God's resources are more powerful than the Angel's or the Demon's weapons. This helps show God's real power while also showing the lack of power of the demons against a natural, perfect, and non warped weapon. Clearly, "Good" views nature as valuable, whereas "Evil" might underestimate nature's power.

Nature also seems to react to events occurring in the book. When Eve finally takes a bite of fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, "Earth felt the wound and Nature from her seat sighing through all her works gave signs of woe that all was lost" (9. 782-784). The fact that even nature reacts so powerfully to Eve eating from the tree shows that Eve had a great impact on the future by eating, while also showing that nature is almost a witness to the downfall. However, it seems funny that nature is watching Adam and Eve and knows what the eating of the fruit will bring. This scene stuck in my mind because I was able to envision the Earth sighing. This image completes the tone of the scene and provokes strong imagery regarding the nature surrounding Adam and Eve. While Adam and Eve tended to the nature and used it for good purposes, they sort of "let it down" when they ate the forbidden fruit.

After the fall, Sin and Death invade Paradise. When they do invade, the animals begin to eat other, which is something that had not happened before. The passage uses words such as "decay" and "carcass" to depict the destruction of animals (10). The diction in this book prove that with the fall, comes some of the destruction of nature's beauty and innocence. The deterioration of nature also underlines the fact that Adam and Eve sinned. In paradise, nature remained perfect. As soon as Adam and Eve fell (which allowed sin and death into the world), nature is corrupted and helps show the state that the world is in. It seems that nature had a rather large impact on the overall mood and imagery (as well as weaponry) in Paradise Lost.

I just did a basic interpretation of only some of nature's presence in Milton's poem, so if anyone else has anything to say, please feel free!