Meet the Parents!

Coloring Eve as the Epic Hero

Reviewing the Epic Hero Archetype

•They are appealing characters who make mistakes.

•They are characters who enjoy prosperity and favor.

•They are inhibited by a character flaw.

•They go on an Epic Journey

Satan’s Arrival…

“Her graceful innocence, her every airOf gesture, or least action, overawedHis malice, and with rapine sweet bereaved His fierceness of the fierce intent it brought” (p. 1, col. 2)

“He, bolder now, uncalled before her stood, But as in gaze admiring […]Fawning, and licked the ground wheron she trod” (p. 1, col. 2)

Does Eve enjoy prosperity and the favor of Satan? Is sheappealing? Does she make a mistake?

Call to Adventure

Paradise LostApplying the

“Boon”

Trials (tested and initiated)

Physical, Mental, Emotional

Achieving the Goal or “Boon”

Hero’s JourneyHero’s Journey

Return to Ordinary world

Crossing of the Threshold

Move from known to unknown

Does Eve go on an epic journey?

Call to Adventure

• Satan begins, “Wonder not…” (2.1)

• “ I can bring thee thither soon” (3.1)

Does Eve receive a Call to Adventure?From Whom?

Crossing the ThresholdMoving from the known to the

unknown.• What did Eve know before Satan arrives?

• What type of beasts did she know before Satan?– “What may this mean? Language of man pronounced

By tongue of brute, and human sense expressed?” (2.2)

• How does the Forbidden Tree fit into the idea of moving from the known to the unknown?

How can you argue that Eve moves from the known

world to the unknown world?

TrialsPhysical, Spiritual, Emotional

Tests, Mental“But of this tree we may not taste or touch;God so commanded, and left that commandSole daughter of his voice; the rest, we liveLaw to ourselves; our reason is our law” (3.2)

“ […] Look on me, Me, who have touched and tasted; yet both live, And life more perfect have attained than FateMeant me, by venturing higher than my lot”

(3.2)

Does Eve go through trials?If so, what types of trials?

Achieving the Boon or Goal

• OHHHH, Tiddlywinks! She didn’t achieve the goal because she yielded to Satan’s temptation!

• Right?

Hold on…

• You need to change your perspective… What if the Fall was a GOOD thing?

• Ok, yea… She falls for Satan’s temptation, but what good could come out of it?

• Remember the reasons for Hero’s to accept a call to adventure… one was to fulfill their destiny.

Could this be Eve simplyfulfilling her destiny?

Achieving the Boon or Goal… again

• They are

kicked out

of Eden…

Can Eve be

the Epic Hero

if she doesn’t

return “home?”

Return to Ordinary World

Is the “Ordinary World,”

or the natural place of

Human Beings, this?

The Edenic State

Well, it depends on the “Ordinary World”

The Fallen State

Or This?

Applying the Boon

• What good might have come out of the Fall?

• How could Eve, or Eve’s Children (any Christian), apply the boon?

• Felix Culpa, or The Fortunate Fall?– What is fortunate about the Fall?

Original Sin brings about “The Divine Redeemer's Incarnation.”

Christians say…We get FaithWe get KnowledgeWe get Jesus

Assessing The Epic Hero

• What are some strengths of the argument that Eve is the epic hero of Paradise Lost?

• What are some weaknesses of this argument?

• Does it matter that we have to change our perspective on the Achievement of the Goal? What about the Return to the Ordinary World?