 Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
| Table of Contents LINES 179-451. ADAM AND GOD Adam wants to talk further with Raphael, so he flatters him by saying that he can never get enough of his words' "sweetness." There is a nice little angelic joke when Raphael says that he'd be glad to hear about Adam's first experiences, because at the time of Adam's creation, Raphael was on guard duty outside Hell, seeing that no devils disturbed the creation. Raphael even heard the noise in Pandemonium as the fallen angels debated. But Adam's speech is not in the poem for the information it gives. The material all comes from Chapter 2 of the Book of Genesis, so there's nothing new in it-certainly not for an omniscient angel! What it establishes is the relationship between Adam, representing man, and God.
God created man like himself-"in his own image"- so naturally he gave him no mate. This left Adam with no one to talk to. The beasts are lower in the hierarchy and therefore no fit company for man. God complains that he himself is "alone / From all eternity, for none I know / Second to me or like, equal much less." Yes, Adam says, but you, God, can raise any member of your creation up to your own status whenever you want company; I can't. Finally God agrees to give Adam his heart's desire, but only because Adam has passed the test of self-knowledge. This conversation has given us two pieces of information: man is higher than the beasts but lower than God, and God sets up tests to see whether man will pass them. Adam passes this one, but he will fail in the next book.
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