772 Milton, John
walked “according to the prince of the power of the
air” (Ephesians 2:1–2)—a reference to Satan and an
echo of Michael’s phrase, the “unworthie Powers.”
Thus, for Milton, the loss of Paradise is the loss
of “true Libertie.” Although Satan and his “crew” of
fallen angels do not possess any hope of real free-
dom, Adam and Eve, as well as their descendants,
hope to possess what Michael calls “a Paradise
within thee, happier farr” (12:586).
Jereme Wade Skinner
love in Paradise Lost
For the poet of Paradise Lost, the fall profoundly
impacts all subsequent human relationships,
especially the most intimate of them—marriage.
Although Adam and Eve’s marriage suffers before
God judges them, after this judgment they con-
template seriously the uncertainty of their future
together. Ultimately, they agree to repent of their sin,
rather than commit suicide. Eve wants to bear all of
the punishment, but Adam quickly dismisses this
option as impossible, since prayers, he says, cannot
“alter high Decrees” (see 10:952–957). Alternatively,
Adam proposes that the couple cease their conten-
tion and “strive / In offices of Love,” (10:959–960).
Thus, through Adam and Eve’s marriage, the poet
demonstrates that human love in all relationships
after the Fall is not the same as before, because the
love between Adam and Eve now requires work and
obligation, whereas before it unfolded naturally and
voluntarily.
The voluntary performance of love in Eden
before the Fall is represented in part by the semantic
duality of the term “offices.” To the Eve who “at his
feet / Fell humble, and imbracing them, besought /
His peace” (10:911–913), Adam commands,
But rise, let us no more contend, nor blame
Each other, blam’d enough elsewhere, but
strive
In offices of Love, how we may light’n
Each other’s burden in our share of woe.
(10:958–961)The conjunction “But” marks a turn from Adam’s
hypothetical consideration of Eve’s offer to bear his
entire punishment to a threefold command: “rise,”
“let us no more contend, nor blame / Each other,”
and “strive / In offices of Love” (10:958–960).
Adam’s use of the term “offices” invokes the seman-
tic range of the Latin term from which it derives,
off icium. According to Lewis and Short’s Latin
Dictionary, off icium includes at least two primary
meanings: It can be a “service” performed either
willingly or “of necessity.” That is, an off icium may be
a “voluntary service” performed on the basis of some
“kindness” or “favor,” or it may be an “obligatory ser-
vice” rendered from a sense of “duty.” Before the Fall,
Adam and Eve’s love reflects only the former con-
notation of off icium: They love one another because
they want to, not because they have to.
The entrance of sin and death into the world,
however, disrupts this perfect love relationship. That
Eve’s relationship to Adam will no longer consist of
“Unargu’d” obedience (4:636) manifests itself in the
abundance of qualifying terms Adam uses in concert
with the phrase “offices of Love,” words that have
negative connotations: “contend,” “blame,” “strive,”
“burden,” and “woe.” These qualities characterize
in part the fallen marital relationship. Thus love,
which was performed in a perfect world only from
voluntary service, must now be enacted also out of
an unwilling heart.
Therefore, even spousal love in a fallen world
necessitates a divine command. The fallen narrator
foreshadows the necessity of commanding even the
most intimate part of a human love relationship—
sex—when he refers to Adam and Eve’s pre-Fall
“wedded Love” as something “God declares / Pure,
and commands to some, leaves free to all” (4:746–747,
emphasis added). Sex between marriage partners
must be commanded in a fallen world, because it
follows from loving conversation and intimacy with
God in prayer—things unnatural to sinful humans.
The poet draws a clear connection between
conversation, prayer, and sex in Adam and Eve’s
pre-Fall marriage relationship. Immediately prior to
the poet’s chaste portrait of their pre-Fall sexual act,
the poet says that Adam and Eve “Both turn’d, and
under op’n Sky ador’d / The God that made both
Sky, Air, Earth and Heav’n” (4:721–722). But this
evening adoration occurs after they walk through
the Garden “talking hand in hand alone” (4:689).
In fact, Eve emphasizes the delight she takes in