Milton’s Paradise Lost ends with the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the perfect happiness of Eden. After lamenting their situation following their sin and sentencing, Adam and Eve approach leaving Eden with a kind of optimism. Adam professes his celebration of the events to come after being told the sacrifice of Jesus by Michael. Critics have coined the term “Paradox of the Fortunate Fall” to classify the idea of a greater good arising from the fall (Flannagan, 704). Milton’s inclusion of the felix culpa speech by Adam is a subject of debate for critics, nevertheless, there was a historical basis for Milton’s inclusion of the idea of a fortunate fall. Several religions provide suggestions and explanations of the fortunate fall, with varying reasons to support the idea. It is very likely that Milton was influenced by these historians and theologians, and believed their hypotheses. In some of his other works, such as Areopagitica and On Christian Doctrine, he provides a reasoning of his own to support the idea of the fortunate fall, and with such strong arguments to support him, the inclusion of such an ending seems logical. While evil was indeed brought into the world, according to Milton, there was a greater good inherent in the fall. The most obvious reason for the inclusion of the felix culpa can be found in the narrative itself. By examining the history of the idea of the paradox that influenced Milton, evidence in the arguments of some of Milton’s other works, and the piece itself, it becomes clear that the inclusion of the felix culpa was logical and necessary to complete Milton’s narrative.
Upon the completion of Michael’s narrative about the future of man leading up to the crucifixion of Christ, Adam declares, “O goodness infinite, goodness immense!” (469). Adam is overwhelmed by the description of the Son’s sacrifice for man and the ultimate love and grace God shows toward man in letting his son save mankind. Adam is comforted by the information that the fall has brought about some greater good, proclaiming:
That all this good of evil shall produce;
And evil turn to good; more wonderful
Then that which by creation first brought forth
Light out of darkness!
(XII, 470-473)
Adam feels solace in the knowledge that God will forgive mankind enough to freely give the life of his only son. The experience of receiving God’s mercy and grace would not have been possible if Adam and Eve had remained in a state of innocence in Eden. “Adam’s Fall opens up for man an entirely new dimension of experience: if it was possible for man before the Fall to participate with the angels, as Raphael thought, after the Fall he may participate with the Godhead itself” (Madsen 103-104). Adam and Eve could interact with angels while in Eden, but after the fall and sacrifice of the Son, mankind will be lifted to Heaven and intermingle with God himself, which is far greater than the previous state.
There are various theologians and historians representing different religions that have proven the idea of the fortunate fall. These ideas preceded Milton, and were very likely to have influenced the writer. The idea of the fortunate fall was widely accepted, and a great deal of rationalization has shed light on why it is such a popular theory. Many of Milton’s predecessors felt that “the Fall had not only been over-ruled for good by the divine beneficence, but had the indispensable means to the attainment of far greater good for man” (Lovejoy 169). The popular idea was that mankind received the full extent of God’s goodness through the fall, something it could not have attained in the state of paradise.
A likely influence on Milton was the author Du Bartas. Both authors include three “greater goods” that come from the evil of the fall. Milton and Du Bartas share two of these “greater goods”: “greater glory to God,” and “greater benefits conferred by God upon man” (Lovejoy 165). The poet Giles Fletcher also uses the idea of the paradox in his piece The Triumph of Christ. It can be derived from Fletcher’s piece that “the more intense the feeling of the sublimity of the redemptive act and the magnitude of the good both inherent in it and resultant from it, the more apparent the impossibility of regarding it as merely evil the sin which had evoked it (Lovejoy 166). A conclusion based on Fletcher’s piece is also found in other pieces of literature, the idea that a fall from Eden that could result in the enjoyment of the greater delights of heaven was not a mistake or mishap. In the author Andreinin’s L’Adamo a similar speech is given by the angel Michael, as he tells her that her and Adam will enjoy a future victory of grace and of happiness, “which will then be like Paradise, and in heaven” (Lovejoy 167).
The idea of the fall as not a mishap but as a carefully constructed plan by God to bring about the attainment of a greater good than that was possible in Eden circulated through various outlets before making its way to Milton. “Adam’s sin was not only a “happy fault” but “certainly necessary”-necessary to the very possibility of the redemptive act, which, it may be supposed, was …conceived as itself a necessary,” according to a Catholic writer, based on the ideas evident in the Exultet, which was read during Holy Saturday mass. One of the most notably great popes, Leo I, also had ideas regarding the paradox. In his First Sermon on the Lord’s Ascension, the pope states man has “penetrated to the higher things of Christ; we have gained more by the ineffable grace of Christ than we had lost by the envy of the Devil” (Lovejoy 172).
Protestant theologians referenced the paradox of the fortunate fall during the 16th and 17th centuries. St. Ambrose, in the 4th century A.D., stated, “Adam’s sin “has brought more benefit to us than harm”” (Lovejoy 171-172). St. Ambrose also stated, “God “knew that Adam would fall, in order that he might be redeemed by Christ”” (Lovejoy 172). This is suggesting that God created mankind to fall, so that he could demonstrate his goodness through the sacrifice of the son. Gregory the Great added, “Great, indeed, are the evils we deservedly suffer in consequence of the first sin; but who of the elect would not willingly endure still worse evils, rather than not have so great a Redeemer?” (Lovejoy 173). This idea suggests similarly that through the sacrifice of the Son, mankind receives a greater gift than if it had not suffered at all.
A final important religious foundation is found in the Catholic text the Traite de l’amour de Dieu, by St. Francis de Sales. In the work, de Sales states that the redemption of man brought about by the mercy of God outweighs the conditions brought about by Adam upon man. He adds that Adam’s sin actually provoked God’s benevolence, and says that the sacrifice of Christ brings more gifts to mankind than ever it could have received in the state of innocence Adam and Eve were in while in Eden. De Sales touches on a point that is not explicitly stated in the aforementioned works, the idea that the fall brought about more good than could have been experienced before the fall, and more importantly, that God actually needed mankind to fall in order to completely display his divinity, mercy, and grace (Lovejoy 178).
While the religious foundations establish the idea of the fortunate fall as a legitimate view during Milton’s time, evidence supporting the inclusion of the felix culpa can also be found in some of Milton’s other works. Milton presents an argument that is reasonable to apply to the idea of the fortunate fall as well. The knowledge Adam and Eve gain through the fall condemned Adam and Eve to death, however, the knowledge “is precisely the sort of knowledge that in Areopagitica Milton insists upon as indispensable to the acquisition of virtue-the knowledge…of their former innocent virtue and of their present vice” (Green 569). In Areopagitica Milton argues against censorship, but the essence of the argument does, as Green suggests, can certainly be applied to the argument for the fortunate fall as well. Milton’s Areopagitica addresses some of the fundamental principles surrounding the supporting argument for the fortunate fall, thirty years before Paradise Lost was written.
Milton acknowledges in Areopagitica that some books are potentially dangerous, however, the author also acknowledges that the knowledge of good and evil stems from the decision made from those first created by God, and later addresses specifically the value of knowing the difference between good and evil. Milton addresses the story of Adam and Eve specifically in the piece, “It was from out the rinde of one apple tasted, that the knowledge of good and evill as two twins cleaving together leapt forth into the World. And perhaps this is that doom which Adam fell into of knowing good and evill, that is to say of knowing good by evill” (Flannagan 1006).
While attributing the knowledge of good and evil that can be used to discern good books from detrimental ones, Milton further argues in Areopagitica that by knowing good and evil, one can prove his goodness as a Christian by observing both good and evil and following the Christian principles toward the correct choice of good. Without the choice of good and evil, how can one truly prove his value as a worthy Christian? Milton further states, “He that can apprehend and consider vice with all her baits and seeming pleasures, and yet abstain, and yet distinguish, and yet prefer that which is truly better, he is the true warfaring Christian” (Flannagan 1006).
Milton addresses the story of Adam and Eve in Areopagitica, as well as the value of having knowledge of good and evil. He seems to provide a small argument in favor of Eve and her decision to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Milton writes, “I cannot praise a fugitive and cloister’d vertue, unexercis’d & unbreth’d, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race, where that immortall garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat” (Flannagan 1006). While Eve has taken a good deal of flack for her role in the fall of man, Milton seems to have an admiration for her choice, in that the result displayed true virtue rather than virtue of the innocent kind, a seemingly weaker incarnation of the word. If virtue were innocent, such as would be the case in an unfallen world, like Eden, how could it be proven? It is through the fall and subsequent events that the true nature of virtue is proven, and Milton shows his admiration toward this act in Areopagitica.
Another of Milton’s fundamental works, On Christian Doctrine, also addresses the issues that pertain to the fortunate fall. Again, support is evident in one of Milton’s argumentative pieces. When examining these arguments while looking directly at the text of Paradise Lost it seems obvious that the argument for the felix culpa is a valid one, and merits inclusion as the ending to the poem. Milton argues in On Christian Doctrine that, “The Restoration of Man is the act whereby man, being delivered from sin and death by God the Father through Jesus Christ, is raised to a far more excellent state of grace and glory than that from which he had fallen” (Marshall 16).
It is unclear the actual dates of writing for On Christian Doctrine, however, Flannagan suggests that it was most likely “dictated…in the years 1658 through 1660,” again preceding the writing of Paradise Lost, and following the writing and publication of Areopagitica. It seems as if Milton is elaborating on the hints he gave of his thoughts on the fall in the earlier work. Again, it seems as if Milton is leaving clues in his earlier works to persuade the reader of the validity of the argument of the fortunate fall.
Milton acknowledges in regards to the fall in On Christian Doctrine that, “Anyone who examines this sin carefully will admit, and rightly, that it was a most atrocious offence, and that it broke every part of the law” (Flannagan 1189). Milton concedes that Adam and Eve committed, “theft, robbery with violence, murder against their children (i.e., the whole human race); each was sacrilegious and deceitful, cunningly aspiring to divinity although thoroughly unworthy of it, proud and arrogant” (Flannagan 1189). Milton does not deny that man has performed a horrible sin against God, however, the results of that sin are seen as more profitable that if the sin had not been committed at all. He begins by acknowledging that despite the fall, “it cannot be denied that some traces of the divine image still remain in us, which are not wholly extinguished by this spiritual death” (Flannagan 1193).
In the two mentioned works preceding Paradise Lost, Areopagitica and On Christian Doctrine, Milton provides ample evidence to suggest the validity of the argument supporting the idea of the fortunate fall. This evidence supports the logic in the inclusion of the felix culpa at the conclusion of Paradise Lost. There is also evidence within the text itself that not only proves the logic of its inclusion, but the necessity for the Felix Culpa as an ending to the narrative. The story progresses throughout the previous eleven books, and leads to the declaration of the fortunate fall as the only logical ending to the poem. The “happy ending” was necessary to complete the narrative. “Not only should the drama have…a happy ending, but the happy ending had been implicit in the beginning and been made possible by it” (Lovejoy 163).
While Milton agreed in the argument supporting the idea of the fortunate fall, it seems that the author also had an investment in the happy ending to “remove from God the last rag of excuse for his plot to corrupt the whole race of mankind” (Empson 192). It has been suggested that Satan is in fact the hero of Paradise Lost. While some of the earlier books in the novel may portray Satan as a fallen angel with a great grasp of rhetoric and seemingly capable (if not dubious) leadership abilities, the degradation of the character that progresses during the poem alleviates any concern that Satan may indeed be the hero. The Felix Culpa, however, can be seen as reinforcement to the intended feelings of Adam as the hero. Who could deny Adam is indeed the hero when the poem ends with Adam happy about his decision to eat from the Tree of Knowledge? The fall “could heighten the happy final consummation by making the earlier and unhappy episodes in the story appear as instrumental to that consummation, and, indeed, as its necessary conditions (Lovejoy 179).
In the final books of the poem Milton also provides evidence supporting the conclusion of the fall as fortunate. Milton has the Son profess the goodness that results from the fall to supplement the inherent good the ending suggests. The Son tells God that:
Fruits of more pleasing savour from thy seed
Sow’n with contrition in his heart, then those
Which his own hand manuring all the Trees
Of Paradise could have produc’t, ere fall’n
From Innocence.
(XI, 26-30)
Before Adam has had a chance to hear from Michael the tale of the Son’s sacrifice for man, the reader is shown that indeed, the fall is actually fortunate. Milton does not want any confusion about the ending to his poem or the result of the fall on mankind. As an ardent Christian, Milton believes in the Bible, and that the life of a Christian is a positive one. The conclusion of Paradise Lost provides hope for Christians that life is not a punishment for the sin of the father and mother, but a happier alternative to the state of innocence we would have been subjected to had the fall not occurred.
Even the angel Michael, upon completing his narration of the stories of the Bible to Adam and Eve culminating in the sacrifice the Son makes for mankind, states that the fall was indeed a positive occurrence, and the state after the fall is better than what would have been had the sin not been committed:
Whether in Heav’n or Earth, for then the Earth
Shall all be Paradise, far happier place
Then this of Eden, and far happier daies.
(XII, 463-465)
With the knowledge of the sacrifice made by the Son, and the resulting glory mankind shall receive, Michael acknowledges the greater good brought about by the fall, greater than what could have ever been experienced had man not fallen from Eden. Michael also reiterates his support for Adam and Eve later in Book XII. As Adam and Eve prepare to leave paradise, he tells them, “then wilt thou no be loath/ To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess/ A paradise within thee, happier farr” (Flannagan 708). Michael suggests the idea of a happier paradise existing within Adam and Eve, through as Flannagan calls it in the footnote to the passage, “tranquility of mind” (Flannagan 708). Michael is not only suggesting that the state Adam and Eve are in is happier than if they were in Eden, he is also suggesting that paradise can be created within.
Milton’s Paradise Lost addressed the story of the fall of mankind in a way that was completely different from many interpretations of the story. Milton chose to include the idea of the Felix Culpa as the logical ending to the poem. The historical and religious foundations supporting the idea of the fortunate fall were established well before Milton’s time, and it is reasonable to conclude that the well-educated Milton had been exposed to some of these works. The exposure to these works could have been the basis for his arguments previous to his writing Paradise Lost included in works such as Areopagitica and On Christian Doctrine. The most compelling reason for the inclusion of the Felix Culpa in the conclusion of the poem is suggested in the narrative itself. To dispel any ideas that the hero of the poem could indeed be the fallen angel Satan, rather than the father of man, Adam, the inclusion of a happy ending was necessary and logical in Milton’s greatest work.
Works Cited
Empson, William. Milton’s God. Norfolk: New Directions Books, 1961.
Green, Clarence. “The Paradox of the Fall in Paradise Lost.” Modern Language Notes
53.8 (1938): 557-571.
Lovejoy, Arthur. “Milton and the Paradox of the Fortunate Fall.” A Journal of English Literary
History 4.3 (1937): 161-179.
Madsen, William. “The Fortunate Fall in Paradise Lost.” Modern Language Notes 74.2 (1959):
103-105.
Marshall, William. “Paradise Lost: Felix Culpa and the Problem of Structure.” Modern
Language Notes 76.1 (1961): 15-20.
