Satan and the Art of Persausion

"....him there they found

Squat like a Toad, close at the ear of Eve;

Assaying by his Devilish art to reach

The Organs of her Fancy, and with them forge

Illusions as he list, Phantasms and Dreams,

Or if, inspiring venom, he might taint,

Th'animal Spirits that from pure blood arise

Like gentle breaths from Rivers pure..." (IV. 799-806)



This particular quotation describes how Satan whispers into Eve's ear in an attempt to corrupt her with impure thoughts, therfore making her sin and bring about the fall of man. I was extememly taken by the Milton's choice of words in this particular passage. With words such as "venom" and "taint" used to decribe what Satan is trying to accomplish, and word "pure" used multiple times to describe Eve, the reader gets a very clear picture of the stark contrast between the two characters. The part that intrigues me the most though, is the fact that we all know Eve is going to succomb to Satan's guiles, so why do we put such faith in her purity before she does?

To my argument about the corruption of the pure, I would like to compare Satan to the Joker in the most recent Batman movie, Dark Night. I feel that both Satan and the Joker possess the same type of abilities when it comes to persuasion. We all know how Satan corrupted Eve, and I find the Joker's corruption of Harvey Dent who becomes the villian Two-Face.

Eve starts out perfect and pure, and Harvey seems to also be about as close to pure as any modern-day human can be. It amazes me then, how effective both Satan and the Joker were in corrupting these characters by simply implanting dark thoughts into their heads. There is certainly something to be said about how skilled in persausion Satan and the Joker are. In the before-mentioned quotation i have illusrtated how Satan implanted thoughts, and now I will include a video clip from dark night to illustrate the Joker's persuasiveness, and leave it to you come to your own conclusions about the similarities.




Sheryl W