Although God claims otherwise in Milton's work "Paradise Lost", it seems certain that it was God's will, and not Satan's cunning efforts, that provided for man's inevitable fall. Aware that Satan was the physical manifestation of evil, God allowed Satan and his minions to persist undisturbed in Hell; He made no effort to ensure that the follies of His fallen angels did not pervert the perfection of His newly created beings on Earth. Besides this, it is true that God foresees everything that will happen in the future. He is aware that Lucifer will disobey Him with the same certainty with which he is aware that man will follow the example resulting from Satan's intervention in the garden. Milton's God is a subtly tyrannical force who demands justice from His subjects when they fail to offer Him their uncompromising love and adoration. Yet it seems clear that the blame cannot lie in any being other than God. This becomes evident when one recognizes the fact that when God claims to have created Adam and Eve "sufficient to stand, yet free to fall" (Book III, 99), He conveniently ignores the truth of the matter. To be truthful, the last part of this statement should be interpreted as "prone to fall". All vile temptations come from God throughout this poem. It was He who fashioned man with his innate curiosity, who conjured up a single tree in a Garden of many and then boldly declared that man can eat anything but its fruit. For what purpose was the tree built then if not to serve as an obstacle to man? Simply put, man was not allowed to walk away freely like Satan. Rather, Satan serves as an instrument to exercise God's will; God not only desired man to sin, but He Himself orchestrated their destruction. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayTo ascertain whether Milton's God is truly a tyrant, you need to begin by analyzing Lucifer's original revolt in heaven and the motivations behind this failed usurpation of the throne. If God is so deserving of worship and adoration, then why do legions of angels willingly defect and flock to his detractor? Simply put, these were spirits who "[did not love] his kingdom and [Satan] preferred" (Book I, 102), made a conscious effort to free themselves from the shackles of "slavish pomp" (Book II, 257). Although the Bible illustrates a God who is the manifestation of grace and love, it cannot be disputed that somehow it came to pass that those ethereal beings, more intimate with the Lord than with man, not only openly rebelled against His kingdom , but also to sincerely hate him. But, it can be argued, God is a just God: those who love him will bask in his glory, and those who despise him and bow down to sin will endure his wrath. In this case it is enough to dwell on the judgments that he pronounces on his creations to conclude that this is not the justice of a merciful being, but that of a calculated tyrant. greatness and innocence in the Garden of Eden, God grants a series of punishments to the parties involved. However, just as the serpent was nothing more than a hollow vessel inhabited by Satan, the punishment was imposed on him and his kind as if it were he, and not his possessor, who whispered sweet flirtations to Eve and ordered her to eat some forbidden fruit. God proclaims that "because you [the serpent] have done this, you are cursed above... every beast of the field; you will walk on your belly, and the dust will devour all the days of your life" (Book X, 175-178). Surely not the snake itselfhe could be found guilty; this creature did not act autonomously, but rather under otherworldly persuasion. So, upon Adam and Eve, God exacts a punishment vastly amplified compared to that suffered by their alleged deceiver. To the woman, God proclaims that he will make her servile to the male sex and will greatly amplify her pain during childbirth. For man, God decrees that he will be cast out of the Garden, that earthly paradise, and will be forced to toil in his exile to secure his livelihood. Of infinitely greater consequence, however, is God's proclamation of death: "Know thy birth, for dust art thou, and to dust shalt thou return." It seems rather elementary that, under the assumption that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), one should be able to earn such harmful fruits of one's own accord, and not under duress and manipulation. Perhaps, however, the most convincing argument attesting to the injustice of the Lord originates from Adam. In a state of abject desperation, the disgraced Adam wonders, “I asked you [God]…to mold me, man…would it be just and fair to reduce me to my dust…with the loss of that, Penalty sufficient, because you have added the sense of infinite misfortunes. Your justice seems inexplicable" (Book X, 743-755). He readily admits that, having disappointed God, perhaps it is right that he suffer death. However, he cannot justify that God made his pain worse by condemning him to a life full of hardship and turmoil. Adam courageously ponders whether it is fair to condemn a party to a contract for failure to comply with its terms, when that accused party has never been given a first say as to whether or not it was his or her wish to enter into such an agreement. Having established from the text that perhaps God's application of justice is not pure, it still remains evident that the blame for man's fall must lie individually with Man, Satan, God, or some combination of the three. It would be a blatant disregard of reason to completely forgive God for his role in the tragedy. Furthermore, since the manifestation of sin embodied by Satan, the creation of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the failure to maintain the Garden as a controlled environment, free from external forces of tampering, all originate from God, all guilt it must, as a function of logic, be imposed on the Creator. It is significant to note that the Tree's only usefulness was to serve as an overwhelming temptation and ruin to man. For, as Adam states, "God hath not declared death to taste that tree" (Book IV, 427), though he himself built it. A practical objection to God's intent is uttered from the serpent's treacherous mouth: "A fatal tree there stands... forbidden knowledge? Suspicious, unreasonable. Why should their Lord envy them? May it be a sin to know, may it be death ? And they resist only out of ignorance" (Book IV, 514-519). By allowing man to wallow in his uninformed state, God does Adam and Eve no service. Of course, it wasn't a vast expanse of knowledge denied them, nor the clarity needed to recognize their capacity to do good. Rather, the awareness of its counterpart, evil. But was it not from a certain knowledge of decadence and sin that the dark angels drew in fermenting their plot of rebellion? Perhaps, then, God sought to promote faithfulness and obedience by forbidding man from seeking a certain type of wisdom. This can be supported, but not effectively. Can it really be said that man has dominion over his choices if he is only given the possibility of doing good and not embracing evil? God is aware of this fact, and yet, to ensure his aura of.