The paradox between Christianity and the fall of man is one of the most dramatic themes in Milton’s poem, Paradise Loss. The theme of morality is quite evident in the poem, along with slightly less important themes such as human nature and religion. The main characters in the poem are, God, Satan, Adam and Eve. The beginning of the poem describes how Satan and his angels came to be in hell. Book one of Paradise loss is closely linked to the first story of the creation of man in Genesis located in the Bible.

OF Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit

Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast

Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,

With loss of Eden, till one greater Man

Many scholars have said that the Satan appears as a heroic figure in Milton’s poem. Milton gives the “lead” role of the poem to the character of Satan, which is so ironic given the fact that poem theme is so intertwined with being a good Christian. However, Milton does this to demonstrate how ones desires in life, (sin) can lead to a dark place-and in Paradise Loss the dark place is Hell. If Milton were to have begun the poem with Adam being the heroic figure, it would have turned many readers off, possible. They may not want to read a story so full of “do’s and don’t” be good or you will be punished to hell, like being in a religious sermon. No, Milton uses Satan to pull the reader in, make them curious to find out what this character will do being cursed to Hell. Adam, is also viewed as a hero figure of the poem, however his roles is not quite as dramatized as Satan’s, he is viewed in the piece as the hero of Christianity and is not even brought in to the poem as a “hero” figure until much later in the story.

The moral of the poem is to abide by the Christian faith, live without sin and to follow the commandments set forth by the creator of the world, God. If a person does not obey Gods law they will be condemned to live in the dark cave of hell where there is caucus, pain, and regret. God is not showed as a forgiving father in this poem which makes gives readers more to think about in terms of being disobedient to God and loosing the Paradise he has created for the ones who have decided to live their lives by the rules set fourth during the creation of the Earth. This are other issues of morality in the poem, however this seems to be the most prevalent.

In the Rape of Locke, issues of Morality take on a slightly different context than that of Milton’s, “Paradise Lost.”

The title of the poem The Rape of Locke, suggest a woman who has been victimized, (raped). It is safe to say after reading the story that the word “rape,” does not signify a brutal attack at all. Pope created the satire to demonstrate to a small audience of people, namely the rich female characters who cared more about the way they appeared than how they acted around people. The word, “rape,” is used to suggest that being brutally attacked by an assailant is far worse of an event than having a piece of hair cut off of.

In Paradise Lost, the issue of morality and human behavior was geared to a much larger audience, quite possibly the entire civilized world. In The Rape of Locke, Pope points on a certain class of people upper class females, the ones who value their looks and objects of beauty beyond all other matters in life.

Pope describes how the females act, their attire is extremely important in this story because it describes who they are, it is more about how they look, being beautiful on the outside, opposed of the real important features Pope tries to point out with having the Locke of hair cut off, this was supposed to teach them that it is not your hair that is loved, but it is the person inside. Pope describes the characteristics of the whining female character who has had her hair brutal swiped away to influence a society where the most important values are more often, the wrong ones to actually value. The morality issues in, Paradise Lost focuses on religion, life and death, sin, and forgiveness by God. Where as, The Rape of Locke focuses on issues of the upper class, vanity, and selfishness behaviors.

Changing Behaviors by way of persuasive writing in Pope’s, The Rape of the Lock, and Samuel Johnson’s Raasselas and in A Modest Proposal.

The selfish behaviors displayed the character Belinda, a woman who has had a piece of hair taken without her consent, comes from a true story. Pope used the title of his story as a way to compare a real tragedy with an incident that was not so tragic. He uses elements of writing normally viewed in serious tragedies.

The poem is structured as an epic, which signifies straightaway that the author is making fun of the entire situation-and he does so to help others see how silly it was to get so upset over something so very trivial. People do not usually see how they truly act, until it is brought to their attention, this is usually the case with children. Pope uses the dramatic word, “rape” and the style of poetry to influence human behaviors, in this particular instance it is the selfish behavior of the wealthy women Pope hopes to change.

When a person has everything they desire, whether that is in the form of wealth, power, prestige or material items, it does not make the person truly, “happy.” What Samuel Johnson’s poem rasselas tried to achieve by The moral theme in Samuel Johnson’s, Rasselas, is for people to understand that happiness steams from inside of a person, it is also an emotion that can be easily masked with ones surroundings.

Being thankful for the things one has in life is hard if all they have ever been surround by is luxury. When the old man tells the prince, “”Sir,” said he, “if you had seen the miseries of the world, you would know how to value your present state.” this is exactly what he is referring too. In the story, the prince agrees and decides to look for the un peasantries in the world, hoping this would help him to find the happiness he longs for. “Now,” said the Prince, “you have given me something to desire. I shall long to see the miseries of the world, since the sight of them is necessary to happiness.” This statement says a lot about why Johnson wrote the commentary.

After many adventures in the real world, the prince learns that happiness does not come from mere surroundings or from taking journeys throughout the world, it happens on the inside. The moral of the story being that true happiness cannot be search for maybe not even on Earth. It can be felt, but only if a person gives in to the ways of the world, its miseries, faults, and desires that are never granted.

Johnson wrote the piece for “all” man, a morality instruction guide more or less on the how to of finding happiness. To become humble is not something that can be purchased, or found, it is something that takes work, patients, and understanding. Being happy develops over the course of our lives. This is true happiness, something that the prince did not have, at least not until he understood what it meant. The behaviors Johnson is trying to change with this text could be greed, selfishness, and selfishness. The idea of happiness is often associated with a person’s wealth, power, or title in society, and in the Prince’s utopian world, he points out that even a man who has everything he needs or wants, will still desire more, if they are not “happy” on the inside, where it matters the most.

In the Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift, the reasoning behind the article was to promote a foreseeable solution to the economic crises of Irish families. The proposal to this solution was that children should be cared for only until the age of one, it was at that time they would be sold to the wealthy as food. This solution would provide food for the wealthy, and income for the poor, not to mention a way for the poor to afford the cost of living since they were going to have much smaller households.

Of course Swift had no real intention for this article to be taken so seriously, he did however write it in the form of a real argument. Swift created the satire hoping to change the behaviors of the English society how they treated the Irish people. By incorporating research data such as percentages, formulas and so on, it was his hope that the article would appear as serious as possible. As it has been said, the data in the article was inaccurate in many places which signified the unreliable nature of his theses. The response Swift received after the article was published was quite shocking, some community members took the article as a “literal” form, and not as sarcasm which was the intention.

When comparing Samuel Johnson’s article with The Rape of Locke it is odious which of the two pieces of literature would be more affective in changing behaviors. It is my guess that The Rape of Locke, would promote change within a small group of people, where as, A Modest Proposal may have little affect in a small community, but a major affect at an international and governmental level. His article was written for the politicians, the well educated and for the people who he felt would understand the literary devices he had implored within the article. When comparing the element of emotion each author used to change behaviors, A Modest Proposal used the emotion of, “SHOCK!” The emotion used to promote change in, The Rape of Lock is definitely, humor.