A Fall into Corruption

Life before and after the fall is depicted in the narrators voice and descriptions of Adam and Eve as well as nature in Milton's A Paradise Lost.  Prior to their fall, Adam and Eve lived in harmony with nature, living through their senses and communicating with each other peacefully. Everything is described as beautiful and appealing to the senses, from nature to Satan himself. It all switches once they eat of the fruit. They are overcome by animalistic desires and passions. Reason escapes them. Not only do Adam and Eve as people fall but they bring Nature down with them. At the time of the fall nature quakes and thunders, they use the flowers as a bed for their animalistic sex and their corruption pollutes everything around them. Miltons uses this comparison of a beautiful, pastoral setting to one of destruction and chaos to show the effects of the Fall on humankind. What was once perfect was stained, leading to desire, hate, and other passions and forms of corruption bring brought into this world. The Fall was so great that Nature itself was brought down with Adam and Eve.