Darkness Visible Mark Oram

Wrapping up Paradise Lost is tough to do on your own. So I got a little help from a friend. Dr. Kate McPherson is a Professor of English at Utah Valley University, and Director of the Honors Program. And she just so happens to be an expert on 17th-Century English Literature. Today, I get to do something I've wanted to do for years - I get to ask her all my big Paradise Lost questions. I hope you enjoy this conclusion to the first season of Darkness Visible.

In the final episode of Paradise Lost, Adam and Eve confront the full weight of their disobedience. Despair gives way to reconciliation in this bittersweet denouement of Milton's epic.
[Trigger warning: suicidal ideation. If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Hotline at 800-273-8255, visit suicidepreventionlifeline.org, or reach out to a trusted adult. Help is available.]

“God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.” In this episode, the aftermath of the Fall continues to unravel. Students are encouraged to analyze how themes of vengeance, guilt, and self-deception have developed as the story has reached its climax.

Would you be willing to die for the one you love? In this episode, students will begin to see the negative consequences of “Man’s first disobedience.”

Why is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil even in this garden in the first place? In this crucial episode, students will be asked to carefully evaluate the deceptive rhetoric of the story’s antagonist as he tempts Eve. Can you see through the holes in his argument, or does he get you too?

Would you be happy, living with the knowledge that an enemy hell-bent on your destruction was watching your every move? In this episode, major themes and conflicts in the epic begin to converge in an increasingly heated argument between Adam and Eve. Students are asked to carefully evaluate the merits and weaknesses of contrasting arguments regarding the nature of free will, obedience, and temptation.