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Aside from Milton’s “sublime enchantment,” there are various characteristics of this work that would have appealed to Freud—that would have spoken to his memories and to his patterns of thought. Freud’s remark about himself as “the happy child from Freiberg” is relevant here as a description of his own lost Eden.74 In another text as well, Freud evoked these memories:
When I was seventeen…I returned for the first time to my birthplace for the holidays…I know quite well what a wealth of impressions overwhelmed me at the time…I believe now that I was never free from a longing for the beautiful woods near our home.75 Paradise Lost would have been, even more than the early part of Faust, a powerful literary redintegration and representation of Freud’s own lost childhood world. (One is reminded here that while in Rome Freud particularly enjoyed staying in the Eden Hotel.76) The main character of Paradise Lost (i.e., the one given the greatest literary prominence and power) is, of course, Satan, who, after rebelling, seduces Eve by assuming the form of the serpent, and then Adam through Eve. So again we find a Freudian fascination for the literary celebration of Satanic power. At the heart of Milton’s work is the great opposition between Heaven and Hell.71 God is in Heaven with the Messiah and the angels; Satan has “fallen into Hell,” into the “great Deep,” where as the poem begins he is “lying on the burning lake.” He has been driven out because of his disobedience, because of his attack on God the Father—an Oedipal rebellion, if you will. Satan comes to earth at night, and enters the serpent. (Throughout the poem, Satan is associated with the night and with a lower, darker world. He is described as an evil spirit who has escaped from the deep.) The next morning Eve relates a disturbing dream to Adam, a dream anticipating her coming temptation. She is soon in fact seduced by Satan into eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge; Adam, rather than live without her, also eats the fruit; their joint fall is the result. Considering Freud’s own intense desire for knowledge, one wonders if he didn’t side with Adam and Eve—and Satan—on the fundamental question of knowledge. Relevant here is a letter written by Freud to Martha in the summer of 1883. Freud, feeling quite depressed about their separation and worried about their future, quoted from Paradise Lost: Let us consult What reinforcement we may gain from hope, If not, what resolution from despair.18 What Jones, who cites this letter, does not mention is that Freud was quoting Satan here. The passage in question occurs when Satan is licking |