Lewis' Perelandra, Milton's Satan, Melville's Claggart & Austen's Miss Bates

So what do Lewis' Perelandra, Milton's Satan, Melville's Claggart and Jane Austen's Miss Bates have in common?

I have no idea.

But I'm going to find out.

This is why it's difficult for me to finish books.

The common thread is Milton's Paradise Lost. Here are my reasons for closer study...

(1)Perelandra has been ringing in my mind for the past week; especially Ransom's imploring Tinidril, Queen of the Planet, to resist the temptation by the possessed corpse of Weston to disobey Maleldil's one command: to not sleep or live on the Fixed Land (a scene reminiscent of the serpent & Eve in Eden):

Ransom: "I think He made one law of that kind in order that there might be obedience. In all these other matters what you call obeying Him is but doing what seems good in your own eyes also. Is love content with that? You do them, indeed, because they are His will, but only because they are His will. Where can you taste the joy of obeying unless He bids you do something for which His bidding is the only reason?..."

As I'm reading Perelandra I know Lewis has written A Preface to Paradise Lost and I wonder, "Should I read Lewis' Preface... and possibly Milton's epic poem before proceeding to That Hideous Strength?

(2) Simultaneously, my one-year study of Scriptures starts out with the fall of Man in Genesis (as always) on the first days of January. I just mention this because I believe in finding good tutors in my studies (especially of Scripture) & I've often wondered why God didn't want humans to eat (and thus possess) the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good & evil. My question sounds like Milton's Satan (see below) & the answer given by Lewis' Ransom (see above) rings true so I'm compelled to read Lewis' A Preface to Paradise Lost since he is an excellent tutor.

(3) A few days ago I also stumbled upon my copy of Melville's Billy Budd & the Critics (William T. Stafford, ed.; Wadsworth Publishing, San Francisco, 1961) & since I remain intrigued with Lawrance Thompson's criticism, Melville's Quarrel with God I re-read both Melville's description of Claggart (from chapter 13 entitled Pale ire, envy and despair)...

With no power to annul the elemental evil in him, tho' readily enough he could hide it; apprehending the good, but powerless to be it; a nature like Claggart's surcharged with energy as such natures almost invariably are, what recourse is left to it but to recoil upon itself and like the scorpion for which the Creator alone is responsible, act out to the end the part allotted it.

...and then read Thompson's comparison of Claggart with Satan: "Melville's handling of it recalls the remarks of Milton's Satan as he enviously soliloquizes, while watching Adam & Eve" followed by a quote from Paradise Lost (IV, 512-522) (I've included a bit more here than Thompson):

Sight hateful, sight tormenting! thus these two
Imparadis't in one anothers arms
The happier EDEN, shall enjoy thir fill
Of bliss on bliss, while I to Hell am thrust,
Where neither joy nor love, but fierce desire,
Among our other torments not the least,
Still unfulfill'd with pain of longing pines;
Yet let me not forget what I have gain'd
From thir own mouths; all is not theirs it seems:
One fatal Tree there stands of Knowledge call'd,
Forbidden them to taste: Knowledge forbidd'n?
Suspicious, reasonless. Why should thir Lord
Envie them that? can it be sin to know,
Can it be death? and do they onely stand
By Ignorance, is that thir happie state,
The proof of thir obedience and thir faith?
O fair foundation laid whereon to build
Thir ruine! Hence I will excite thir minds
With more desire to know, and to reject
Envious commands, invented with designe
To keep them low whom knowledge might exalt
Equal with Gods; aspiring to be such,
They taste and die: what likelier can ensue?

And so I muse that Lewis has written Perelandra with Milton's Satan in mind & perhaps with a clearer eye than Melville & Thompson.

(4) So I put down That Hideous Strength and pick up A Preface to Paradise Lost, chapter 13, Satan. And there Lewis opens with a reference to Jane Austen's Miss Bates and I'm captivated.

Here I go...