Failure+to+Escape

= Failure to Escape = The serpent steals the fruit from The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in order to escape the Garden of Eden.

Audio
media type="file" key="wjamesonodysaudio.mp3" width="240" height="20" align="center"

Introduction
This conversation dialogue of Eve, Serpent, and God reveals their personality traits as they are shown in //Genesis//, in The Bible. In the dialogue, the serpent continues his search for an escape from The Garden of Eden, while Eve grows more concerned about the situation. Along with the dialogue, character analysis provides evidence for the traits characterized in the dialogue, and a dialogue analysis also reveals how these traits are incorporated into the conversation. Also included in the project, an about the artist section gives a brief history of the painter who provides insight into the characteristics of Eve and Serpent. Finally, a reflection section recounts the failures and successes of the process the project and the final page as a whole.

Character and Artwork Analysis
The serpent’s persistence contributes to his cunning nature, and he uses both to trick Eve. One day in the Garden of Eden, the serpent approaches Eve and convinces the woman to eat from the forbidden tree of knowledge. In the picture called The Serpent tempting Eve, painted by Henry Fuseli, the serpent’s head tilt displays his persistence in getting Eve to eat the fruit. Eve finally gives in to this persistence and she eats the apple, which God later scolds her for. If the serpent lacked this trait, he would never have been able to persuade Eve into eating the fruit, and without the incident occurring; all of Genesis would be affected. This persistence, however, is nothing alone, and the serpent combines it with his cunning in order to completely trick Eve to eat the apple. Through the beginning of Genesis, the redactors clearly portray the serpent as the sly, clever leader of the garden. The redactors include, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal God had made" (Gen. 3.1). Simply through the use of crafty, one can clearly see that the serpent had the capability to trick someone like Eve. And this plus the large ego of the serpent make this incident seem normal for a character like the serpent.

Eve’s credulousness creates a passive lifestyle that puts her in situations that lead people to take advantage of her. In Genesis, the serpent approaches Eve, and abuses her credulousness by telling her that she can eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. When questioned by God, Eve responds, 'The serpent tricked me, and I ate.'"(Gen. 3.13). The redactors’ use of tricked instead of a word such as hoax, in order to display that Eve simply made a poor decision due to her credulous nature. Without her credulousness, the woman would have never fallen for the serpent’s trick. However, Eve’s credulousness remains as only part of the reason the serpent had the ability to trick her. The passive everyday lifestyle lead by Eve also put her in a position that attracted the serpent to her. In the picture, The Serpent tempting Eve, by Henry Fuseli, exemplifies the passiveness Eve displays through body language. The raised arm Eve holds up while being tempted by the serpent reveals the submissive lifestyle she has. The serpent saw and took advantage of Eve’s passiveness that leads her to be sinned.

Artwork Background
The image above, entitled The Serpent tempting Eve, was painted by Henry Fuseli in 1802. This oil on panel painting was painted during the Romantic Period in European style. As a painter, Fuseli preferred the supernatural. He made everything on a special scale, believing a certain amount of exaggeration was necessary in the higher branches of historical painting. The violent and intemperate action which he often displays, in the conventional wisdom, destroys the grand effect of many of his pieces.

__//**Credit to JFranks for his part as the Serpent and God**//__

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// Narrator: One day, Eve was strolling through the garden of Eden just like normal, and encountered the serpent. The serpent had been thinking for awhile about how much he hated the boring garden, and Eve knew that the serpent had been planning to escape for a while now. // ======

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// Eve: Why would you ever want to leave this place? The lord has been so good to us over the years, yielding what ever we may please. How could we ever disrespect the man that has provided for us? // ======

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// Serpent:...wondered what the outer world could be like outside of the electric fence? What if other living things existed out there? We could have much more adventurous lives Eve! And the worst part is, you are so brainwashed in this small little group of plants that God has laid out here for us, that you really could care less about this. Right Eve? Am I right? // ======

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// Eve: Yes, I know I know, I am brainwashed. I am sorry that I do not share your ideals. Well, I will let you go and finish your plans to escape while I gather lunch. Good luck with your plans! // ======

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// Eve: Oh yes, typical of the serpent. Although I am getting more and more concerned. I know you told me that there is no way he can escape, but when I took a look at some of his plans, the seemed very complicated, and it looked like he was planning on using some object to cause a problem in the electric fence you put up after he got out a few years ago. // ======

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// God: Well Eve, he would have to throw an object over eighty-five pounds on to the fence to break the circuit and I have made sure that there is no object that weighs over that weight. But I appreciate your observation and will double check that everything is still up and running with the fence. // ======

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// Eve: Alright God, I will continue to keep an eye out on him for the next few days, but you have to promise me that you are working on a plan from me to get away from him. I really and losing my patience with the serpent. // ======

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Serpent: Perfect! My plan is almost complete! All I need now is the fruit from the tree and I should be good to finally escape this hell-hold. ======

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Narrator: The serpent then left the house and came to the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, where he picked a fruit from the tree and returned to his quarters to find Eve had brought him some lunch. ======

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 When she left for a minute, he carefully grinded the fruit on her plate and sat down. However, he did not realize that Eve decided to re-mix the salad and she tossed all of the newly added fruit into the mix and put some on both plates. ======

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God: Perfect, let's go now, we must escape immediately if you want to start fresh. The serpent will never want to escape again because of this, so you will no longer need to accompany him. ======

Dialogue Analysis
In //Failure to Escape,// Eve leads a passive lifestyle, directed by her credulousness, leads her into unnecessary situations causing her eating of the forbidden fruit. The passive lifestyle is frequently taken advantage of by the serpent, such as when the Serpent explains his master plan of escape, and forces her to comply with him. She replies, "' Yes, I know I know, I am brainwashed. I am sorry that I do not share your ideals '" (Jameson 1). As Eve complies with the serpent, Jameson proves Eve's passive way of living. If Eve did not have the confidence to stand up to the Serpent in such a simple argument, she definitely prefers to avoid any possible arguments. This could be because of her child nature, making her stay away from social encounters, including arguments. The passive lifestyle lead by Eve may have also derived from her credulousness. After God comes to the garden to deal with the eating of the forbidden fruit, he asks Eve why she ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. She tries to explain: "'Yes sir, but I was tricked by the dumb serpent'" (Jameson 2). When Eve admits that she was tricked, she proves the point of being credulous. Since her credulousness is so apparent, the Serpent saw his opportunity and pulled his trick on his easily-fooled victim. Had Eve put her foot down in the beginning of her arguments with the serpent, the whole situation could have been avoided.

Even though I failed to grasp several important components of //Genesis//, I enjoyed this project as a whole. I began the project under the impression that Adam had convinced Eve to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and I don't even remember why I thought that. However, once I figured that out, I excelled in the creative aspect of this project. Although the analysis was not my favorite part of the assignment, I feel that it helped my once terrible understanding of //Genesis,// and if I had not done it, my dialogue would have been less characteristic of Eve and the Serpent. I believe that I would have had a lot better time with this project if it came from the Odyssey instead. Nonetheless, this project was a key factor in my understanding of our reading from //Genesis.//