The Soft Voice of the Serpent – comment on the title

    The Soft Voice of the Serpent – comment on the title...
    © H Mönnig 2016

Quick recap of the reference to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden: the Devil, disguised as a snake, seduced and intrigued Eve with the offer of the apple from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Eve, thinking that Adam would be pleased, offered him the apple, whereupon they both realised their nakedness, developed shame, and were expelled from the Garden by God – because they had corrupted their essential innocence and naivete. They had traded their heavenly bliss for earthly knowledge, a gross and uneven trade.
    It can be argued that the modern couple's "innocent" encounter with a harmless locust mirrors the above Biblical tale of the loss of innocence. The husband [unable to face his own helplessness and emasculation], is superficially amused and intrigued by the locust who shares his own disability. His temporary excitement and amusement please his wife, who, until now, has quietly borne the burden of tending to him like a nurse [unpaid and with no benefits...].
    The wife, naively [like Eve], does not realise that locusts might fly away if poked [or that gifted apples might be suspicious, like Eve and the devilish serpent]. She "goes too far" [like Eve], and her angry husband, like a petulant and spoilt child, explodes in a fit of fury – they both lose their innocence [like Adam/Eve] and this exposure of the unstated and suppressed tension between them mirrors the loss of innocence and bliss in the Garden of Eden.
    Because the couple had bonded over their childish and slightly mean-spirited jokes about the crippled locust, they are now "punished" by having their true natures exposed. The husband is shown to be a mean-spirited man, unable to accept his limitations. The wife is shown to be, at best, passively naive, and, at worst, to be a quiet manipulator of her helpless husband [she really enjoyed the comical similarity between her crippled husband, and the unbalanced locust, just a little too much...].
    The corruption of their relationship is shown by the uneven tensions in their dealing with each other's needs [the man feels like a hollow shell of his former self; the wife feels like a widow whose original husband is not more]. This conflict is depicted in a small, mundane event [humans are amused by a small insect] – like Eve took a humble apple to Adam. The serpent [the Devil, the eternal corruptor] has a quiet and persuasive hiss – he is only a catalyst [starter] of eventual corruption from seeds that were already in place. In the same manner, the superficially stable life of the young husband and wife in this story [educated, well-spoken, with money, an undeserved tragedy] only needs a little nudge [when the locust is "accidentally" prodded to fly away] – for their doomed relationship to be made clear.
    The serpent's success in corrupting humankind's first couple in the Garden of Eden led to humanity's loss of innocence. Thus, when the locust flies away [caused by the woman: sexist subtext – women cannot be trusted], the crippled man is made all too aware of his permanent shortcomings. He will never by able to "fly away", with hope of an alternative life elsewhere. He will always be only part of man, and at the mercy of a slender-armed woman who, literally and figuratively, pushes him around. Thus, like an angry child, he cannot speak of his angers and fears, but snaps at those who cannot defend themselves [thus giving the woman more reason to resent him; a vicious cycle].
    And so an idyllic garden is corrupted by human weakness and insecurity: an eternal tale of cynical knowledge and loss. And the serpent's response? "Missssssssssssion complete!" ▣