Innocence of Adam and Eve

After reading the unfortunate fall of Adam and Eve, I thought that the language shift that Milton uses to signify a change in circumstance was unique and actually really telling of the new situation. Before Eve eats the forbidden fruit, the words Milton uses in every sense portray the satiety that Adam and Eve feel in every aspect of their living.

Eve says, "And what is faith, love, virtue, unassayed,
Alone, without exterior help sustained?
Let us not then suspect our happy state
Left so imperfect by the maker wise
As not secure to single or combined.
Frail is our happiness if this be so,
And Eden were no Eden thus exposed." (p. 274)

To me, it seems here that Eve is saying to Adam that they already are happy (pre-fall), and that nothing can disturb that happiness because, in the end, God is sustaining and guiding them. However, after Eve partakes of the fruit, her words reveal her feelings of being lost, and of wanting more. On 287 the serpent alludes to this want, asking her why she shouldn't want a happier life. Later, Eve starts referring to the guidance of god as a prohibition that "binds" her and Adam (289). It's almost as if she truly has come to believe that God is her enemy, and not the serpent, in justifying her actions.

Dante anyone?

As soon as I started getting into the bulk of Milton's first book, I instantly found myself transported to last semester. He seems to me so similar to Dante: the poetic language, the vivid descriptions of Hell, and the specific names he gives to fallen angels. Milton was onto something here: humans can't resist thinking about their possible demise. He knew that Hell inspired fear, and more than that, captures a great audience because fate concerns EVERYONE. His descriptions of horrendous Hell are typical, but still frightening:

"A dungeon horrible, on all sides round
As one great furnace flamed, yet fro those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible
Served only to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to all, but torture without end
Still urges, and a fiery deluge fed
With ever-burning sulfur unconsumed." (10)

But has Milton really not progressed past Dante? It seems like he has to have a different point, writing much later than Dante. More than that, he has a much different audience: this was post-Reformation. While still overwhelmingly Christian, knowledge of Islamic and considerably pagan religions was more well-known. Was he reminding his peers of their Christian backgrounds?