I've discussed Paradise Lost in some depth now, but there are still quite a few allusions that didn't fit elsewhere. This also seems like the best place to discuss the other allusions to the Romantics in the game. Here's a roundup of the essays, followed by a list of the other references the game makes.
RDR2 features a motif of snake imagery as a way of alluding to Paradise Lost. Here are some of the highlights.
Red Dead Redemption 2 mourns the loss of Eden: the outlaw life in pre-Industrial America. But under the brutal rule of colonialism, who is it who lost paradise? All articles on this site feature detailed discussion of literary allusions in Red Dead Redemption 2, and as such contain unmarked major and minor spoilers for the game, and occasionally the eventual fates of some characters in Red Dead Redemption. Read at your own risk. One of the cleverest things the developers did in Red Dead Redemption 2 was to make the technical limitations of Red Dead Redemption thematic. John can’t swim; Arthur can. John prints; Arthur writes. Arthur is more eloquent…
One of the writers’ apparent motivations in writing Red Dead Redemption 2 was to make Red Dead Redemption even more sad. The way the first game is retconned in the second one can be annoying because of the mismatch in details, but at times, it’s very effective ...
In Red Dead Redemption 2, choices for the player are plentiful, but they rarely have any impact on the game’s narrative. At most, they affect its mood. Of course, in any story game the outcomes have to be predetermined (at this stage, at any rate), but the differences that appear in the story are small indeed. The player can’t change any outcome; you can’t save anyone.
Paradise Lost, as one of the most essential influences of Red Dead Redemption 2, naturally contributes more than characters to the game’s narrative. Like the poem, one of RDR2’s central themes involves the gaining of knowledge. However, the game and the poem come to divergent conclusions about that concept. What Milton condemns, RDR2 declares imperative.
One of the ways Red Dead Redemption 2 often makes literary allusions is in prophetic statements from special NPCs. Blind Man Cassidy gives Arthur Morgan one that alludes to Paradise Lost and that appears, at first blush, to be about Dutch Van der Linde and Micah Bell: “Your father is seduced by the one with the forked tongue. It's no use hoping.” However, that isn't the truest reading of this prophecy. Dutch is also Satan/Eve (as we’ve seen, these characters combine in Dutch) to Hosea Matthews’s Adam. It's Hosea who is Arthur's truest father.
Dutch Van der Linde is not the only Satanic figure in Red Dead Redemption 2. While Dutch captures Satan’s dark charisma, Micah’s similarities to the fallen angel are more superficial. Unlike Milton’s seductive character, Micah is something you try not to step in. In Mary-Beth's words – she's the most perspicacious character in the gang – he's just “not that interesting” (Horseshoe Overlook; Shady Belle). Micah's very banality is what makes his role in the tragedy so effective. He isn't particularly good at manipulating people – we see his clumsy and obvious attempts to charm some of the gang in camp; only Bill and Javier are initially susceptible to it…
The writers of Red Dead Redemption 2 – Dan Houser, Michael Unsworth, and Rupert Humphries – drew more inspiration from Paradise Lost, the epic by John Milton, than any other work. Milton is the 17th-century poet who gives the game's Agent Milton and John-I-Mean-Jim Milton their names. The poem tells a much-expanded version of the Biblical story of Genesis, beginning with the aftermath of Lucifer's rebellion in heaven and ending with Adam and Eve's expulsion from Eden. The poem and the game both deal with themes of sin and repentance – but they arrive at disparate conclusions.
