Eve's Passion: Milton's Paradise Lost

The Epic Poem Paradise Lost takes the first three books of Genesis and expands them according to Milton’s own interpretation. The strategic point where Eve becomes vulnerable in herself is the key point she becomes susceptible to sin. Traces of her vulnerability begin to surface after she tells Adam about her dream with Satan and he, for reasons to be explored, is unable to digest and articulate what Eve’s heart most desires to know. Among the slew of factors to be explored, it is their relationship together that defines them as individuals when a part from one another.

In the Eve’s dream that is whispered by the mouth of Satan, she awakes to tell Adam to only have him disregard her fear of sin. Adam in his attempt to protect and lift her fears of the dream tells her that is merely a dream and nothing more: “Which gives me hope / That what in sleep thou didst abhor to dream, / Walking thou never wilt consent to do” (5.119-121). Adam tells her that her thoughts and dreams are not a reflection of her motives in her waking life and he quickly tries to reason where this evil could have come from, “ since Eve was created pure she has no latent evil living within her that can have asserted itself by instigating her dream” (Bowers 268). But instead of reasoning with her and recognizing her vulnerability in this moment, he lessens the possible implications by passing it off as merely a dream and nothing more. In his reasoning he knows she is pure, but also knows the implications of it being more than a dream could be detrimental. He rightly protects her by not reasoning through this out loud, but also fails because he gives her no comfort in this dream that now haunts her thoughts. But the dream still shook her, and she looks to Adam fo...

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