Milton's Portrayal of Eve in Paradise Lost
The seventeenth century poet, John Milton, takes the attitude common to the time period while portraying Eve in Paradise Lost. This epic, telling of Adam and Eve's fall from Paradise and the story of creation, constantly describes Eve as a weak individual, while Adam is often compared with God. The idea of women's inferiority has been fixed through time, making Milton's characterization of Eve not surprising, but rather expected and accepted. However, Milton shows a suggestion of women's inner strength while describing the control Eve has over Adam. Nevertheless, except for this instance, Eve is depicted as subordinate to Adam. This is evident through Adam and Raphael's treatment of Eve, her own actions, and Milton's description of her.
The first weakness Eve shows is her vanity. Following her creation, she finds herself staring into a stagnant pool. She tells Adam, " There I had fixed Mine eyes till now, and pined with vain desire" (IV 465-6). From the beginning of Eve's life in Paradise, it was understood that she needed Adam to guide her. During her first talk with him, she whimpers, "And from whom I was formed flesh of thy flesh, And without whom am to no end, my guide And head!" (IV 441-3). Thus, she believes that only with Adam's guidance will she be able ...
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...to mankind in Paradise Lost - one of the fundamental concepts in Christianity and vital to Milton's objective to "justify the ways of God to men" (1, 26) - the gods in the Aeneid are continually reminding Aeneas that he cannot afford to be distractive by the temptresses that are women because the future of Rome lays in his hands. Milton's God, on the other hand, allows Eve to fall and her blatant transgression caused the loss of paradise and all of creation has to experience the consequences of original sin. In Paradise Lost Eve was expected to submit to her ultimate authority, Adam. Rather, it is Adam in Book IX who submits to Eve's unreasonable discourse on separation. Indeed, the implication of a man (as a superior being) succumbing to feminine wiles and passion is an intense concept which - for both Virgil and Milton - threatened the very basis of their society.
Throughout modern society nothing symbolizes the fall of humankind more than a woman with feminine flowing hair and luscious lips biting into a large apple. While the biblical account evoking such imagery remains the primary authority, John Milton in Paradise Lost enlightens beyond the allegorical, offering a complexity of character and purpose. In this epic, readers are guided along humanity’s fall from grace, contrasting the ideal union of man and wife alongside harsh consequences that emerge from dangerous engendered perspectives.
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John Milton was a Puritan poet and author who started writing in 1658. One of his most renowned works was his epic, Paradise Lost, which was published in 1667. In Paradise Lost, Milton describes and tells the story of how paradise slipped from the hands of Adam and Eve and how they were dismissed from the Garden of Eden. Divided into 12 books, the epic starts by stating the purpose of the epic: to describe the loss of mankind’s spiritual innocence. Then, it goes into the very start of evil in the world with the fall of Satan and his self-appointment as ruler of hell. Next it goes into describing the sin of Adam and Eve, and finally it concludes with the Archangel Michael telling Adam that God has a plan to redeem mankind and ultimately the
John Milton's great epic poem, Paradise Lost, was written between the 1640's and 1665 in England, at a time of rapid change in the western world. Milton, a Puritan, clung to traditional Christian beliefs throughout his epic, but he also combined signs of the changing modern era with ancient epic style to craft a masterpiece. He chose as the subject of his great work the fall of man, from Genesis, which was a very popular story to discuss and retell at the time. His whole life had led up to the completion of this greatest work; he put over twenty years of time and almost as many years of study and travel to build a timeless classic. The success of his poem lies in the fact that he skillfully combined classic epic tradition with strongly held Puritan Christian beliefs.
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By analyzing John Milton's Paradise Lost, it is plain to see it is a fine example of epic poetry. For the most part, John Milton follows the three main guidelines that construct