John Milton’s epic poem, Paradise Lost, is considered to be one of the most iconic and revered works in the English language. The poem details the roles Adam and Eve played in the fall of mankind and is portrayed on a scale like the biblical version found in the book of Genesis. Milton’s version of the fall, in line with the version found in Genesis, portrays Eve as subordinate and inferior to Adam. Milton lived in a time of patriarchy, where males were considered above females in almost every imaginable aspect, and this idea is evident in the poem.
Eve, who is naïve and narcissistic, is shown as a lesser version of Adam, while Adam is perceived as more rational and intelligent. This correlates with the idea of women being less than men, which was social normality during Milton’s time in the seventeenth century. This being said, one might think that this is not the case after further examination of the poem. While Eve’s actions throughout the poem initially seem impractical, they are perceived as such because she is a female. Upon closer observation, Eve’s representation as a character goes much deeper than what is shown on the surface.
It is true that Adam and Eve are in no way equals, but they do have some aspects of equality that allow them to coexist as one. By observing this element, Eve is shown not as inferior or subordinated as originally perceived. Although Eve is perceived as lesser and subordinated in comparison to Adam, this allows her to hold power over him, and in turn, allows her to break away from her role as a subordinated and lesser version of Adam. This is shown most clearly in her creation, encounter with her reflection, encounter with Satan, and encounter with God after the fall.
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Eve is portrayed as inferior to Adam from the moment she was first created. Adam, who is beginning to feel the effects of his solitude, asks God to create a partner of his own nature for him: “Of fellowship I speak/ Such as I seek human consort” (Milton 8.389-392). God fulfills Adam’s request, and agrees to create Eve, who he describes to Adam as “thy likeness, thy fit help, thy other self” (Milton 8. 450). Even though Eve is supposed to be Adam’s equal, she is created in a much different way. God used his image and created Adam out of nothing, while Eve was created from one of Adam’s ribs.
While Adam and Eve were both created by God, Eve was already presented as lesser than Adam, since she was created out of existing mankind, whereas Adam was created by God without blueprint. As Shannon Miller states in “Gender”, “Eve is drawn into narcissistic reverie while Adam assumes he was created by some ‘Great Maker’” (Miller 156). Because Adam was created from God’s vision of mankind, he is more like God himself than Eve. The circumstances of their respective awakenings and creations imply that Adam is superior to Eve as eluded to by Miller.
Adam wakes up in a plain of soft grass with the rays of the sun glistening down upon him, and he is able to take in the paradise that he had awoken to, and the beauty of God’s other creations. On the other hand, Eve wakes up alone under the shade of flowers, and has no idea who she is, unable to bask the glory of the Earth god created before them like Adam. Adam’s surroundings are described in great detail by Milton, but he does not seem very descriptive in describing Eve’s, primarily emphasizing a pool of water in her surroundings.
This water uncovers several stereotypical feminine qualities of the seventeenth century that are used by Milton to emphasize her inferiority. Eve mistakes her own reflection for another being, and is then infatuated by her own beauty. This seems to paint Eve as not just incompetent, but naïve and narcissistic as well. While this holds true, it can be stated that the circumstances of Eve’s awakening did not make her lesser than Adam, but elevated her to his stature, and that she is a victim of patriarchal society and the first woman effected by it, since she was the first woman ever created.
While Eve is seen by some as narcissistic and naïve, one could say that her creation and awakening, in conjunction with Milton’s poetics and imagery, compared to Adam’s, elevated her to his status rather than subordinating her. Eve was created and unaware of her surroundings:
That day I oft remember, when from sleep
I first awaked, and found myself reposed
Under a shade of flowers, much wondering where
And what I was, whence thither brought, and how (Milton 4. 449-452).
Adam had the ability to see hills, dales, woods, plains, and streams, all in one view since he was created on high ground. Because of all the nature surrounding Adam, his presence is diminished. No matter how powerful and intelligent Adam may be, he is still just one being and creature in the large world created by God. While it is true that Adam is far superior to the remainder of God’s creations, he is constantly reminded by his surroundings that he is only a small part of creation, albeit an important one.
Contrasting this, Eve’s surroundings radiate a sense of closeness, so compared to Adam, she is portrayed as a larger piece of creation and Eden. In N.K. Sugimura’s “Eve’s Reflection and the Passion of Wonder in Paradise Lost,” he emphasizes that Eve’s nativity “elicits beauty in a yet innocent creature” (Sugimura 2). The apparent lack of detail in her perception of Eden suggests that her surroundings prevent her from looking at Eden in one single view, and she seems to fill her world and give it a sense of intimacy that Adam’s world lacks. While Adam is immediately distanced from the world, Eve’s solitude allows her to become close to it, and therefore become a greater presence in Eden than Adam as the poem progresses.
Additionally, Eve’s sense of tranquility and security marks one of the strongest differences in their respective nativities, emphasizing Eve’s closeness to their world as opposed to Adam’s otherness. In Erin Murphy’s “‘Paradise Lost’ and the Politics of ‘Begetting,’” she emphasizes that “after her initial scare at the water, pleasure overtakes both Eve and her image” (Murphy 36). Eve’s response to the pool of water symbolizes what is considered to be one of her major flaws, the fatal and feminine flaw of narcissism. Upon seeing her reflection, she becomes infatuated with herself and cannot turn away from her beauty.
This is generally perceived as Eve becoming self-absorbed and falling in love with herself, when she genuinely believes that her reflection is another person. Her response eludes to a vanity and shallowness that later expose her vulnerability to the serpent’s persuasiveness. To interpret Eve’s response as narcissistic, however, would be to misconstrue her intellectual limits. She mistakes the water for being another sky, and believes that her own reflection is a third human being on Earth. Throughout the entirety of the poem, Eve does not seem to show any interest or self-awareness of herself, other than asking herself who she is.
While the notion is normally made that Eve is foolish for mistaking her own reflection for someone else, as well as her being self-absorbed for becoming obsessed with herself, she is only guilty of thinking her reflection is someone else, due to her lack of understanding that the reflection belongs to her. The sympathy and love she feels as she gazes at herself in the water radiate from within her, and a great deal can be said about her moral stature that bodes well for the human race.
While Eve is the one to blame for being the first to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, the events following show that she is perhaps not as naïve or subordinated as it may seem. While Satan, disguised as a serpent, had to lie to and manipulate Eve in order to trick her into falling for temptation, Eve convinces Adam to eat the fruit much faster than Satan tricked her. She urges him to “taste so divine, that what of sweet before/Hath touched my sense, flat seems to this, and harsh” (Milton 9. 984-985). Adam quickly gives in:
She gave him of that fair enticing fruit
With liberal hand: he scrupled not to eat
Against his better knowledge; not deceived
But fondly overcome with female charm (Milton 9. 995-998).
Milton takes the time to point out that Adam, as rational and intelligent as he is, was not necessarily deceived, but pulled in by Eve’s feminine charm effect, even though he clearly knew better. While Eve is portrayed as being foolish and gullible, she succeeds in convincing Adam to disobey God, after he has been warned multiple times by God himself, and Raphael to avoid eating the fruit. This shows that although Eve is considered inferior, she holds a type of power over Adam that even God cannot transcend, and this power is due to her femininity, rather than in spite of it. This serves as a main component in the notion that Eve is not as inferior as Milton portrays her and originally thought.
Milton regularly makes Eve’s subordination apparent throughout the entirety of Paradise Lost, but this is often done unfairly. After the fall, when they must face God for their sin against his will, Adam engages in finger pointing and deflects all blame directed towards him, while Eve owns up to the grave mistake they both made, and is willing to take all blame upon herself. In Leila Watkins’ “Misery, Love, and Company: Paradise Lost and the Origins of Consolation,” she points out that “rather, it is Eve’s physical expression of sorrow and remorse in book 10 that stops Adam’s vituperative self-pity in its tracks and leads the pair to initiate reconciliation with God” (Watkins 412).
Eve’s willingness to admit fault and accept punishment elevates her above Adam in that she was well aware that nobody made them sin against God, and that the choice to do so was made by them. As scholar Patrick J. McGrath states in his “Formal Resistance: Gender Hierarchy and Eve’s Final Speech in ‘Paradise Lost,’” “Eve does not contain Adam in this moment of companionship” (McGrath 74), as she was preoccupied in telling God that she is the to blame for the fall of mankind. Adam initially refused to accept any blame, pointing at Eve for ruining him because he did not want Eve to fall by herself, but this was a conscious decision he made that he had to own up to, and did not do so until he saw Eve own up to it and accept responsibility for their actions, emphasizing Eve’s moral superiority over him.
It is only at this point, in this particular judgement situation, that Eve is clearly made out by Milton to be less subordinated and inferior as he had portrayed her to be throughout the poem. Painting eve as a naïve and irrational figure compared to Adam is an unjust analysis of her character, and this is apparent throughout Paradise Lost.
Upon closer examination of Paradise Lost, it is clear that Eve is not equal to Adam in some aspects, but she is not subordinated or lesser than him. Because Adam is closer to God based on his creation, he is seen as superior to her, but it is evident that Eve possesses a significant power over Adam. She uses her femininity to her advantage, and while she is portrayed as naïve and imprudent, she appears to assert a type of feminine dominance, due to her being the mother of all of mankind.
Certain inequalities to Adam are expected, especially considering during the time in which Milton wrote the poem, women did not have a majority of the benefits and rights that modern women today are afforded, and as a result of this time that Milton lived, he portrays Eve unfairly. It is undeniable that Eve possesses some flaw, but she is portrayed in a way that makes it difficult for readers to see past these flaws, whereas Adam, although similarly flawed, is portrayed with much more advantage and substance.
Adam and Eve are unequal in some ways as they are two completely different beings, but they both possess free will and are both rational, and to say that Eve is naïve and irrational compared to Adam only does her a disservice, and only considers her own single actions in Paradise Lost, rather than the action and interactions of both Adam and Eve as one. All in all, Eve is a character whose strengths and dominant features are ignored, while her flaws are magnified and brought to light. Despite this, Eve proves to be an important and essential character throughout the poem, and a more open-minded view of her opens unique ideas about her character, as well as the realization that she is more than a naïve female who ate an apple against God’s will, as Milton leads his audience to believe, but rather an intelligent and self-aware individual.
