Inferiority of Eve in Paradise Lost - Milton’s Construction of Eve as an Inferior Creature

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                             “Milton’s Construction of Eve as an Inferior Creature”

In partial fulfilment of the requirements for Award of Degree of

Masters of Arts in English

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Submitted By:                                                           Submitted to:

Name: Harshita Sethi                                                           Dr. Walunir  

Enrolment No.A0710315005                                                

Amity Institute of English Studies and Research

AMITY UNIVERSITY UTTAR PRADESH

India

The period extending from 1625 to 1660 is generally described as “The age of Milton” in English Literary History. The age of Milton is filled with the political and religious strife of the reign of, Charles I (1603-1624) and the triumph of Puritanism. After a stormy period of civil war, it emerged victorious with the triumph of Oliver Cromwell, and during a few years (1649-1660) it remained supreme. Understanding John Milton is more difficult than understanding any other English writer because, Milton drew his materials and formed his style much more self-consciously than the others, from the Classics and The Holy Bible.  Milton’s “Paradise Lost” is one of the greatest epic poems in English Literature. Indeed with its sublime imagery, its harmonious verse, its Titanic background of Heaven and Hell. It is a colossal epic, not of a man or a hero but of the whole race of man. The splendours of Heaven, horrors of hell, serene beauty of paradise, the sun and planets suspended between celestial light and gross darkness, are described in such a way that ultimately in our imagination it ends up seeming like superhuman. The poem is full of interesting polarities on different levels, between Christ and Satan; darkness and light; order and disorder; chaos and creation; but the beauty of poem is that it can with ease, shift  from one level to the other.

Paradise Lost is the product of the Puritan’s prolonged meditations on the Bible. It paints the visions which the Bible has given him. He lets nothing intervene between the Bible and himself. He allows himself complete liberty in interpreting it. But he puts his entire faith in it. He accepts the whole of biblical history as genuine and sacred. But he retells it as one who bears all the burden of contemporary knowledge, whose personality is intense and self-centred, and who has little dramatic sense. He projects himself, his feelings, knowledge, and aspirations into the characters of his epic, both the primitive human creatures and the super-human begins, whether belonging to heaven or hell. The picture of Eden has been derided as too much like an English park. But Milton has diffused the richest poetry over his ideal garden, without letting his descriptions fade to vagueness. About his lawns and groves, he has caused to revolve a sun and stars in their earliest perfect splendour. He drew accurately but his total effects are nonetheless great and splendid. His paradise remains one of the beautiful dreams of the men who have been in love with nature. The Bible supplied him with the elements of the drama depicted in the poem. It is the eternal drama of conscience, man hesitating between good and evil exposed to temptation and prone to fall. From his own experience in life, Milton had come to the conclusion that the danger to a man’s soul lay in woman; a danger which has great in proportion of his capacity for love. To him women was man’s inferior, an imperfect creature, dangerous if she were not kept in check. His view was supported by his memories as by the story of Eve. His Eve is charming and capricious, coquettish and wayward, incapable of sound reasoning and an easy prey to sophistry. Man’s duty is not to humble himself before her, but to feel and proclaim himself master. Adam’s crime consists in his chivalrous behaviour on the day on which he sinned in order that he might share the punishment of his guilty wife. Milton’s God, considered purely as a literary character, and is unfortunately tinged with the narrow and literal theology of the time. He is being enormously egoistic, the despot rather than the servant of the universe seated upon a throne with a chorus of angels about him eternally singing his praises and gratifying a kind of divine vanity. It is not necessary to imagine heaven for such a character; the type is too common upon earth. But in Satan, Milton breaks away from the crude medieval conceptions. Here he follows the dream again, and gives us a character to admire and understand (Book I, Lines 250-263).

John Milton sets up a hierarchical relationship between Adam and Eve in the parallel recollections of their creation. Eve occupies the lower position in the hierarchy. The recollections of their nativities foreshadow the fall of man by setting up a conflict between them, and Milton uses the scenes to demonstrate Adam and Eve's superior/inferior relationship which leads to the fall of man. Of all the characters in “Paradise Lost” Eve, is perhaps, even more than Satan, the most interesting and developed character of Milton. She has no direct contact with the supreme power that is God. Milton by showing her born out of the ribs of Adam gives an initial impression to every reader of Adam’s superiority and Eve’s inferiority. Eve was also send their in the Garden of Eden just to give Adam a company and a helping hand which highly points Eve as a mere object of entertainment. She is also shown as physically and morally weak and the only trait which she has is of her ideal beauty. Although during the course of the epic her character gradually develops but that too is a mode of showing a comparison of where she earlier stood and where she now stand. Milton’s presentation of Eve in Book IV may not be liked by the reader of the present age and by the feminist who might take umbrage at the distinction Milton makes between the two sexes when he says

“…Though both

Not equal, as their sex not equal seemed;

For contemplation he and valor formed,

For softness she and sweet attractive grace,

He for God only, she for God in him:”

                                                                                      (Book IV, Lines 295-99)
Eve in the above lines is clearly been shown in such a light that she is not equal to Adam who carries all the “valor” and “contemplation”. Hence, Eve is shown only as “soft” who cannot handle much harshness, “sweet” and with “attractive grace”. Milton shows her having a little rational mind which is able to form questions and which is able to relate things or remember them but is yet unable to find the answers for them. Adam's ability to reason is superior to that of Eve. His ability to question, formulate a hypothesis and to ask questions demonstrate his fully formed abilities at the moment of his creation. Eve does not have these abilities. She can have the feeling or sensation of a question, and she can act, or react, to what she senses, but she can reach no conclusions, and her observations are made passively. Eve is only created as an adult but her mind is of that an infant unlike Adam who has all the “contemplation” and “valor”. Furthermore, any knowledge about God, the almighty, is given by Adam to Eve. Adam feels incomplete before Eve comes into being, and since he pines for companionship, the reader can infer that the qualities he sees in himself are not sufficient to stand alone. Adam is given not only superior ability to reason, but he is given a "head start" on Eve, since he exists for some time before her. It is important to note that during the time before Eve is created, Adam is conversing with God, and he is given insight into his own existence. This is knowledge gained through experience, which is different than the knowledge given to him by God. Adam has a chance to grow and mature before Eve is created. Adam's first thoughts were to question his existence, and to seek God, but Eve was never given the opportunity to discover God for herself, rather she was given the opportunity to discover Adam, and then God through Adam. Adam is supposed to serve God whole-heartedly on the other hand Eve is made to serve God as well as Adam. Eve being less intellectual and rational than Adam is attracted towards him for his attributes whereas on the Other hand Adam who is much more capable and mature than Eve was alone before she was born and needed someone not equal to him but with different attributes and this made God gave Adam exactly what he needed in the form of Eve who was inferior to him with less intellectuality and rationality, which made her all the more attractive. So, we can say that the superior/inferior nature of the two “most favoured creatures” have made them attracted towards each other. Moreover, these attributes are things which Adam lacks, and therefore seeks in his mate.

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