Paradise Lost: A comparison of Eve
...share with me in bliss or woe. So dear I love him, that with him all deaths I could endure, without him live no life. (PL 826-833) Eve decides to share the fruit with Adam, not because she felt his life would be better with the fruit, or purely for her love for him, but if she is going to get punished for this act, then he should too. She cannot stand the thought of him living with some other woman if God decides to kill her. Eve refuses to admit to herself that her actions are motivated by fear of punishment and jealousy. She hides this even from herself, choosing instead to believe that she is going to share out of love. There is no harm done in just listening to the serpent; the definitive moment in this book comes when Eve actually takes and eats the fruit. That is when all of mankind was doomed, and the entire natural world with it. So saying, her rash hand in evil hour Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she eat. Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat Sighing through all her works gave signs of woe, That all was lost (PL 780-784) When Milton writes, “Earth felt the wound,” nature itself knows what trouble is loosed, and yet nature does not condemn, she only knows the difference and mourns the loss. The difference can be seen in Adam and Eve as well. After the fruit is eaten, Milton gives the first argument between Adam and Eve found in Paradise Lost. Each is blaming the other for the fall, while neither accepts any blame themselves. Adam Says to Eve: “I also erred in overmuch admiring what seemed in thee so perfect.” (PL 1178-1179) Here Adam is talking about Eve’s physical beauty, which he trusted would keep her safe. It doesn’t appear that Adam has any respect for Eve as a rational thinker; while her reasoning may have been sound, she did not have the wit to see the lies that her reasoning was based upon. That is what got her into trouble. Milton seems to be pointing out that rational thinking, while good, is not enough to keep people safe, because the intellect can be mislead. He seems to advocate rational thinking only where faith and obedience to God back it up. If Eve had been obedient first, and then rational, she would have never eaten the fruit, and, consequently, avoided a world of trouble. Based on Eve’s conversation with Satan, Milton seems to present Eve as a rational creature who should take the blame for her decisions. Yet Milton also uses this story to point out the problems with relying completely on rational thinking. Historically, this point in time saw great advances in math and sciences. Milton is making a statement that rational thinking needs to be based on faith, to avoid the consequences that Adam and Eve faced. Amelia Lanyer, in her poem, “Eve’s Apology in Defense of Women,” attempts to exonerate Eve/women for man’s fall on the basis of her/their inferiority. The argument used is that God created women without the capacity for higher thought, so Eve cannot be blamed for her poor judgment. Pilate had the Jesus put to death against the advice of his wife; he killed the Son of God. Compared to that, woman’s sin of eating the fruit and sharing it with Adam seems paltry. “Till now your indiscretion sets us free, And makes our former fault much less appear;” (17-18) Eve did what she did because she was deceived by the serpent, but Adam had choice and should have refused the fruit. “But surely Adam can not be excused; her fault though great, yet he was most to blame; what Weakness offered, Strength might have refused” (33-35). Lanyer is saying that Adam, no matter what mistakes Eve made, should have been strong enough to refuse to eat the fruit. While Eve took the fruit for knowledge, Adam ate it because it looked good. The argument is that Adam is more at fault because he never questioned eating the fruit Eve gave him, he simply ate it. Eve, however, had to be tricked into eating the ...