Another Kind of Pronoun Confusion

    Ever since the Fall, Eve and her female progeny have been left with the stigma of  unreliability because of their apparent ease of being deceived. Even the Apostle Paul backs up his inspired claim towards the role of women in the church in 1 Timothy 2:14 with a reference to Eve's deception... and even as Milton unfolds the results of Man's fall from glory in book ten of Paradise Lost, readers see a subtle finger of responsibility pointed squarely at Eve. 

    Or is it? 

    Lines 46 and 47 describe the the fall in God's words (according to Milton): 
His free will, to her own inclining left

In even scale. But fallen he is.... 

     Obviously, Milton shows that God, at least the God represented in the text, does not believe that Eve alone was responsible. Both were responsible "in even scale". The writer is only keeping his pronouns for "Man" as he/him, because that's the way it was originally worded throughout the Bible, not because Adam was more or less responsible or important than Eve. 

     Nevertheless, notice that Milton does change his pronouns once in the exposé. "To her own inclining left". Would Adam have been deceived as easily? Would he have stayed to take with the mysterious talking serpent? Readers don't know, but it is safe to say that regardless of what could have happened, Eve was the one who was deceived and the one who gave into her own desires and inclinations. A poor thing to be remembered for. And pass on to posterity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

      


    

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