Eve the Non-Girl Boss // Haylee Lynd

      I simply detest Milton's depiction of Eve. I actually get kind of angry reading of her vanity and her weaknesses. They are so greatly highlighted, while Adams's weaknesses are highlighted much less. Milton makes Eve appear so much lesser, especially as he highlights Plato's divided line. 

    Plato's divided line is a way to visualize the distinction between different states of mind and to understand which states of mind are more reliable than others. Plato distinguishes between a visible world and an intelligible world. The visible world is perceived by our senses; it is less reliable. In contrast, we are able to take place in the intelligible world because of our ability to reason. It includes things like the forms. That which is in the intelligible world is best. 

      In Milton's Paradise Lost, God would be in the intelligible world. He would be the ultimate good. He would be the best. Thus, the further one delineates from God, the less perfect they are. Milton goes through three characters before Eve is created. Obviously, the first is God. Then, arguably, Milton claims that God created Jesus. Then, in Milton's depiction, Jesus is the one who manifests creation. Thus, Jesus creates Adam, and then, Eve is created from the rib of Adam. Milton makes it so that Eve is delineated the farthest from God.

     Then, he makes it so that Eve does not want to listen to Raphael, but only Adam because Adam "...would intermix / Grateful digressions and solve high dispute / With conjugal caresses (from his lip / Not words alone pleased her)..." (VIII. 54-67). She is vain and does not have the same affinity for knowledge which Adam has, and it really bothers me that Milton presents the only female character in this way (other than Sin, who is also a very negatively represented character).  I am very thankful that  modern views of women are very very very different than they were in Milton's time because I, as well as many other girls, are incredible scholars and leaders. Milton might would hate that though.


P.S. I commented on Braylan's and Isabelle's posts.

Comments

  1. Emma LandrySeptember 20, 2021 at 10:32 PM

    You totally summed up my opinion of how Eve is treated in Milton's writing. It is shameful how entirely unashamed he is of his total disdain for this significant female figure. It is implied over and over again by the lengthy descriptions of her physical beauty that outward appearance is all that she and other women are worth. I was a bit irked by the passage in which she becomes quickly disinterested in listening to what Raphael has to say and begins tending to the garden, a stereotypical female activity. A thirst for knowledge is entirely absent in her, save but what comes from her husband's lips. -Emma Landry

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Emma LandrySeptember 20, 2021 at 10:36 PM

      I forgot to mention this in my original comment, but the part that pains me the most is that it is made clear that Eve was capable of understanding the discourse but simply chose to ignore Raphael's response to Adam's questions! -Emma Landry

      Delete
  2. Emma DSeptember 20, 2021 at 10:33 PM

    I totally agree with this - Eve's complete disinterest with knowledge was something that rather infuriated me! Don't you find it strange that Eve is vain and (potentially) self-absorbed even before the fall? I don't understand this at all, because technically Eve's temptation to practice self-worship (stopped by God's voice in an earlier book I believe) is a potential sin. I completely disagree with Eve's disinterest of the heavenly things, because it seems to suggest she doesn't have the same kind of soul as Adam (in the sense that all souls search for God in some way). She shouldn't be seeking for God in Adam... it just doesn't seem like a very accurate picture of women in general, much less someone who had the opportunity to walk with God in the garden! -Emma D

    ReplyDelete
  3. Emily ThullesenSeptember 20, 2021 at 11:00 PM

    I loved the way you included Plato’s divided line with this example. It’s definitely a great representation of what we perceive versus what reality truly is in a situation. I definitely disagree with the way Milton characterized Eve as well. I find it annoying but slightly amusing how stereotypical his image of Eve was related to the common women - only having worth in outward appearance and lacking depth of knowledge.
    Emily T

    ReplyDelete
  4. Samantha TSeptember 21, 2021 at 9:50 AM

    Haylee you captured part of the reason I’m starting to have a bone to pick with Milton and this work. His depictions of Adam and Eve are so far from the original text that it bothers me so much.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A House Divided//Emily Otts

The words Jesus spoke in Matthew 12 remind me so much of this play: "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand." (Matthew 12:25) King Lear, at the end of the day, is about a family being divided multiple ways. These divisions arise over greed and hatred for one another and cause the whole family to be ruined because of it. King Lear first divides the kingdom after his daughter Cordelia does not proclaim her love to him, so he banishes her. Later, his daughters go against him for not doing as they asked, believing he is unfit and unworthy to be king, secretly plotting against him. But all of this comes to a head in Act 5. After capturing King Lear and Cordelia, Edmund plans to have them killed. You would believe the sisters would be able to work together because their plan is working, but an even greater division has risen between them. Both of them wish to have Edmund for themselves, and they plot against each o...
Read more

The Plague in Everyone// Emily Otts

     In part 4 of the Plague , Tarrou tells Rieux about how he has had the plague forever. Except, this is not the same plague as the one ravaging the town. Tarrou speaks of how his father was a lawyer who believed in the death penalty, how he saw so many people support it and be comfortable about it, and how he had to witness the executions of prisoners. He explains how this sort of mindset is a plague itself, one Tarrou had been fighting for a long time. " That's why everybody in the world looks so tired; everyone is more or less sick of plague. But that is also why some of us, those who want to get the plague out of their systems, feel such desperate weariness, a weariness from which nothing remains to set us free except death" (Camus, part 4, chapter 6). Tarrou wants to desperately not submit to such awful ways of thinking.      Tarrou does not realize it, but the plague he is talking about is sin. Everyone has it, some people give in to it and let...
Read more

The Thirst for Knowledge

     With Book Seven of Milton's Paradise Lost, Raphael is continuing his exposition on Satan's apostasy. The plan is to expose Adam and Eve to the wretched fate of those who cross God's will. The more he shed's light on the subject, however, the more Adam is inclined to ask for more information. He wants to know everything about the subject, as well as God and His creation.      However, while the taste of such knowledge leaves Adam yearning for more, there are boundaries. It is like a toddler eating a cookie... and eventually begging her mother for the rest of the jar. Is it a coincidence that the one thing Adam and Eve are not to touch is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil? Most readers know how the story ends: these toddlers are never going to be content with a few cookies. They're going in for the jar.   There is a statement in the Bible that is constantly being repeated throughout the Old Testament: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of ...
Read more