The Curious Case of the Woman in Milton’s “Paradise Lost”

John Milton’s epic literary work, “Paradise Lost” is a fictionalized tale of the Fall of Man.  The Fall of Man is one of the main stories told by Christians in order to understand the state of mankind.  Anna Gurley writes, “The world over, myths capture our imaginations. They embody and codify the religious, philosophical, and cultural values of a civilization, and few myths have had as profound and enduring an impact on the Western worldview as the Judeo-Christian myth of the Fall” (Gurley 1).  This story, as told by Milton, is how we learn of Eve and her plight as it relates to the Fall of Man.  Eve has consistently been blamed for the Fall of Man.  In Milton’s retailing of this story, Eve is shown in a chauvinistic view as an immoral woman, who caused Adam to sin and Paradise to be lost.  Milton’s Eve is a repressed woman who has a number of negative qualities that lead her down a destructive path.  After the Fall, her personality traits are solidified as the ultimate view of women in an undesirable light.

Throughout Christianity, women have been viewed in a negative light.  In the Bible, they have been viewed as the weaker being that needed to keep quiet, obey their husbands, serve their husband and children, and that could be considered nothing more than property.  When women did assert themselves in the Bible, it was for the advancement of man or mankind or to get a husband.  Eve is the mother of all mankind and therefore is the original image of a woman.  According to Milton and others, she is the reason women act like they act.

Milton’s Eve is created from a male point of view.  Johnathan Whitfield writes “The language, the imagery, the religious claims—all conjured in a male mind” (Whitfield 57).  The view of Eve that Milton presents is one that feeds into the theory of Eve being the cause of sin in the world.  “The belief that women were the reason for the perdition of mankind, as suggested by Genesis, was a main ethical-theological view of Milton’s age” (Erickson 156).  Milton’s gender bias telling of the Fall of Man creates a curious case for the woman in the tale as well as women in general.  This case has led to women being repressed, misjudged, and subjugated the world over.

From the beginning of her introduction in Book IV of “Paradise Lost,” Eve is seen as less than the man.  The first time the reader hears Eve speaks, she is stating her inferiority to man.  She says, “O thou for whom/And from whom I was formd flesh of thy flesh/And without whom and to no end, my Guide/And Head what thou has said is just and right” (Milton 1801).  She states that she was created from Adam, which was true, but then she says that he is her only reason for being in the world and that he is her leader.  She suggests that she was placed on Earth only for Adam’s pleasure and to serve him.  In Milton’s tale, the mother of all mankind teaches all women their lot in life with her first words.  “Milton’s elaboration of the story of Genesis brings attention to the topic of female subjugation and creates a view of women that has an unmistakably inherent male bias” (Whitfield 57).  The woman does not stand a chance in this story.

Eve speaks negatively about herself throughout the whole tale.  She says that men are greater than women and that women are not equal company for men.  After she is created, she needs a male figure, God, to tell her who she is, and then He has to be led to another man, who will lead and direct her throughout life.  “Hers [Eve] is a man’s world, a world fashioned for men by a father-figure type God—a great ladder of patriarchy.  She recognizes her secondary status, her inferiority to Adam, her duty to look to him as her “Guide and Head” ” (58).  The woman is told by God that she is subservient to men and that she needs to be led by men.  Milton reminds women of this in his tale.

Milton does list one positive quality in Eve, her beauty.  He writes “…there I had fixt/Mine eyes till now, and pin’d with vain desire,/Had not a voice thus warn’d me, What thou seest,/What there thou seest fair Creature is thyself” (Milton1802).  She is beautiful.  She is worthy to be looked at and admired for her beauty.  Her beauty brings Adam great joy.  Her beauty almost causes Satan to abandon his scheme to corrupt her.  Eve is not praised for any of other attributes by Adam or Milton.  Eve does have other qualities that are worthy to be praised.  In her article, “The Ethics of Gender in Milton’s Paradise Lost,” Sandra Erickson quotes John A. Phillips, stating that the good qualities of Eve are what ultimately cause her downfall.

“John A. Phillips (36) says of Milton’s Eve: “Every account of the lovliness, grace, intelligence, and perfection…serves but to set the stage for her undoing.  That which makes her a female is what will enable the serpent to bring her down, or enables her to induce a righteous man to join her in her sin” (Erickson 158).

As Eve is scrutinized more in Book IX, more of her harmful qualities are shown.  She is lazy and will get into trouble if she is left alone without a man to protect her.  She is vain, full of herself, and is only focused on her own beauty.  She is emotional, will not listen, knows everything, needs man’s permission to operate, and is naïve.  Milton shows more of Eve’s brazen qualities as she deals with the serpent.  She will believe lies easily, wants to know everything, wants to be smarter than man, is a liar, is conniving, and wants to be superior to man.  “The implication is that Eve is not a modest, honest wife, satisfied with the love and admiration of her husband, but a brazen hussy seeking admirers” (159).

After she eats the forbidden fruit, Eve is seen as evil, portraying some of the worst qualities in women.  She is full of excuses, guilty of wrong, ruined, and lost.  She wants to bring men down and get them into trouble.  She is gullible, easily led astray, and will listen to any smooth talking man that speaks to her.  She does not listen to sound judgment.  She is defensive, argumentative, and ungrateful.  She refuses to accept blame for any of her actions and lays the blame on others.  In the end, she will always make a mess of things.  “Milton’s views on women reaffirm “the paternalistic ethos of Judeo-Christian tradition” (LEWALSKI 4); he perpetuates, through the mythopoetic process, the ethical-theological view of women” (Erickson 169).

Milton suggests that women act the way they do for a reason.  Eve who was the original mother and woman set women on a course of destruction when she sinned in Paradise that would lead to them being evil.  Sandra Erickson sums up Milton’s Eve completely.

“It is our belief that Milton’s Eve is not only unattractive, but quite ugly, the perfect portrait of a fatal woman.  She displays no signs of spirituality.  She is the stereotype of the woman which men have always seen with him or under his influence.  She is the vehicle through which Adam meets evil…She is the bad wife, the self-centered, malignant woman, an Antichrist of a witch” (169-170).

Works Cited

Erickson, Sandra S. "The Ethics of Gender in Milton's Paradise Lost." Principios V. 6 (1998): 155-70. Web. 19 Feb. 2014. <http://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=2564928>.

Gurley, Anna. "Chaos and Dust: The Origins of Evil in Milton's Paradise Lost and Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy." Philological Review 1st ser. 35.2 (2009): 1-11. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.

Milton, John. "Paradise Lost Book IV." The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Vol. 1B. New York: Longman, 2010. 1791-814. Print.

Milton, John. "Paradise Lost Book IX." The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Vol. 1B. New York: Longman, 2010.1886-1913. Print.

Whitfield, Jonathan “Leviathan”. "The Invisible Woman: Eve's Self Image in Paradise Lost." Oshkosh Scholar Volume II, April 2007 (2007): 57-61. Web. 19 Feb. 2014. <http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/22339 >.