Analysis Of Adam And Eve In John Milton's Paradise Lost

Milton’s God’s design flaw in creating inequality and division between Adam and Eve set the stage for the Fall of Mankind to occur. Arguably, perhaps Satan was not even needed as mankind was intended to fall from the beginning. In John Milton’s Paradise Lost, the predicament of Adam and Eve was a Catch-22 from the get-go, as sin was present in the Garden before Adam and Eve even eat from the Tree; even before Satan planted his dream inside of Eve’s mind. In this paper, I will attempt to refute the gender argument that Adam was at greater fault for the events that transpired by reasoning that the Paradise that was lost was never there in the first place, by showing that Sin had already existed in Adam and Eve since both of their creations. To begin explaining why this theory is not the truth of the text, let us begin with said theory. Gender Studies and Feminist critics have rhetorically argued for the culpability of the disobedience to God belonging more so to Adam than Eve. Scholar Rachel Russo argues that because Adam and Eve are clearly not created as equals, and Adam distinctly treats Eve as his inferior prior to their transgression [...] it is apparent that

In any case, both implications work in conjunction as it reveals Eve’s first inherent sin --adoration, or, realization of her “self”, rather than of her creator(s). God even explains it for her, that “What there thou seest Fair creature is thyself...”(4.468), while attempting to pair her to Adam. In response, she turns her back on her creators, a vain and defiant attempt to return to the water, as Adam seizes her hand. Eve admits, “How beauty is excelld by manly grace/ And wisdom, which alone is truly fair” (4.491), indicating that the previous usage of “faire,” describing Eve, is to some degree lesser than “truly fair,” which is ascribed to Adam’s