Paradise Lost Inequality

Amber Frost

April 15th 2016

Comp 102

Alicia Tomasian

The Inequality That Caused the Fall In John Milton’s epic poem, Paradise Lost, Milton’s greatest interest is found in the mirage between Adam and Eve. Thorough the poem, he portrays the two as unequal with Eve being below Adam on many fronts. She is just his companion and nothing more. The roll of woman and men in John Milton’s Paradise Lost is anything but equal and ultimately caused the fall of man. Before we discover how this separation caused the fall, we must first look at the inequality itself and the reasoning behind it. There are many reasons Milton could have portrayed Eve as inferior; one reason being the authority of scripture in early modern Europe that acted as the moral

With the death his mother (or “parent”), Sarah Jeffery in 1611 when John was only 3 years old, the death of his first wife in child birth and the death of his second wife only 6 years later, Milton’s relationship with woman seemed somewhat cursed. When he did find a woman to marry, his daughters from his first marriage were infuriated. Some critics say they may have even retaliated by disposing of his books. Milton never had a good relationship with women in his life which could have led him to see all women as inferior, which in turn came about in his writing. We can see the inferiority of Eve yet again in Book 8 when Eve chooses to leave Raphael and Adam’s conversation to tend to the Garden (Milton 8.39-46). Her absence suggests that women are either uninterested or mentally-incapable of intellectual conversations. However, it is ironic that Adam questioned Raphael about the conditions of the sky and heavens; almost the same exact question that Eve posed in Book 4. Instead of being honest with Eve, Adam decided he needed to keep up his superiority and pretend he possesses superior answers about the universe. This just further implies that Adam believes Eve’s intellectual capabilities are inferior to his own. After Eve leaves Adam and Raphael alone, Adam blatantly states his feelings of superiority to Eve saying, “All higher knowledge in her presence falls / Degraded. Wisdom in discourse with her / Loses discount’nanced and life folly shows” (Milton 8.551-53). Not only does Adam see himself as superior, he informs an angel that Eve is intellectually incapable and puts himself on a