Eve's Faulty Advice in John Milton's Paradise Lost

As an advice giver, Milton's Eve suggests to her husband the idea of working alone:

"advise or hear what to my mind first thoughts presents: let us divide our labors" (440).

This piece of advice counters Adam's initial insistence, in which he claims that although, "nothing lovelier can be found/In woman, than to study household good," it would be better for Eve to remain by his side for God has "warned" them of the "malicious foe [Satan]/envying their happiness...seeks to work [them] woe and shame/by sly assault" (441). While Eve asserts her independence here, Adam's thoughts suggest that an "unprotected flower" like Eve requires a patriarchal figure-here being, Adam "the patriarch of mankind"-since she does not have the intellectual capacity to recognize Satan's deception (445). Although Adam eventually yields to Eve's advice, the events that occur after carrying out her advice-in which Eve convinces Adam to sin with her by eating the forbidden fruit-asserts female inferiority in that the race of humankind will forever live in "Sin and her shadow, Death," and be banished from "Paradise" because of the words of a woman and the effect they had on a man (433). Milton's subtext, thus, assumes the female role works best when it's dependent on a patriarch and works terminally when it's allowed to speak and be heard.

Just as Milton's Eve utters the words that lead to "The Fall," she also accepts words or advice from the Serpent, which also paves way for the story's tragic ending. When Adam and Eve depart, the Serpent finds Eve "alone, the woman...her husband...[who has] higher intellectual" isn't near"; the serpent deceives her through his rhetoric, suggesting that the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge has allowed him to speak like a man and thus will make her similar to a divinity-"Knowing both good and evil as they know./That ye shall be as gods, since I as man...Goddesse Huamane, reach then, and freely taste." (450, 455). By following the Serpent's advice and going against her better judgment-doing "what God expressly hath forbade"-Milton strips the character Eve of any intellectual strength (444). Milton, rather, reinforces the idea that man is forced to live in sin due to the actions of a woman, who in turn represents all women. Here Milton's subtext implies that the female role lacks the level of strength that a patriarchal role consists of and is most dangerous when it desires knowledge. Milton also strips Eve of intellectual equality. The Serpent diffuses his advice on her because she stands as the weaker species of man. Milton's Eve, furthermore, has no definition of what is good and what is evil, but her yearning for knowledge ultimately banishes mankind from heaven on earth.

The advice implemented and given by Milton's Eve ultimately serves to support the assumption that women are not as intellectual or capable as opposed to their male counterparts. Milton implies that advice produced by a woman is as inadequate as the advice that is carried out by a woman. Although Milton emphasizes advice and gender politics in Book IX, the bulk of Paradise Lost consists of advice influenced by religion. Advice, although often exchanged between two parties, consists of several external parties. With Milton's epic poem, we may consider not only how men and women behave, but how the role of religion advises human beings to behave.

Bush, Douglas ed. The Portable Milton. New York: The Viking Press, 1961.