Milton's "Paradise Lost": The Origin of Woman's Repression

Throughout history women have felt the weight of repression for as long as people can remember. To understand why women would be treated less equal than men, one must look far into the past at the foundations at our society's culture. Christianity plays a significant role in the majority of Americans and Europeans lives and greatly influences how numerous numbers of people maintain their lives and uphold their beliefs. To understand the views that many men have about women, the traditional values that are in the Bible and religious literature should be called into question. In Milton's epic, Paradise Lost, Eve represents women in general and begins the history of how women are meant to live their lives in the Christian belief system. For many women in the world, this will be a major problem that leads to the repression of women that has been evident in the past and is constantly witnessed in the present.

In Milton's epic, Paradise Lost, Eve was already the human embodiment of evil before the fall of man. Jeanie Grant Moore notes that since Christian antiquity, the image of Eve has been distorted (Moore 1). By Milton's time, the stereotypical view that Eve was evil and a foul temptress was the common belief of many Christians. The negative attitude towards Eve was also affecting how women should be viewed because they are all considered the descendants of Eve, if one is to believe in Christian history. Though Milton's text does not relieve Eve of all of the blame for causing the downfall of man, Milton still makes an attempt at reasoning with Eve and her fatal decision. When reading Paradise Lost in the present, one must realize that Milton was basically trapped within the story of Adam and Eve, which is derived from the book of Genesis in the Bible. Milton would have been surrounded by a culture that was fixated to the myth of Eve that was surrounding the Christian culture. If one looks at Milton in this aspect, he can be considered very brave at attempting to provide explanations for Eve's first sin, especially since he was living in a society that could have violently reacted to such a proclamation. Nevertheless, it is still Eve in Paradise Lost that causes the downfall of man and continued to uphold the ideal that women are less than men are.

Throughout Paradise Lost, Eve is portrayed as weaker, less intelligent, seductive, and easier to fall into temptation. The only attribute that Eve has that is greater than any of Adam's characteristics is Eve's beauty. Eve's beauty is described by Adam:' "Manlike, but different sex, so lovely fair" ' (Milton Book 8, ln. 471). It is in this fashion that Eve is constantly described by Adam throughout Paradise Lost. It is very rare to witness Adam praising Eve's intelligence or any other trait that is not physical. In some ways, Milton is saying that the only praise women are worthy of is that of their own beauty. Beauty also is something that one is born with and therefore it is truly just another way of praising God, leaving a woman with no praise that she can say she worked for and earned on her own account.

Eve is presented numerous times in a servile manner to Adam and God. Though God has good reasoning for demanding servitude (he gave Eve life) Adam really has no other reason than what he deems appropriate behavior. The servant-like appearance of Eve is displayed when Adam and Eve are having their supper and the angel comes to visit them: 'Meanwhile at table Eve Ministered naked' (Milton Book 5, ln. 443-444). It is Eve who is serving everyone and not even a mention of help being offered is evident in the text. This is a subtle scene with a servile portrayal of women, but it still is a significant reference to the actions of a wife. Eve setting the table and serving the guests is likely one of the basis for women of Milton's present to be seen in the same fashion; a woman's job is to serve the men and take care of the domestic activities. Of course Milton would have been living at a time when it was common for women to be presented in the home, but still he did not have to choose to have Eve acting in the same way as the women of his era behaved.

One of the most significant ways to study the behavior and reasons for Eve's actions would be to look at her creation. Eve was created for a man, by a man: ' "O thou for whom and from whom I was formed flesh of thy flesh" ' (Milton Book 4, ln. 440-441). Eve states that she was made by a man and for a man, thus denoting her place in the world as nothing more significant as that one fact. This seems to be the most blatant statement of how women should be portrayed; the only reason women were put on this earth were to please a man's needs so he won't feel lonely.

Other than serving Adam and being the mother of all, Eve seems to have no other purpose in paradise. Adam is the one who is always finding out the necessary information from God and his messengers, leaving Eve to completely rely on Adam for any important information in her life. When Eve is born, Adam dictates to Eve what her day will be like, leaving her no say in the matter: ' "With first approach of light, we must be ris'n, and at our pleasant labor, to reform flow'ry arbors, yonder alleys green, our walk at noon" ' (Milton Book 4, ln. 624-627). Though some of this daily procedure may have been demanded of Adam by God, the reader can pick up the sense that Adam has some control over the day's routine by the one phrase "our walk at noon" (Milton Book 4, ln. 627). There is the promotion that a woman's day will be dictated by her husband and that she is expected to obey it because it is also the will of God. It would be tough to imagine a society of women who have been repressed for so long with the ability to question their religion without being scorned for it. At Milton's time women must have felt this way, but also powerless to do anything because their own beliefs in Christianity tell them that thinking against the Bible and the religious belief system would be evil.

The greatest repressive tone of women comes at the time when Eve takes the bite of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge and leads the way to the downfall of humankind and exile from paradise. Maria Magro notes that though Eve is still portrayed as the first sinner at the surface level of the story in Paradise Lost and that precautions could have taken place that may have dramatically saved mankind. It is with this reasoning that it may actually be a man who is the true cause of humankind's downfall, not Eve who has always assumed that responsibility (Magro 98). Adam allows Eve to wander off and do something of her own freethinking by leaving his side while Satan may be near. This scenario seems to be emphasizing that when a woman does something of her own free will and personal desire, the result will end in dire consequences.

Throughout Paradise Lost many people will see Eve in a negative way, but in the end Eve is strong in her lovingness, emotion, and forbearance. Although we must read the fall as a sin, Eve seems to benefit from it, becoming sadder but wiser and more mature. It is at this time that the weakness of a man is displayed in direct fashion because Adam becomes weak and angry, and it is Eve who musters the strength to defy Satan and salvage her relationship with Adam. If only this positive view of women would have taken place centuries before, women would not have had to suffer because of the negligence of men. Works Cited

Magro, Maria. "Milton's Sexualized Woman and the Creation of a Gendered Public Sphere" Milton Quarterly 35 (May 2001) : 98 - 113

Milton, John. Paradise Lost. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 7^th Edition M.H. Abrams. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2001

Moore, Jeanie Grant. "The Two Faces of Eve: Temptation Scenes in Comus and ParadiseLost" Milton Quarterly 36 (March 2002) : 1 - 19