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Name: - Gohel
Ankita Kishobhai
Roll no:- 14
Paper Name: - The
Renaissance Literature
Topic: - Argumentative Nature
of paradise lost
book- 9 Submitted: - smt. Gardi m.k
Bhavanagar, Department of
English
Year: - 2015-2017
Introduction :-
Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost is
published in ten books in 1667 and enlarged into twelve books in 1674. The
story of the Fall of Man is known to many people not so much through the Bible
as through John Milton's Paradise Lost. Milton's epic presents a version
of Genesis that has become part of biblical lore, to the extent that many
Christians who have never read the work nonetheless base their understanding of
the Creation and the fall on Milton's additions and elaborations. The poem's
tremendous influence aside, the sheer breadth of Milton's undertaking and the
unparalleled beauty of his verse have made Paradise Lost one of the most
significant works in the English literary canon, and poets from his own era to
the present have cited Milton as a major influence.
Argument
of paradise
lost :-
eve becomes
more than
just the mother of mankind and Adam’s wife of “ Paradise
lost ’’In the bible , Eve is a
wife of Adam who eats
from the forbidden tree.she shall
be a women because she is taken out
of a man.
Milton represent Eve
as a complex women. .she is no longer merely
the women who fall the pray to Satan’s
seduction in the bible. Here
Critics support this image of dynamic Eve by saying ‘ Despite the fact’ that
the Milton was
constrained by hierarchical
culture assumption the
women and marriage , his Eve is in some respect an emergent
female figure in ‘
the seventeenth century’. Eve character in Paradise lost
suprasses that of of Eve’s
character in the story of
Genesis.she has independent , intelligent character
not mentioned in Genesis.
we read
the dialogue of Eve we see the
character of Eve is
also Adam’s equal.when God molds Eve
out of Adam’s rib, God
say Adam ‘ And they shall
be one flesh, one heart , one soul’. This lines
suggest that Eve is not inferiorer to Adam upon creation,
she is
actually equal to him
for she is made from the same flesh
as he. They are ‘one heart, one
soul ‘. Love as Adam seems to say, unifies both the people involved. Edam and Eve
appear of equal intelligence. Milton maintains
that she is capable understanding and adam
compared she is ‘ inferior
in the mind / and inward faculties’.
they are
not actually equal, The
perception of equality is a
false veneer in which superiority and
dominion over Eve hide. A
female result from a fact that ‘The women is a female to
extent that she feel
herself as such’. The women has
make herself adapt to the norms
of femininity to be
female, as suggested by Adam as obedient and submissive.Indeed, Beauvoir states,
‘one is not born but
rather become ,a women. No biological , psychological or economic
fate determines the
figure that the
human female present in society, it is
civilization as a whole that products
this creature, intermediate between
male and eunuch’. A women is not a
concrete person within society, she is more or less created by society rather than
for society.
Milton creates an
illusion of equality rather than reality of equality. In the
same dialogue where
God says Adam and
eve are equal, he
also says about
adam ‘ His image who
made both and less expressing\
the character of that dominion
given / over other creature’ .
god assert in Genesis
Adam is dominion
over all the living
creatures.It says ,’ in sorrow
thou shalt bring forth
children; and thy desire
shall be
to thy husband, and he shall
rule over thee’. God, in telling
Eve of her duties, does not allow her to make
her own decision and actually
belittles her by saying
that her husband ‘ shall rule over thee’Adam and Eve engage
for most part in the labor and possess an identical
range of intellectual
curiosity and speak with the
same poetic authority. They are one
soul. Why then retain the language
of subordination. Adam and Eve
equality only works if she is
compliant to him all
the time and remains passive in
his presence.
The character of
Eve has a lack of
gender equality and
asserts her individuality
by separating from Adam
and she eating
apple for his
own benefit.Adam tells her
that she is unable
or unself without his
protection and push
her to exert her independence
anyway that she can and even it is
misguided and rush. when Eve
suggests that she
and Adam work separately but Adam rejects
the idea of
Eve. Adam is exerting
his position as a
protector and tells her
that she would be
safest nearest him. this is not only denies Eve her independence, bunt tells
Eve that she
is in need of
protecting. Adam tells Eve in book 9
when arguing about the separation ‘ for nothing lovelier can be found / in women than to study house
hold good / and good works in her
husband to promote’. Adam tries
to convince Eve that ‘ good works in her husband to promote’ is high
importance for a women
as well as ‘ to study household’.
Eve’s choice
to eat the
apple is strictly her own and take independent
decision not influenced by
Adam. Eve tells Satan
‘ The rest we live / law to ourselves and our reason is
our law’. Eve’s firm belief
that our
is our law justifies her
action as a uniquely hers
and not deemed
correct by Adam, god and
Satan. In bible Genesis
describes the seduction
of Eve as ‘and when the women
saw that the tree
was good for
food and that it
was pleasant to the eyes and
tree to be desired
to make wise , she
took of the
fruit there of, and did eat, and
gave also unto her
husband with her, and he
did eat’. Milton show Eve’s seduction
as a fight two
intelligence minds. Eve is
much more than foolish
and vane women
who resisted quickly
to temptation.Her vanity
alluded to in the text. it is
not accurate cause
for ‘ why she ate the apple’. Satan play
upon Eve’s desire for
individual distinction by
presenting the eating
of the apple as
a heroic deed by
which she snatch a great destiny for
herself and for mankind. here
Eve has a
personal quest to
make her own
decision.here does not appeal
to the ‘ pleasant to the
eyes ’ the fruit is like in
bible but it
is the desire to
find knowledge that
drives her. Her reasoning
for eating the apple
is that , [ god] Forbids us then taste , but his forbidding /commends thee more while it infers the good/by thee communicated and our want’.
Eve rationalizes her decision
in paradise lost .she wishes to acquire knowledge and it
is her ‘want’ that drives her to
believe that she was
making the right decisions says that ‘she was
not privileged with an
opportunity for self-
exploration or prompted to identify and express
the ‘spirit within her’Milton
assert that Eve rationalized her actions to
be based on what she earlier, ‘our reason is our law ’ .Satan appeals
to her vanity ‘ who shouldn’t be
seen/ a goddess among gods adored and served / by
angles numberless thy daily
train’when he appeals to
her individuality and agency. she
finally relents and eats the
apple.Eve is folly
in eating the apple
is both positive and negative for her ,
positive in the
fact that she
asserts her agency
in choosing to
eating it but the
negative because of the repercussions.
In
the final book of
paradise lost Eve
loses her independence and submits
to the
dominating patriarchal society.she
internalizes her supposed
inferiority to man.this is internalized
sexism seizes Eve, she takes
the blame for
the fall of
mankind ‘ who for my
willful crime art banished hence ’ she
and Adam ate the
forbidden tree.The Beauvoir suggest that
the tension Eve feels
about her identity as
a women and as
a female
result from the fact That
‘women has to make
herself adapt to norms of
femininity as suggested by
Adam as a
obedient and submissive and to
be female.Eve as a women
is biologically a
women but without
the help of
god or Adam.she is not female. In the
bible Eve deceives Adam into eating
the apple but in
paradise lost Adam
chooses to eat it. The result
are the same though Adam blames Eve. Milton revels
the hypocrisy of
the patriarchal society no
matter if a
man chooses to do
something or not he is still
going to blame
the women in the
women in the
end. The result of this
hypocrisy is her
submission for wanting
to resolve a
fight where she
is out numbered.Adam and god
accuse her of
giving into temptation
of the sin
but it is Eve
who back down
to finally take
the blame.milton insistence
in creating his
own version of Eve as
a more
complex character makes
a bold and
rare statement and Eve
took the blame
because she had
to, not because she
wanted to.
conclusion:-
In the
western world , the fall of
humankind from garden of Edam
is the story foundational of creation. In
the 17 century
John Milton rewrites the
story of creation in epic
from to flesh out
the character and actions
leading to the
fall.In both bible and in paradise
lost Eve is
blamed from humankind’s
exile for garden of
Adam and for giving
into Satan’s temptation shows
Eve’s progression from an independent
women to a dependent women
to show that women are not born
submissive. here the
patriarchal culture surrounding
Eve in paradise lost, in
fact forces her into submission to the point where she internalizes it and
making her a ‘ become
a women’.
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