Paper for Milton Seminar

It's true, not only did I take a seminar entirely on John Milton, but I aced it too!

Jacqueline Lehmann

Professor T. Festa

Milton Seminar

December 7, 2006

John Milton’s portrayal of gender in Paradise Lost has been widely explored since the epic poem was originally released. Some critics argue that Milton reveals himself to be, at his core, a misogynist. This argument is generally rooted in Milton’s stereotypical characterization of the masculine and feminine, through the original couple, Adam and Eve. Still others acknowledge this same idea but attempt to lessen Milton’s individual burden by understanding his perceived views through the lens of his historical setting.

Milton was too much of a revolutionary to be simply entrapped by traditional gender roles and hierarchies in the writing of his greatest work. His methods of subversion, granted, are less apparent than in his political pamphlets, but the spirit is still present. Although on the surface Adam and Eve may seem to represent the archetypal masculine/feminine dichotomy, further examination of their speech and actions in both the prelapsarian and postlapsarian worlds will illustrate otherwise. In fact, Milton purposefully submits Adam and Eve to stereotypes at certain key moments in order to draw a contrast with more significant and indicative junctures.

When examining crucial moments, one must first consider who the reader is being guided by during that passage. This begs the question of whether one can consider the voice of the narrator to be inherently synonymous with the voice and views of the author. While one may certainly infer that the voice of the narrator of Paradise Lost often resembles the voice of John Milton in many of his prose works, one also cannot assume that the narrator is consistently speaking for the author. Jane Melbourne suggests that “we cease trying to unify the narrator either as Milton or as a fully authoritative guide to the meaning of the poem and that we accept instead the inconsistencies the text presents” (Melbourne 151).

When seeking to ascertain which portions of the epic poem portray beliefs that lie closer to Milton’s own, his prose pamphlets offer sound clues as to his true feelings.

Although in his most famous documents Milton never directly addresses his opinion of gender roles within society, he does speak passionately about his opinions regarding marraige. As a proponent of the right to divorce, Milton articulated his views twenty ears prior to the release of Paradise Lost in “Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce.” Milton states that,

For although God in the first ordaining of marriage taught us to what end he did it, in words expressly implying the apt and cheerful conversation of man with woman, to comfort and refresh him against the evil of solitary life, not mentioning the purpose of generation till afterwards, as being but a secondary end in dignity, though not in necessity: yet now, if any two be but once handed in the church…let them find themselves never so mistaken…[that] they can neither be to one another a remedy against lonliness nor live in any union or contentment all their days; yet they shall…be made…to their unspeakable wearisomeness and despair of all sociable delight in the ordinance which God established to that very end. (703)

Milton articulates what he believes God’s purpose was, based on Adam and Eve, in creating the ritual of holy matrimony. His conviction that man and woman should wed in order to provide companionship and comfort to each other, with procreation as a secondary priority, implies that Milton would not be one to support the misogynistic idea of woman as an inferior species. Were she lacking when compared to the masculine ideal, she would hardly be fit to fulfill her role in a marital relationship. Readers of Paradise Lost who are familiar with Milton’s other writings should keep the above quotation in mind as they struggle to understand Milton’s deliberate portrayal of the first couple.

Readers of Paradise Lost are granted their first glance of Adam and Eve when Satan arrives at the boundaries of Eden. The first couple is described as Satan sees them, and one should immediately question how much stock one should put into Satan’s perspective. Satan is angry, vengeful and has come to destroy them. His first impressions of Eden and its inhabitants are likely to be filtered through his psychological state. While his mission is to learn as much about them as he can, he reports what he sees to the audience after watching the pair for a short time. Satan cannot help but acknowledge how accurately they were created in the image of their maker and their apparent authority over Eden, “…though both not equal, as their sex not equal seem’d;/ for contemplation hee and valor form’d,/ for softness shee and sweet attractive Grace,/ Hee for God only, shee for God in him…” (IV, 295-299). Catherine Gimelli Martin suggests that to regard Satan’s description as untrustworthy in order to excuse the sexist statement of inequality is an insubstantial defense. Martin argues that we cannot selectively doubt Satan’s perspective and would have to doubt his speech throughout the rest of the poem. However, the deliberate use of the word “seem’d” indicates that in this particular moment he was not entirely sure of himself. Were he certain that Adam and Eve existed in inequality, he would have simply stated that fact without opening the statement to doubt.

As Satan describes Adam’s and Eve’s physicality it becomes apparent that they do look just as man and woman should according to gender types. Eve’s unspoiled beauty makes her an unabashed object of Adam’s lust, and as described by Satan she seems to fulfill the role of traditional femininity as she “yielded with coy submission, modest pride,/ and sweet reluctant amorous delay” (IV 310). This description may sound warning bells to the gender-conscious reader, yet Greg Smith argues that, “By leading Adam-who is not much of a bright bulb to begin with-to believe that she is submissive because of her behavior and appearance, she is feeding his false sense of superiority” (390). Whether Eve’s behavior is conscious or unconscious, it is at this point necessary for her to appear to be the prototypical female.

Satan’s description of Adam is almost immediately contradicted when the reader is first able to overhear a conversation between Adam and Eve. Adam speaks of the one condition they must abide by to remain in Eden and good favor with God, and then dismisses thoughts of the forbidden fruit by saying, “Then let us not think hard/ one easy prohibition, who enjoy free leave so large to all things else…” (IV 432). This is perhaps a rather anticlimactic statement regarding ideas so vast, and immediately calls to question whether Adam is truly made for contemplation.

The reader is privy to the same manner of biased information in books V, VI and VII when Raphael is sent by God to remind Adam that he and Eve should be contented in their current state and seek nothing further. Raphael doesn’t quite comprehend his purpose and plants the seeds of the ideas of upward mobility and rebellion in Adam’s mind. He also vocalizes a misogynistic philosophy to Adam, who has until now been sheltered and has considered Eve his equal. This is evident in that ******* When Raphael explains “Male he created thee, but thy consort/ Female for Race; then bless’d mankind, and said,/ Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the Earth…” (VII 529-531) this would imply that Eve’s chief purpose is to make it possible for mankind to propagate. This is hard to swallow given that Adam and Eve’s companionship is clearly more complex than this purpose would require. The reader must keep in mind that this is the voice of Raphael, a voice that is certainly not infallible, and is absolutely distinct from the voice of Milton or the narrator. Raphael will again show his misogynistic views in the following book.

In book VIII as Adam asks scientific questions of Raphael, Eve rises from her seat “with lowliness Majestic” (42) to go tend her garden. This phrase foreshadows her Christian virtue of humility that will become so important after the Fall. The narrator is sure to make clear that she is not leaving the conversation because she doesn’t understand it or isn’t interested, but because she would rather learn from her companion, Adam. Hence an action that might at first suggest subjection is really just a matter of preference.

When Adam tells Raphael his story of being born the reader learns that Adam was almost immediately conscious of his singular nature within the garden. He notices that all of the other creatures have a companion except for him and asks God for a mate. “In solitude/ What happiness, who can enjoy alone,/ Or all enjoying, what contentment find?” (364-366) His reason for wanting a companion sound similar to what Milton articulated as the purpose of the institute of marriage. God does not correct Adam or say anything to the effect that if he creates a companion it must be to the purpose of furthering the human race. Surely that is part of his design, but he allows Adams conception of marriage to be based on a different ideal.

Adam converses with God about the creation of a partner and the reader finds that although Adam’s knowledge of abstractions such as evil and death is limited, he already is affected by ego. “Hast thou not made me here thy substitute,/ And those inferior far beneath me set?” (381-382) Hence one must infer that Adams overall treatment of Eve as an equal is not because he lacks the ability to think otherwise, but because she was called into creation to be his companion. Additionally, there has of yet been little empirical evidence to support that she is inferior. “Adam and Eve engage for the most part in the same labor, possess an identical range of intellectual curiousity, speak with the same poetic authority. They are, as we have seen, one soul” (Anderson 141).

The creation of Eve as depicted by Milton represents an inversion of traditional gender roles. It appears as more of a birth than creation from nothing, which makes Adam into a maternal figure of sorts. “God must stoop to his task like a midwife and deftly nurse the new creature with his forming hands. Adam’s sensations of pleasure are immediate and at first wonderfully maternal” (Anderson 137).

Adam vocalizes for the first time that he knows Eve is intended as his inferior, yet at the same moment his unabashed praise of Eve to Raphael alarms the angel, whom the reader already knows as viewing the female purpose as strictly procreative. “…and in herself complete…seems wisest, virtuosest, discreetest, best;/ All higher knowledge in her presence falls/ degraded…” (547-551) In the light of such glorification of Eve, one can only understand the prior statement of budding sexism that Adam is beginning to internalize the messages from the angel. He believes he is supposed to view himself as the superior being, although that is not necessarily what he thinks.

Raphael again seeks to reinforce Adams masculine superiority, conceding that she is “fair no doubt, and worthy well/ Thy cherishing, thy honoring and thy love,/ Not thy subjection…” (568-570) He warns Adam not to place Eve above himself because he is overwhelmed by her outward perfection. Love, according to Raphael, should exist in reason, not passions of the body. This is hard to reconcile when one considers that Raphael just stated that the female species was created expressly for procreation.

In the beginning of book IX the reader witnesses what could almost be called the first instance of discord between the original couple. This moment is significant enough to represent the beginning of the actual Fall, as both have moved far away from their original attitudes towards each other and their companionship. Eve suggests that the two go their separate ways for the workday in order that they may be able to cover more ground. Adam seems intent on not allowing this because after his conversation with Raphael he believes that she should always submit to his will. “Adam …needs to believe he is controlling Eve’s mind to allay his own fears…Moreover, a separation would mean his failure to assert his Appollonian authority, leaving Eve free to go off and immerse herself in ‘her’ element” (Smith 393). Eve, however, seems to have moved away from the earlier notion of “shee for God in him” (IV 299) in that she declines to submit to his arguments. Clearly her ideas are more persuasive and rational than his and he eventually gives in. Her wisdom seems to echo the idea of having been created “sufficient to have stood, though free to fall” (III 99), as she questions how they can live a fulfilling and virtuous life if primarily motivated by sheltering themselves from evil and temptation. Milton thus

…broke the stereotypical scapegoating of Eve as essentially a temptress and uniquely gave her respon sible motives for her independent movements on the morning of the Fall: her sense of responsibility for the Farden, the epitome of the whole natural world, that flourishes in response to her maternal but unmanagerial attention, and her refusal to let the existence of evil destroy the processes of a free community (McColley 179).

The serpent’s deception of Eve as portrayed by Milton is so seemingly grounded in reason that the reader almost cannot blame her for being fooled. Hence her falling does not inherently cast judgment over her intellect or wisdom, only her inability to somehow understand that the serpent embodies the evil she has been warned about.

Immediately after tasting the forbidden fruit, Eve wonders if she should share her newfound knowledge with Adam. It is here she utters her first statement of being discontent with belonging to the inferior sex: “…so to add what wants/ In Female Sex, the more to draw his Love,/ And render me more equal, and perhaps,/ A thing not undesirable, sometime/ Superior: For inferior who is free?” (821-825) This profound statement represents her psychological awakening that has just taken place, and indicates that from this moment forward, womankind is doomed to have to struggle for equality.

When Eve returns to Adam and tells him what she has done, Adam thinks, “How can I live without thee, how forgo/ Thy sweet Converse and Love so dearly join’d,/ To live again in these wild Woods forlorn?” (IX 908-910) While Adam loves her and mourns her Fall, the motivation for him to eat the fruit is the fear of returning to the life he knew before she was created. This illuminates the fact that for all Adam’s attempts at embodying the superior nature that he keeps being told he possesses, he is not strong enough to face the prospect of life without his companion. This harkens back to Milton’s idea of marriage in “The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce” in that Adam acknowledges that even if God were to create another Eve, she likely would not be such an appropriate and well-loved partner.

It is not as if Adam truly has no other option than to fall. “According to Renaisance theory in respect to temptation, if one knows that Satan, the Enemy, has conquered someone, the strategy is not to capitulate oneself, but to wait, to consider, to pray. Not one of these remedies occurs to Milton’s Adam, who is weak and terrified to be left alone” (Sumers 208). Additionally, Adam’s actions showed no real concern for Eve’s fate, but only his own.

In the seconds before Adam eats of the fruit Eve is relieved of some, but not all, of the blame for the Fall when it is said that “…Against his better knowledge, not deceiv’d,/ But fondly overcome with Female charm” (999-1000). It is made clear that Adam knows as he is about to Fall that he is not doing the right thing. The phrase “not deceiv’d” serves to emphasize that while Eve was tricked by the serpent into thinking that it was fitting for her to eat of the fruit, Adam has not been subject to the same deception. Being “overcome” by Eve’s beauty and grace is exactly what Raphael warned Adam against, yet he does so “fondly”, which again implies his weakness in relation to her.

Soon after the Fall is complete, Adam begins to blame Eve for what has happened. Now they have not only lost grace in God’s eyes, but grace with each other. Their argument reiterates their growing insecurities concerning their gender. Adam reminds Eve that she should have listened to him, and she argues that he would have been no less susceptible to the serpent’s words. Eve again rejects her own position of submissiveness in saying “Was I to have never parted from thy side?/ As good have grown there still a lifeless Rib” (1154-1155). Adam finds that his misogynistic tendencies as encouraged by Raphael have been affirmed, as “Thus it should befall/ Him who to worth in Woman overtrusting/ Lets her Will rule…” (1182-1184) Yet one must carefully consider that Adam made the conscious decision to Fall after Eve. If Eve as the original receiver of blame for the Fall is the roots of sexism, it seems rather weakly founded based on what actually happened according to Milton’s version of events.

As the time of judgment approaches, Adam continues to cast the blame solely on Eve. Adam, when confronted by God, reveals his lack of loyalty and his weakness by offering Eve as the sole transgressor. Fortunately God sees through this, and Adam succeeds only in making himself seem to lack conviction. God points out that Adam has resigned his Manhood in this act of putting Eve as his God in influence.

When Eve is questioned by God she answers in a far more respectable manner, “The Serpent me beguil’d and I did eat” (162). She has become righteous and seeks not to cast blame, speaking only the truth. This saves her from being judged more harshly as the original sinner.

As one witnesses Adam scapegoat Eve repeatedly, it is important to remind oneself that “Milton as a writer does not really take sides. We hear characters arguing back and forth in dialogue, and that dialogue must account for why the woman fell first, as in Genesis, and why Adam so mindlessly fell with her…” (Sumers 202).

It is after Adam harshly rejects Eve that she comes to epitomize humility and Christian virtue. She argues that she would be willing to accept the punishment for both of them, being that she has sinned twice (against God and Adam) and he only once. He persists that she is the weaker sex, but relents in his rejection of her. She has arrived in a position of goodness and he appears to be grudgingly lagging behind her.

It seems, however, that the course of the Fall has damned woman to forever be caught in a position of submission. “…Woman’s domestic honor and chief praise;/ bred only and completed to the taste/ of lustful appetence, to sing, to dance,/ To dress, and troll the Tongue, and roll the Eye” (XI 617-620). This is part of the future that Adam views before they are cast out of Eden.

Ultimately though the blame did not fall entirely on Eve, the female species’ fate was written in the days of original sin. It is a fate that has been struggled against for hundreds of years, and will not be easily overcome. However, according to Milton’s portrayal of the original couple, this punishment appears to be unwarranted. Granted Eve was the one who fell first, but she redeemed herself through her show of honesty and virtue. After close examination of the text, it becomes impossible to label Milton a misogynist on the basis of his treatment of Adam and Eve in Paradise Lost.