Puritan Influences in Milton’s Depiction of Marriage

Milton’s Paradise Lost examines, among other things, the relationship between Adam and Eve. While Adam and Eve’s relationship had been explored in a variety of mediums – such as in painting, poetry, and prose – prior to Paradise Lost, Milton’s portrayal of Adam and Eve’s relationship is important in that it reflects the Puritan doctrine that was emerging in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.1 Specifically, the Puritan influence in Adam and Eve’s relationship can be seen in the emphasis placed upon mutual help and companionship, the subordination of Eve, and the role of physical love in their marriage. Each of these points will be explored in this paper, illustrating the Puritan views on there issues and the evidence of their influence in Paradise Lost.

Mutual Help and Companionship

The Puritan marriage doctrine, unlike Roman Catholic and High Anglican marriage doctrines, emphasizes Genesis 2:18 as being the “definitive passage” (Johnson 108) for explaining why God instituted marriage in Paradise, stating, “And the Lord Good said, It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him” (qtd. in Johnson 108). Therefore, from the Puritan perspective, the primary reason for the institution by God of marriage is the relief of man’s loneliness (Johnson 108). Furthermore, the Puritan understanding of God’s intent in marriage is that “…husband and wife are to help each other to live together” (qtd. in Johnson 108), thus seeing the man-wife relationship as being based on mutual help and companionship. In contrast, the Roman Catholic and High Anglican marriage doctrines site the “…be fruitful and multiply” portion of Genesis 1:28 as the principal text for defining the reason behind God’s institution for marriage; therefore, from the High Church perspective, the primary reason for marriage is procreation, with the “…good of the mutual society of husband and wife never tak[ing] precedence over the procreative purpose of marriage” (Johnson 109).

Interestingly, in Paradise Lost, Adam desires a mate primarily because of the loneliness he feels due to a lack of like companionship; he states, “In solitude/ What happiness, who can enjoy alone/ Or all enjoying, what contentment find?” (VIII, ll. 364-366). When God replies that Adam has all the animals in Paradise as companions, Adam responds with a statement which is evident of the Puritan influence upon Milton’s depiction of Adam and Eve’s marriage. Specifically, Adam states, “Among unequals what society/ Can sort, what harmony or true delight?/ Which must be mutual, in proportion due/ Given and received” (VIII, ll. 383-386). In saying this, Adam echoes the Puritan desire for a spouse based upon mutual need, help and companionship. Adam continues in this vein by saying, “of fellowship I speak/ Such as I seek, fit to participate/ all rational delight…” (VIII, ll. 389-391). In stressing the need for a suitable companion, Adam can be seen as reinforcing the Puritan notion of marriage being based “…on the necessity for husband and wife to be evenly matched companions who help each other in a friendly way through life” (Johnson 111).

In bestowing Eve upon Adam, God explicitly refers to Eve as Adam’s “fit help” (VIII, l. 450), thus reiterating the Puritan idea of mutual help being a major component of marriage. This idea of mutual help and dependence in marriage is clearly illustrated through the vine and elm imagery of the Garden: “ …they led the vine/ To wed her elm; she spoused about him twines/ Her marriageable arms, and with her brings/ Her dower and adopted clusters, to adorn/ His barren leaves…” (V, ll. 215-219). In other words, without the elm the vine lacks support, without the vine the elm is barren (Hamilton 50); thus illustrating the mutually dependent relationship between Adam and Eve.

In short, the reasons behind the union of Milton’s Adam and Eve can be seen as being rooted in the Puritan movement; namely, in Paradise Lost God gives Adam Eve in order to assuage his loneliness and to provide him with “fit” help and companionship.

Subordination

Although Puritan marriage doctrine stresses mutual help and companionship in marriage, it also calls for the subordination of females. However, unlike medieval views of marriage which saw the woman as having very few rights, the Puritan doctrine viewed wives, while being subordinate to their husbands, as having many rights and responsibilities. In this way, based upon Puritan doctrine, “the wife, far from being rated with the household servants, is second only to the husband in authority over the entire household” (Johnson 111). Moreover, Puritan writers, in arguing that “…marriage was based on an intellectual companionship in which the husband played the dominant role” (Siegel 42), helped to further the idea of valuing a female for her intellect, rather than simply for her ability to produce children.

This Puritan approach to the subordination of wives is evident in Milton’s portrayal of Adam and Eve. For instance, in Book VIII, as Raphael counsels Adam about his relationship with Eve, Raphael cautions, “…Fair no doubt, and worth well/ Thy cherishing, thy honouring, and thy love,/ Not thy subjection” (VIII, ll. 568-570) and “…the more thou know’st,/ The most she will acknowledge thee her head,/ And to reality, yield all her shows” (VIII, ll. 573-575). In this way, Raphael, while recognizing the merits of Eve and her value to Adam as his companion, also emphasizes the need for Adam to be dominant over Eve.

Through Raphael’s speech to Adam, the Puritan notion of marriage being like a contract between a husband and wife is also illustrated (Johnson 116). Specifically, from the Puritan perspective, while the wife is expected to submit to the husband in “reverence and humility” (Johnson 117), the man, in turn, is expected to “love the woman as his own flesh” (Johnson 117) and to “pull back his affections from other women” (Johson 117). This idea is reflected in Raphael’s speech; while instructing Adam to love and honor Eve, Raphael warns against subjecting himself to her, as it is Eve’s duty in the relationship to play the subordinate role.

Conjugal Love

Prior to the Protestant Reformation, views on conjugal love were predominated by the medieval Church of Rome which promoted a life of sexual asceticism and saw sexual purity as being one of the highest human ideals (Frye 151). In this view, sexual intercourse in marriage was seen as being nothing more than a necessary evil, to the extent that it was said that “married people ought to blush at the state in which they were living” (qtd. in Frye 151). Furthermore, the Church of Rome maintained that to alter one’s natural state of virginity was to “deface the work of the Creator” (Frye 151) and that sexual intercourse, regardless of the context, was nothing more that the “prostitution of the members of Christ” (Frye 151).

In marked contrast to medieval church doctrine, Puritanism denied the high view of virginity and instead, “…regarded physical love as pure” (Frye 150). In fact, the Puritan doctrine viewed physical love within marriage as being so pure that the term “virginity” was actually extended to include not only total abstinence from sexual intercourse but also sexual intercourse within the bounds of a faithful marriage, as is evident from John Calvin’s statement that “the second kind of virginity is the chaste love of matrimony” (qtd. in Frye 150). In fact, from the Puritan perspective, sexual intercourse within marriage was not only considered to be chaste but essential; in the words of the Puritan writer Gouge, “[sexual intercourse] is one of the most proper and essential acts of marriage” (qtd. in Frye 155).

Given the opposing church doctrines on conjugal love, it should not be surprising that there has been much debate about the role and timing of sexual intercourse within the story of Adam of Eve (McColley 31). For instance, the common view of the Church of Rome was that Eve was a virgin in Paradise and that it was only after she and Adam had fallen that they experienced sexual intercourse. In this view, prior to the Fall, Adam and Eve were wholly devoted to contemplation and it was only after the Fall that marriage was permitted “…for the discipline of desires now carnal and the perpetuation of a raced now mortal, but virginity was still the condition most conducive to the service of God” (McColley 31). In contrast, most Puritans believed that the marriage and first sexual relations of Adam and Eve occurred before the Fall, as they viewed physical love within marriage as being chaste and therefore, possible in the blameless world of Paradise. In this way, Milton’s telling of the story of Adam and Eve can be seen as having been influenced by the Puritan doctrine. Specifically, in Paradise Lost, Milton not only weds Adam and Eve and commands them to “increase and multiply” prior to the Fall, but he also stresses that the delights of physical love are a natural element of Paradise, saying “nor Eve the rites/ Mysterious of connubial love refused:/ Whatever hypocrites austerely talk/ Of purity and place and innocence,/ Defaming as impure what God declares/ Pure, and commands to some, leaves free to all” (IV, ll. 742-747). In other words, Eve was not to deny Adam physical love, as God saw such love as pure and rightly eligible to all.

As a further reflection of the Puritan influence upon Milton’s depiction of conjugal love, Milton attributes the notion of virginity as being superior to married sexual intercourse to Satan. Specifically, Milton states, “our maker bids increase, who bids abstain/ But our destroyer, foe to God and man?” (IV, ll. 748-749), insinuating that while God encourages conjugal love, Satan, who is naturally inclined to thwart both God and humankind, attempts to further the belief that God opposes conjugal love and earthly pleasure. Interestingly, this same sentiment is echoed by a seventeenth century Puritan writer named Thomas Gataker who observed “… that it is a tactic of the demonic to misrepresent Christianity as a damper placed upon the joys of living; in other words, to misrepresent it as opposed to human happiness” (qtd. in Frye 154). Furthermore, Gataker asserts that this misrepresentation of Christianity is “an illusion of Satan, whereby he usually persuades…that in the Kingdom of Christ… there is nothing, but sighing and groaning, and fasting and prayer” (qtd. in Frye 154). By both Milton and Gataker, Satan is identified as being at the root of the predominantly negative view of marital sexual intercourse, thus illustrating yet another way in which the Puritan doctrine influenced Milton’s depiction of conjugal love, or, more broadly, his portrayal of Adam and Eve’s marriage.

Lastly, in discussing Puritan views of conjugal love and Milton’s adaptation of these views in Paradise Lost, it is important to discuss the emphasis placed upon the notion of lust. It would be incorrect to assume that since the Puritan doctrine has a fairly liberal approach to marital sexual intercourse that it has an equally liberal view of lust. In fact, one of the Puritans’ most salient warnings is directed towards lust in marriage (Frye 156). Specifically, the Puritans believed that a marriage based upon lust was unstable and short-lived. Furthermore, they maintained that “lust was not merely evil in itself but the source of many other evils, one of the worst which was jealousy” (Frye 157). In short, lust was seen as sinful in that it perverted the “…natural goodness and perfection would God established and intends for marriage” (Frye 157). In a similar vein, Milton, while showing acceptance towards marital sexual love, warned against lustful excesses. For instance, Milton refers to lust as being “adulterous” (IV, l. 753) and in Book VIII, Raphael warns Adam of the pitfalls of a relationship based solely on passion saying, “In loving thou dost well, in passion not,/ Wherein true love consists not…” (VIII, ll. 588-589). Furthermore, Raphael adds that a relationship “sunk in carnal pleasure” (8. l 593) is fit for animals, not for humans, hence the reason that no mate was found for Adam among the beasts of the land. Therefore, Milton, similar to the Puritan marriage doctrine, encourages marital sexual intercourse but warns against lustful excesses.

In conclusion, through this paper, it has been shown how Milton’s depiction of Adam and Eve’s relationship was influenced by Puritan doctrine. Specifically, Milton’s emphasis upon mutual help and companionship as being the basis of Adam and Eve’s marriage, Eve’s subordinate role in the relationship, and the encouragement of sexual intercourse between Adam an Eve have all been shown to reflect the Puritanical thinking of seventeenth century England.

References

Frye, Roland. “The Teachings of Classical Puritanism on Conjugal Love.” Studies in Renaissancce 2 .1 (1995): 148-159.

Hamilton, K. Paradise Lost: A Humanist Approach. New York: University of Queensland Press, 1981.

Johnson, James. “The Covenant Idea and the Puritan View of Marriage.” Journal of the History of Ideas 32.1 (1971): 107-118.

McColley, Diane. Milton’s Eve. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1983.

Milton, John. “Paradise Lost.” John Milton: The Major Works. Eds. Stephen Orgel and Jonathan Goldberg. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. 355-618.

Siegel, Paul. “Milton and the Humanist Attitude Toward Women.” Journal of the History of Ideas 11.1 (1950): 42-53.