Eve's Otherness as the Cause for the Fall in Milton's Paradise Lost
One of the most interesting aspects of John Milton’s epic poem “Paradise Lost” is the assignment of blame or responsibility for humankind’s fall from paradise. Who is at fault? Is it Eve, for giving in to the temptation of knowledge presented to her by the serpent? Is it Adam for directly disobeying God? Or is it perhaps God himself for not doing enough to prevent Adam and Eve from doing what he knew they would? These questions are difficult to answer because perhaps it is a combination of all of these factors that led to the fall. There is one thing in all of this, however, that is fairly certain: Eve, though perhaps not of a fault of her own, plays a key role in the fall of humankind. It is important to note that in the context of “Paradise Lost”, due to a difference in sex, God, through Milton, created several important differences between Adam and Eve. Ronald Levao notes that “[r]epresented as both the finishing touch and the complicating factor of a circular cosmos, humanity lives in an elliptical world with two foci, male and female.”1 The reality of this split focus is brought to light by the differences between Adam and Eve, and “[t]he events leading to what the traditionalists call [Eve’s] ‘fall’ form a sequence of a certain psychological complexity, whereas Adam's lapse is a single, fairly simple, and reactive event.”2 It is these differences in Eve, namely her acute awareness that she is different from Adam, her vanity, and her desire for independence, which lead to their separation and thus to humankind’s fall from Paradise. It is made clear to Eve right from her creation that she is different from Adam – both God and Adam make it clear that she was created from Adam, and is inferior to him. Morrissey explains that:As far as Adam is concerned, Eve is actually his other, his ‘other half,’ an other version of himself. He thinks Eve is there to complete him, to make him whole, in several senses. Of course, it is, he believes, ‘his flesh, his bone’ that makes Eve possible (IV.483). Moreover, Eve reports that Adam implies that he sees himself in part as her creator: ‘to give thee being I lent / Out of my side to thee’ (IV.483-84). Not only does Adam say that he gave Eve being, but he also claims that his rib was loaned to her." 3
This immediately presents Eve with the idea that she is inferior to Adam, since she is led to believe he is partly her creator, and this encourages her to see herself as different from him, because she is only a part of him. There is also the issue of “Adam's repeated insistence that Eve is ‘perfect’ (X.138)” which again points out the difference between Adam and Eve.4 Throughout the poem, Adam is repeatedly telling Eve that she is perfect, constantly pointing out that they are therefore not the same. It is important to note, however, that “[i]t is Adam who is claiming that Eve is perfect, not Eve.” 5 By doing this, Morrissey argues, Adam “leaves Eve with few alternatives for showing him that she is not what he thinks she is. In order to break through this otherness Eve would need to show Adam that she is neither like him nor perfect. In Eden, where there is only one rule, there is but one way to break through the otherness to which her presumed ‘perfection’ consigns her.”6 After the fall, Adam goes so far as to blame this difference, Eve’s perfection, and thus Eve, for the fall, even though it is he who told her that she is like him, only perfect: “I also erred in overmuch admiring/What seemed in thee so perfect…but I rue/That error now, which is become my crime,/And thou the accuser.” 7 Adam’s point of view, then, “marks woman as a ‘defect’ in masculine fullness.” 8 By repeatedly pointing out to Eve that she is different from him - somehow simultaneously inferior, because she was created from him, and perfect, because she was created second, and therefore best - Adam is removing the blame from himself and putting it on Eve as a result of her otherness. Another difference between Adam and Eve that leads to the fall of humankind is the difference between Adam and Eve’s physical appearances, and Eve’s resulting vanity, which sparks her belief that she is self-sufficient. After Eve is created and she is staring at her reflection in the water, she is told that “what there thou seest fair creature is thyself.” 9 For Eve, this automatically associates her understanding of herself with her image, which causes her to become vain. This vanity has negative results when she meets Adam for the first time, when she thinks his appearance is “less fair, less winning soft, less amiably mild, than that smooth watery image.” 10 James Stone states that Eve “claims self-sufficiency when she stares narcissistically into the mirroring waters of Book 4.” 11 This obsession with her own image, as well as Eve’s immediate reaction upon seeing Adam, are important differences between Adam and Eve because it is this vanity that leads Eve to desire to be independent from Adam. Stone claims that it is Eve’s “refusal to remain [Adam’s} mere mirror image” that begins the separation between the pair, and thus leads to the fall. 12 It is interesting that it is perhaps this lack of mirror image that leads Eve to desire to be independent. Eve’s difference in physical appearance could cause her to realize that since she and Adam are not the same on the outside, they are not the same on the inside either. This further proof of the extent of their differences could spark curiosity in Eve to discover what she knows not, reason, and thus further encourages her to stray from Adam. This final difference between Adam and Eve, which leads to the fall, is Eve’s desire for independence. It is partly Eve’s vanity which causes her “tendency to veer from the rightful side whence she came.” 13 When she first sees Adam, and prefers her own appearance to his, she turns away and starts to retreat. 14 This simple action makes it clear that Eve desires independence. Stone points out that this difference between the sexes, due to Eve’s desire for independence, presents “a disjunction between Adam's anxious sense of Eve's perfection and completion and Eve's contrary sense that she is not fully female unless she can separate from her mate.” 15 This desire for independence is visible throughout the poem, and plays a crucial role in the fall from grace because Eve desires to be separate from Adam, which allows her to go off on her own despite Adam’s hesitance. Eve realizes that:only by severing herself from Adam can she assure herself of a female identity that is not simply identical to Adam's male identity. That she is a creature ‘manlike, but different sex, so lovely fair’ (8.471) does not bode well for her modest effort to liberate herself from male dominion, nor does God's appointing her at birth to the man ‘Whose Image thou art, him thou shalt enjoy / Inseparably thine’ (4.472-73). 16
These constraints only serve to make her want independence more. This desire for independence first begins to really show itself in Eve’s actions when she wakes up in book IX and is “in an independent frame of mind and for the first time wants to get away from Adam.” 17 This desire for independence finally shows itself in Eve’s actions, with devastating results, when Eve eats the forbidden fruit, thus choosing “love of self over love of other, abusing or ignoring reason and forsaking faith.” 18 This desire for independence leads Eve to separate from Adam, and thus makes her vulnerable to the serpent’s tempting because she is alone, and because she would choose knowledge over Adam. Almost as soon as she is created, Eve is repeatedly told that she is different from Adam. She is told that she was created from a part of Adam, and is thus only a part of him, both literally and in terms of equality. Adam, however, puts Eve on a pedestal and tells her on several occasions that she is perfect. Eve has been presented with the idea that she, although similar to Adam, is different from him: she is both inferior to him and perfect. Adam uses these differences to blame Eve for the fall. The second key difference between Adam and Eve is the difference between their physical appearances, which causes Eve to become vain. She prefers herself over Adam, and this causes her to desire to be separate from him. The final difference between Adam and Eve is Eve’s desire for independence. It is this desire, caused mainly by the previous two differences, that ultimately causes the fall from paradise. In the end, it is because of this crucial difference that Eve chooses the pursuit of her own knowledge over obedience to her counterpart. This is not to say that Eve is responsible for the fall, but that it is a combination of these differences that, when examined together, ultimately put Eve in the situation where she easily becomes a victim of temptation.1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
References
Gulden, Ann Torday. “Milton’s Eve and Wisdom: The ‘Dinner-Party’ Scene in Paradise Lost.” Milton Quarterly 32 (1998): 137-143.
Levao, Ronald. “‘Among Unequals What Society’: Paradise Lost and the Forms of Intimacy.” Modern Language Quarterly 61 (2000): 79-107.
McColgan, Kristin Pruitt. “Abundant Gifts: Hierarchy and Reciprocity in ‘Paradise Lost.’” South Central Review 11 (1994): 75-86.
Milton, John. “Paradise Lost.” John Milton: The Major Works. Ed. Stephen Orgel and Jonathan Goldberg. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Morrissey, Lee. “Eve’s Otherness and the New Ethical Criticism.” New Literary History 32 (2001): 327-345.
Nathan, Rhonda B. “All About Eve: Testing the Miltonic Formula.” The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies 23 (2003): 65-74.
Stone, James W. “‘Man’s effeminate s(lack)ness:’ Androgyny and the Divided Unity of Adam and Eve.” Milton Quarterly 31 (1997): 33-42.