Wisdom Vs. Vanity In John Milton

’s Paradise Lost Essay, Research Paper

In the seventeeth century, women were not permitted to embrace in the power of knowledge. John Milton portrays the only female character in his epic poem, Paradise Lost, as a subservient creature caught in a seemingly misogynistic society. Milton states Eve’s location in the great chain of authority of his time quite clearly with her inferiority to man repeated frequently throughout the epic, especially amplified in Book IV and Book IX. Milton uses the character of Eve to represent the ills that can befall mankind after she (the woman) breaks the chain of authority in which she was placed. A twenty-first century reader might perceive Milton’s theodicy on a woman’s place in society to be inhumane as well as appalling, however, during his time women were accepted by society and themselves as subordinate on the chain of hierarchy. They were to be treated properly by their man but were to walk two steps behind their superior male counterpart at all times. Even though Milton’s blatant description of Eve’s role in the created world is unequal, the twenty-first century reader accepts this concept and enjoys the passionate power that the character has over the reasonable male authority figure.

In the traditional epic structure and in Book I of Paradise Lost, the reader is immediately introduced to the main action of the story being told, the narration opens with the middle of the story (media res) and uses flashbacks to develop the plot. “Of man’s first disobedience…Who first seduced them to that foul revolt.…the infernal serpent; he it was, whose guile stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived the mother of mankind”(PL: BK 1, L 1-36). It is stated quite clearly in these lines that Eve initiated the fall of man by giving in to the temptation posed to her by Satan. Knowing this from the absolute beginning of the narrative, it is clear that the woman unreasonably steps out of her position in Eden and is overcome by evil.

In Book IV of Paradise Lost, Milton expresses Eve’s perception of herself when she sees her image as well as the reader’s insight to Eve’s role through Satan’s initial description of her. At the beginning of this narration Adam and Eve are identified, very briefly, as alike, “Two of far nobler shape erect and tall, Godlike erect, with native honour clad in naked majesty seemed lords of all”(PL: BK IV, L287-290). This narration then immediately turns to a characterization of Eve as the secondary being, “Whence true authority in men; though both not equal, as their sex not equal seemed…He for God only, she for God in him” (PL: BK IV, L295-300). Here, then, is a grand example of Eve’s submission to her “absolute ruler” (PL: BK IV, L300) who is man and her place in the natural order of creation is beneath him. Milton immodestly states in these lines that the male authority figure in this story is the most divine of all created beings and the female is only there to enhance his being. They are both made in the likeness of God, but Eve is divine-like only through Adam.

Milton, in Paradise Lost, as in all epic structures, uses many classical allusions to help the reader gain insight to a woman’s standpoint through the power of poetry. To enforce Eve’s position and to introduce Eve’s flaw, Milton alludes to Ovid’s character, Narcissis. Narcissis vainly yearns for his own image reflected in a pool. In Book IV, Eve’s vanity is explained, “A shape within the watery gleam appeared bending to look on me…pleased it returned as soon with answering looks of sympathy and love; there I had fixed mine eyes till now, and pined with vain desire” (PL: BK IV, L460-466). The importance of this parallel is the forefront of Eve’s weakness to be overcome in Book IX. In addition to exclaiming vanity as the root of all evil, Milton stimulates a sense of corruption in Eve with this comparison. Likewise, Satan is able to captivate Eve’s imagination while she sleeps, “him there they found squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve; assaying by his devilish art to reach the organs of her fancy, and with them forge illusions as he list, phantasms and dreams, or if, inspiring venom, he might taint”(PL: BK IV, L799-804). This foreshadows how Eve’s submission to vanity initiates the fall in Book IX. The fact that Eve’s mind is the one that Satan plants the seed of evil in exemplifies Milton’s view of the woman’s subordinate intellect and her vulnerability.

Eve’s rank in the created world is again enforced when a voice removes her from the reflection and leads her to “he whose image thou art” (PL: BK IV, L472). Eve is to dismiss her own image and adore “him who thou art, his flesh, his bone” (PL: BK IV, L483-484). This is one indication of how Milton disbands any ideal that a woman is higher up in the course of the natural order or intellectually superior to a man. Eve, herself realizes this, “Part of my soul I seek thee, and thee claim my other half: with that thy gentle hand seized mine, I yielded, and from that time see How beauty is excelled by manly grace and wisdom, which alone is truly fair” (PL: BK IV, L487-490). Milton indicates Eve’s acceptance of her lack of mindful authority in these lines and her willingness to accept herself as exclusively outwardly beautiful. She worships Adam for his intellectual beauty and states that his wisdom is her ultimate authority. She accepts her role kindly and states, “ My author and disposer,