Milton and Eve

Milton and Eve
The seventeenth century poet, John Milton, took the attitude common to the time period when portraying the character of Eve in the epic poem Paradise Lost.   This is evident through Adam’s portrayal of Eve’s coming, Milton's description of Adam and Eve, Adam and Raphael's treatment of Eve, and Eve’s own actions.   The epic story of man’s creation and of Adam and Eve’s fall from Paradise, constantly describe Eve as a weak individual, while Adam is often compared to God.   The idea of female inferiority has been fixed through time, making Milton's characterization of Eve not surprising, but rather expected and accepted by the masses.   However, Milton does allude to the fact that Eve has a certain degree of inner strength when he is describing the control she has over Adam.   Nevertheless, except for this one instance, Eve is depicted as being subordinate to Adam throughout the context of Paradise Lost.
In seventeenth century England, the vast majority of routine daily relationships were between people of unequal status.   In a journal article Shanley states that, “the well-born and lowly alike thought that hierarchy in human relationships was essential to the maintenance of social order: magistrate must rule over subject, minister over congregation, master over servant, parent over child, and husband over wife” (79).   God’s commandment to “honor thy father and thy mother,” was taken very seriously and the disruption of any one of these relationships was thought to bring ill effects to all the others.   In 1640 the contractual element of marriage was explained by writers as:
“being simply the consent of each party to marry the other.   Both man and woman consented to take on the rights and obligations of their respective stations.   The man’s role was that of head and governor, the woman’s role that of obedient follower.   To contract a marriage was to consent to a status which in its essence was hierarchical and unalterable.” (79)
In the seventeenth...