Argumentative Nature of paradise lost book- 9

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Name: -   Gohel    Ankita     Kishobhai            

Roll no:- 14

Paper Name: - The Renaissance   Literature

Topic: - Argumentative   Nature    of     paradise   lost   book- 9                                    Submitted: - smt.  Gardi m.k   Bhavanagar,   Department    of   English

Year: - 2015-2017

                                                           

                                                    

                                             

    Introduction :-

                       Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost is published in ten books in 1667 and enlarged into twelve books in 1674. The story of the Fall of Man is known to many people not so much through the Bible as through John Milton's Paradise Lost. Milton's epic presents a version of Genesis that has become part of biblical lore, to the extent that many Christians who have never read the work nonetheless base their understanding of the Creation and the fall on Milton's additions and elaborations. The poem's tremendous influence aside, the sheer breadth of Milton's undertaking and the unparalleled beauty of his verse have made Paradise Lost one of the most significant works in the English literary canon, and poets from his own era to the present have cited Milton as a major influence.

    Argument   of   paradise  lost :-

                                                          eve   becomes  more than just the  mother of mankind  and Adam’s wife  of “ Paradise  lost ’’In the bible , Eve  is a wife of Adam  who  eats  from the forbidden tree.she  shall be a  women  because she is taken   out  of  a  man.

                                          

                        Milton represent  Eve  as  a  complex women. .she is no longer  merely  the women who fall the pray to Satan’s  seduction in the  bible. Here Critics  support  this image of dynamic  Eve by saying ‘ Despite the fact’  that  the  Milton   was  constrained   by  hierarchical  culture  assumption  the  women and marriage , his Eve is in some respect an  emergent  female  figure  in  ‘ the seventeenth  century’. Eve  character in Paradise  lost  suprasses that of  of  Eve’s  character in the story of  Genesis.she  has  independent , intelligent  character  not  mentioned in Genesis.

                          we  read  the dialogue of  Eve we see the character of  Eve  is  also  Adam’s  equal.when God  molds Eve  out of  Adam’s  rib, God  say Adam  ‘ And they  shall  be  one  flesh, one heart , one soul’. This  lines  suggest that   Eve is not inferiorer to Adam upon  creation, she  is  actually      equal to him for  she  is made from the same  flesh  as  he. They are ‘one heart, one soul ‘. Love as Adam seems to say, unifies both the people involved. Edam and Eve appear of equal intelligence. Milton maintains  that she  is capable  understanding and  adam  compared  she  is  ‘ inferior in the mind / and inward  faculties’. they  are  not  actually  equal, The  perception of  equality is a false  veneer in which superiority  and  dominion  over Eve  hide. A  female   result  from a fact that ‘The  women is a female  to  extent  that she  feel  herself as  such’. The women  has  make herself  adapt to the norms of  femininity to   be  female, as  suggested by  Adam as obedient  and submissive.Indeed, Beauvoir states, ‘one  is not   born but  rather become ,a women. No biological , psychological or  economic  fate  determines  the  figure  that  the  human female present in society, it is  civilization as a whole that products  this  creature, intermediate  between  male  and eunuch’. A women is not a concrete person within society, she is more or less created by society rather than for society.

                        Milton creates an illusion of equality rather than reality of equality.  In  the same  dialogue  where  God says  Adam  and  eve  are  equal, he  also  says  about  adam ‘ His   image  who  made both and less  expressing\ the character  of that  dominion  given / over  other creature’ . god  assert in  Genesis  Adam  is  dominion  over  all the  living  creatures.It  says ,’ in sorrow thou shalt  bring  forth  children; and thy  desire shall  be  to thy  husband, and  he shall  rule  over thee’. God, in telling Eve of  her duties, does not allow  her to make  her own decision  and  actually  belittles  her  by saying  that  her  husband ‘ shall rule  over thee’Adam  and Eve engage  for most  part  in the labor and possess  an identical  range  of  intellectual  curiosity and speak  with the same  poetic  authority. They  are one  soul. Why then retain the language  of subordination.  Adam  and Eve  equality  only works if she is compliant  to him  all  the time  and remains passive  in  his  presence.

                      The  character of  Eve  has  a   lack         of  gender  equality  and  asserts  her  individuality  by  separating  from Adam  and  she  eating  apple   for  his  own  benefit.Adam tells her that  she is  unable  or unself  without  his  protection  and  push  her  to exert her  independence  anyway  that she can and even  it is  misguided and  rush. when Eve suggests  that   she  and Adam  work  separately but  Adam rejects  the  idea  of  Eve.  Adam is  exerting  his  position  as  a protector and  tells  her  that she  would  be  safest  nearest  him. this is not only  denies Eve her  independence, bunt  tells  Eve  that  she  is  in  need of   protecting. Adam  tells  Eve in book 9  when arguing  about the  separation ‘ for nothing  lovelier can be  found / in women than to study  house  hold  good / and good works  in her  husband to  promote’. Adam tries to convince  Eve that ‘ good  works in her husband  to promote’ is      high  importance for  a   women  as well as  ‘ to study  household’.

                       Eve’s   choice  to  eat  the  apple is  strictly  her own and take  independent  decision  not  influenced by  Adam. Eve  tells  Satan  ‘ The  rest  we live / law to  ourselves and  our reason is  our  law’. Eve’s firm belief that  our  is our  law  justifies her  action  as a uniquely  hers  and  not  deemed  correct  by  Adam, god and  Satan.  In bible  Genesis  describes  the  seduction  of Eve as  ‘and when  the women  saw that  the  tree  was   good  for  food  and that  it  was  pleasant  to  the  eyes and  tree  to  be    desired  to  make  wise , she  took  of  the  fruit there  of, and did  eat, and  gave  also unto  her  husband  with  her, and he  did eat’. Milton  show Eve’s  seduction  as a  fight   two  intelligence  minds. Eve  is  much  more  than foolish  and  vane  women  who  resisted  quickly   to  temptation.Her  vanity  alluded to in  the  text. it is   not  accurate  cause  for ‘ why  she ate  the apple’. Satan  play  upon Eve’s   desire    for  individual  distinction  by  presenting  the  eating  of the  apple  as  a  heroic  deed by  which  she  snatch a great destiny   for  herself and  for  mankind. here  Eve  has  a  personal  quest  to  make  her  own  decision.here  does not  appeal   to  the ‘ pleasant to  the  eyes ’ the fruit  is  like in  bible  but  it  is   the  desire to  find  knowledge  that  drives  her. Her  reasoning  for  eating the  apple  is  that , [ god] Forbids us  then taste , but his  forbidding /commends thee more while it  infers the good/by  thee communicated and our want’.

                               

                       Eve rationalizes her decision in   paradise  lost .she wishes to  acquire knowledge and  it  is  her ‘want’ that drives her to believe that  she  was  making  the right  decisions says  that ‘she was  not privileged with an  opportunity for  self- exploration  or  prompted to identify  and express  the  ‘spirit within her’Milton assert that Eve rationalized  her  actions to  be based on what  she  earlier, ‘our reason is  our law ’ .Satan  appeals  to her vanity ‘ who shouldn’t be  seen/ a goddess  among  gods adored and  served / by  angles  numberless  thy  daily train’when he  appeals  to  her  individuality and  agency. she  finally relents  and  eats the  apple.Eve  is  folly  in  eating  the apple  is  both  positive and negative for  her ,  positive   in  the  fact  that  she  asserts   her  agency  in  choosing  to  eating  it but  the  negative because  of  the repercussions.

                        In  the   final  book of   paradise  lost  Eve  loses her  independence and submits to  the  dominating  patriarchal   society.she  internalizes  her  supposed  inferiority  to man.this is  internalized  sexism  seizes Eve, she  takes  the  blame  for  the  fall  of  mankind ‘ who  for  my  willful   crime art banished  hence ’ she  and  Adam ate  the  forbidden  tree.The Beauvoir  suggest that  the  tension  Eve feels  about  her  identity as  a     women  and  as a  female  result from  the  fact That  ‘women has  to  make  herself adapt  to  norms of  femininity as  suggested  by  Adam  as  a  obedient  and  submissive and  to  be  female.Eve  as  a  women  is  biologically  a  women  but  without  the  help  of  god  or  Adam.she is not female. In  the  bible Eve deceives Adam  into  eating  the  apple but  in  paradise  lost  Adam  chooses to eat  it. The  result  are  the  same though Adam  blames Eve. Milton  revels  the  hypocrisy  of   the  patriarchal   society  no  matter  if  a   man  chooses to  do  something or  not  he  is  still  going  to  blame  the  women  in the  women  in  the  end. The  result  of this  hypocrisy  is   her  submission  for  wanting  to  resolve  a  fight  where  she  is  out numbered.Adam and  god  accuse  her  of   giving  into  temptation  of  the  sin  but  it is  Eve   who  back  down  to   finally  take  the  blame.milton  insistence  in  creating  his  own  version of  Eve  as a  more  complex  character  makes  a   bold  and  rare  statement and   Eve  took  the  blame   because  she  had  to, not  because  she  wanted  to.

                        

                                                                                                                                                                                

      conclusion:-

              In  the  western world , the  fall  of  humankind  from  garden  of Edam  is  the    story foundational  of  creation. In  the  17  century  John  Milton  rewrites the  story of  creation  in epic  from to  flesh  out  the  character and  actions  leading  to  the  fall.In both bible and in paradise  lost  Eve  is  blamed  from  humankind’s  exile  for  garden of  Adam  and   for giving  into  Satan’s  temptation  shows  Eve’s progression from  an  independent  women to a dependent women  to  show that women are not  born  submissive. here the  patriarchal  culture  surrounding  Eve in  paradise  lost, in  fact forces  her  into submission to  the point where she  internalizes it  and  making  her  a ‘ become  a  women’.   
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