"Paradise Lost": Adam and Eve's Separation

Paper Summary:

This paper surveys the development of the personal characteristics and shortcomings in both Adam and Eve in Book Four of John Milton's "Paradise Lost". These shortcomings inevitably lead to the fall in Book Nine. This paper focuses on the crucial moments directly following Eve's birth, and her subsequent actions thereafter, which foreshadow the conflict in Book Nine. The paper pays particular attention to Eve's questioning and narcissistic nature and Adam's naivety. It concludes that Adam and Eve were created to fall.

From the Paper:

"There are significant differences between Adam and Eve's first moments. Whereas Adam comes into this world equipped with innate, a priori, knowledge, Eve seems to be lacking any kind of understanding. Adam is able to form concepts, whereas Eve "feels" things, but can not make any conceptual definitions of the world. In Book Eight, from lines 268 and on, we see that Adam is surveying himself, exercising the knowledge he arrived with. He finds he is able to speak and name everything he sees. This knowledge allows him to conclude that God created everything. Eve, on the other hand, has nothing but sensations. This puts her in a position to want knowledge, and to claim that knowledge as her own."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Milton, John. "Paradise Lost." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt and M.H. Abrams. 8th ed. New York: W Norton & Company, 2006. 1931-2055.

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