The Influence Of Milton's Views On Eve

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Milton’s thoughts and views on Eve are a reflection of his thoughts on the nature of women. During the age of Milton, the belief that women were the reason for the fall of mankind was a main theological view, as suggested by The Bible. The view transcends past the Christian culture and stretches to the Greeks as even they have their own Eve. Unlike majority of biblical writers, Milton shows little restraint as he sublimely refers to Eve as the inferior.

Due to the ingenuity of Milton’s mind and the intervention of divine figures, he was able to create his own alterations and additions to the Bible, the book of Genesis to be more specific.

There are a few additions he made to Eve that stood out as noteworthy to me. For instance, the word that reoccurred many times with regards to Eve was her ‘loveliness’. Both Adam and even Satan made notice of her physical beauty. Adam did this when he was speaking to Raphael in book 8, line 547. This was an interesting reiteration to use the first few times but it ultimately became so prominent that it began to contrast her innocent nature. So much mention of her beauty began to sound like a foreshadowing of her beauty leading to the fall of man.
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Satan takes the form of a snake and sees Eve, he proclaimed of how happy he was to not see Adam seeing as he is of a higher intellectual capacity than Eve. Needless to say, he is ready to take advantage of this. Eve ultimately succumbs to the articulate words of Satan. The receiving of knowledge is a great experience for her. She ponders on whether or not to share this new found knowledge with her husband or to keep it to herself so as to “render more equal” (Book 9, 823]. This is the first moment in the poem that Eve desires equality and transgresses against the normative

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