Of all the competing plots and themes of Paradise Lost, arguably the central and most important story is that of the original members of the humanity, Adam and Eve, and their voluntary fall from grace into sin. The nature of their relationship is complex, in which first appearances are deceptive and in which it is impossible to make general statements about who has authority and power. On the surface, Milton adheres to the pervasive sexism of his day, creating an Eve who appears to be a submissive, domestic servant commissioned by heavenly authorities to serve her man. In this chauvinistic interpretation, her decision to disobey God and eat the forbidden fruit stems from her foolish attempts to overthrow the natural human hierarchy of female inferiority and become Adam's equal. However, this reading is complicated by the enormous amount of spiritual and sexual power that Milton bestows on his Eve; she uses this power to captivate Adam with such force that he turns away from God and begins to worship Him. Despite her lack of domestic authority, Eve's endowment with this type of alternative power demonstrates the surprising complexity and value that Milton, a product of a misogynistic age, places on his female characters. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay At first glance, the relationship between Adam and Eve is clearly sexist and in favor of male authority. Adam, as God's original human creation, is the one who is meant to be the dominant personality; he directs and controls his lover both in Paradise and in the world after the Fall. Such a masculine hierarchy is legitimized by Milton, who employs divine figures to make these claims; for example, when the Son ventures from heaven to relay God's judgment on the couple, he tells Eve that "you will submit to the will of your husband, he will reign over you" (10.195). Later, the archangel Michael, arriving to expel the couple from Eden, indicates that it is obligatory for her to subordinate herself to Adam and become his possession, saying: "your husband, you are required to follow ; where he dwells, think that this is your native soil” (11.291-92). This idea of ​​"belonging" is reinforced by the very nature of Eve's creation: although she is now a fully developed person with her own thoughts and feelings, her initial formation by God was from a rib that had belonged to Adam (4.466). . By being made from a piece of him instead of being freshly created from scratch as Adam was by God, Eve becomes a sort of second-generation creation, less connected to the Lord than her male counterpart. As the source of his existence, Adam is also in some sense his creator, a second God who can claim authority as creator in the same way that God claims sovereignty over him and every other object in his universe . Adam as a helper God, ordained by the original to rule over Eve and all other creatures on Earth, can be corroborated by Milton's use of the verb "submit" to describe both his first interaction with God and the role entrusted to Eve. by the Son. Adam describes his first encounter with the "Divine Presence" after his training as "a joy, but with awe of worship at his feet I fell in submission" – a gesture of thanksgiving as well as an acknowledgment of status of God as a superior being. Interestingly, Eve's desperate apology to her husband is described in almost exactly the same words, with Milton writing that she was "now ather feet, submissive and in distress” (10.942). It is striking that not only do these two distinct scenes share the same action verb of placing oneself beneath another, larger figure, but also the exact same imagery of one figure actually falling at the feet of the other, larger figure . While Adam fell from a sense of wonder and adoration, Eve bows down here to ask for forgiveness and visually demonstrate how much she needs her admittedly better half. Not only does she admit her grief and ask for forgiveness, but she also reveals how she is literally unable to live without Adam's guidance: At his feet [she] fell humble, and, embracing them, implored his peace... don't abandon me. Adam... I beg you, and I hug your knees... where I live, your gentle looks, your help, my only strength and my only support: abandoned by them, where will I take myself, where survive? (10.911-923) Here, Eve admits her folly in eating the fruit that God strictly forbade them to consume and then forcing her partner to do the same, but more importantly, she also apologizes for having always tried to be Adam's equal. During her temptation by Satan (the serpent), she admits that one of the incentives to eat the apple would be its ability to "make me more equal, and perhaps, not undesirably, sometimes superior", followed by her confession direct from his discontent with Adam's hegemony, asking himself "for the inferiors, who is free?" At the time, consuming the forbidden fruit and gaining the knowledge of good and evil seemed like the perfect way to allow her to get a head start on Adam and add parity to their relationship, while granting him more of power to dictate one's own life. However, after seeing the consequences of her attempts at independence, Eve's request for forgiveness illustrates her recognition that the natural order is one where she is subordinate to Adam and that, had she initially obeyed his initial wish to working together, his weakness would never have been exposed by Satan. The fact that her apology for breaking God's commandment is not addressed to the Almighty, but to her husband, shows how priority it is for her to appease him and obtain his forgiveness. Contrary to this clearly sexist reading of the relationship between Adam and Eve, where the man was apparently given the power to rule over his wife in the same way that God has dominion over men, another interpretation exists where Eve is seen as an equal who wields an alternative type of influence that makes her a match, if not superior, to her husband. One of the simplest and strongest arguments for equality of the sexes comes from the mouth of Adam himself, who asks God not for another creature to rule over like all the other animals in the world. Earth, but rather someone on their own level, asking "among unequals, what society can sort, what harmony or what true pleasure?" » (7.382-83). Having seen all other creatures have a partner who perfectly complements them, he is particularly aware of his loneliness and inability to bond with other species, saying to God: "I speak of communion such as I seek, apt to participate in all rational pleasures, in which the brute cannot be a human wife” (7.390-92). For Adam, the most important part of finding a partner is not sexual pleasure (which he has yet to experience because no one exists yet to allow him to share that experience), but rather having someone 'one with whom he can share and tell this unique experience. experiences of a human being on whom there is no burden of being a master or a servant. Even the last line of the poem creates an image of unity: Adam and Eve leave.