Blog 10 Close Read

              Based on the text of this passage, Milton portrays Eve, and subsequently women in general, as irrelevant without a male figure, weak, and susceptible to manipulation. Eve’s statement that she “was formed flesh of [Adam’s] flesh, and without whom am to no end” (441-442) suggests that without Adam, not only would she not exist, but she would also have no purpose to exist. Her referral to Adam as her “guide / and head” (442-443) asserts that her head or her thoughts are not her own notions, but instead she adopts Adam’s viewpoints. Eve's dependence on Adam’s thoughts suggests that she will unwisely make decisions without Adam's help. Milton creates ambiguity in lines 445-447 when Eve says, “I chiefly, who enjoy / So far the happier lot, enjoying thee / preeminent by so much odds.”  But, it appears as though she is calling Adam’s superiority the cause of her enjoyment. Their inequality is further indicated by Adam’s strength and intellect while Eve is his ideal wife due to her beauty. Yet when they become inseparable, Adam sees “how beauty is excelled by manly grace / and wisdom” (490-491). These lines assert that Eve is deemed inferior in comparison to Adam, and she knows this and respects her place. Milton presents Eve as weak when she reflects on her first day and how she “had fixed [her] eyes…and pined with vain desire” (465-466) due to her reflection’s beauty. This suggests that she is susceptible to her own narcissism. The voice that forces her away from the lake indicates that she is easily manipulated. While the reader sees that the voice is saving her from self-affection, Eve does not even question the voice’s command, but instead follows it. This and Eve’s other weaknesses foreshadow her vulnerability to Satan’s manipulation.