Assignment-Character study of Eve

Assignment  

Character Study Of Eve

Name : Asha R. Dhedhi

Roll no : 02

Paper :The Renaissance Literature

Semester :M.A. Sem-1

Topic : Character Study  of  Eve

Submitted to : Smt. S.B.Gardi 

                      Department of English

Introduction

"To be blind is not miserable,

not to be able to bear blindness, that is miserable."

John Milton is best known for his remarkable work "Paradise Lost" , a great epic in the history of English literature. In his prose work he tries to advocate the abolishment of church in England. Milton was a Puritan so he believed in the power of the Bible and against religious places like churches. Milton dedicated his.whole life to art, music and literature. John Milton's career expanded during three eras, he used to write during these three time periods called…

• Stuart England; The Civil War(1642-1648)
• Interregnum Commonwealth(1649-1653) 
• Protectorate(1654-1666)
• The Restoration Age

Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost(1667)  is a marvelous creation by Milton, great epic in Blank verse. Paradise Lost is a story of retelling from the Bible of "Fall of man" and "Humans First disobedience to God" The story describes God's ways to man. Fall of Man from Heaven, this story in the Bible covers only countable pages but here Milton with his artistic and unique style described the same story in 12 Books. John Dryden quoted in his work named "Life of Milton" that…

"This man cuts us all out, and the ancients too.”

After reading Paradise Lost Dryden Quoted this line for his awesome creation. Here is a harmonious arrangement of words. Consist the reader's attention from beginning to the end of Epic. Poem is very simple and there is also use of circumstantial references to enrich plot structure. Characters from Paradise Lost are….

• God (Christ)
• Angels
• Adam
• Eve
• Satan 

These are some major characters of the novel.

Character of Eve

Book 9 is the climax of all books, and throws more effect on the character of Adam, Eve and Satan. It is Eve's disobedience, that causes the fall of man from heaven in good and evil.

Eve is the First Woman on the Earth, called Mother of Mankind. Milton portrays her as a typical woman, physically attractive and Beautiful. Not physically so strong or one intellectual as well so easily convinced and seduced by Satan to eat Fruit of Knowledge. In this Book Eve is shown as argumentative. She makes arguments with Adam and then Satan also...but still she fails and the Temptation Scene happens.

Meaning of Eve

Eve is an English name for a female, the word is derived from latin word "Eva" which is originally from hebrew word Chavah means to breath, to live, to give life. So the Meaning of Eve is "living." The name of Eve uttered only five times in the Bible. According to Catholic Encyclopedia Eve is used more as a verb rather than a noun or name. She is the mother of all living things and she is a woman because her life came into existence. So, Eve's name is given by Adam.

Eve is created to be equal with Adam in dignity. Eve was created from Adam's rib from his side. This means that she is equal to Adam. There is a nice depiction…

Grace was in all her steps,

Heaven in her eye,

In every gesture dignity 

and love.

      

Eve is created under Adam's arm so he can protect her and near heart so he can love. Men and women both are helpmates to each other. They are equal in status so no one can say that Eve is Inferior to Adam. But Eve himself behaves in a manner that is lower to Adam. When there is a meeting between angels and Adam, Raphael's discussion about war in heaven she used to walk away from there. The implied idea here is that Eve understands her position in the hierarchical arrangement and leaves this conversation so that she will not want to make an interruption between their conversation and automatically she considers herself as lower to Adam.

Eve is a simpler and strong character than Adam. She is created from Adam's rib as his helpmate or companion. She is beautiful, wise, and able, she is superior to Adam only in her beauty. From the time of her creation, sje falls in love with herself, when she looks in the water and falls in love with her own reflection, Eve is linked to the flaw of vanity, and Satan knows her weakness, as the serpent he uses praises her beauty as a weapon against her.

Before the fall, Eve is generally portrayed as lower and submissive to Adam and, to some extent, she is dependent on him. Her reasoning power is not as vital as Adam has. It is not fully realized. However, Milton doesn't want to show a lack of intelligence on Eve's part. 

 

Everywhere we can see Eve does have a tendency now and then to  ask and question Adam, but she does  in a rational, respectful manner. But In Book IX, such questioning leads to temptation. Eve tells Adam at the start of Book IX that she decided that they can do more work if they work separately because then there is no scope for talking and seeing each other. Adam knows that Eve is more easily caught in a trap tricked by Satan if she is alone and still she is arguing for work separately. Here her argument is more powerful.she questions on Maker Wise. Adam's love for Eve allows him to go and work separately and he lets her go. Most of the critics see this action from Adam's point of view as it is an example of his uxoriousness. He agreed to Eve's argument not only because her argument is better, but he does not want to hurt her emotions. On the other hand Eve wins the argument by knowingly using her advantages over Adam. Eve herself creates problems for her own and she also knows that it is not an easy task to deal with Satan alone.

Eve fails in the trap of temptation through a combination of flattery, of some praiseworthy words and little sophistication by the serpent. Satan is happy to find Eve alone and Because he knows that it is not easy to convince Adam to eat fruit from the forbidden tree. He is a difficult opponent for satan. Satan knows Eve's weaknesses very well  and he also knows how to play on them.

After eating the fruit, Eve immediately changes. She became afraid and can't even imagine what kind of punishment will be given to her. She begins to think of ways of escape and how to become equal to Adam or perhaps  superior to him. But, in a fear of losing Adam to another female creation, she decides that he must eat the fruit also.Eve eat this fruit by his curiosity and independence. She wants  freedom and to get knowledge superior. She is the one who eats the fruit the first time, that is why God gives  more punishment than Adam. She has given a punishment to give birth to new life by passing through the pain of nine month. Which is quite hilarious punishment to women. Adam also eats the fruit for the sake of his love.Adam does so not because of Eve's arguments. He eats fruit willfully because he is unwilling to be parted from Eve. He doesn't want any other Eve, He only loves this Eve and doesn't want to leave her.

After the fall, Eve, like Adam, is depressed. They both came on earth and together try to survive and make reproduction and because of that human existence is possible now. 

Eve is not a feminist heroine. Like so many characters in the epic, she has also been assigned a role in the hierarchy of the universe. Milton does not denigrate women through the character of Even he doesn't even want to show women Inferior. he simply follows the thought of his time and portrait  the role of women in society is during his time period Eve has as many important responsibilities as Adam, but in the hierarchy of the universe, she falls just below him. Eve is greeted by Adam like..

"Daughter of God and Man…

Immortal Eve"

Conclusion

To sum up, Here, Milton tries to portray the character of Eve as Independant and rebellious. And in his freedom she does something wrong which cannot be healed at any cost. Feminism is also shown through the character of Eve. Like a woman should obey her husband and they are for the service of their husband only. Whenever needed she makes arguments and even raises questions against God. She is the first woman who eats the fruit from the forbidden tree and the fall of man happens. 

"For the last two thousand years or so, Eve has represented the fundamental character and identity of all women. Through Eve's words and actions, the true nature of women was revealed; her story tells men what women are really like."

Eve represents everything about a woman a man should guard against. In both form and symbol, Eve is a woman and because of her, the prevalent belief in the West has been that all women are by nature disobedient, guileless, weak-willed, prone to temptation and evil, disloyal, untrustworthy, deceitful, seductive, and motivated in their thoughts and behaviour purely by self-interest.