In Paradise Lost written by John Milton, there is a very sexist depiction of womankind through the character Eve. Relating to the traditional biblical story about the fall of humans, Eve is of course at the forefront of blame for this. It was Eve who convinced Adam to eat the apple that God had forbidden them to eat. Aemilia Lanyer's poem titled "Eve's Apology in Defense of Women," like Paradise Lost, regards Eve as the weaker of the two sexes. However, Lanyer's story differs in that it blames Adam for the fall of humans since he was supposed to be the better of the two sexes. All in all, both of these stories decide to blame either the man or the woman instead of looking at the faults of both sexes.
Before jumping into how Eve behaves in Paradise Lost, first let us examine Eve's origins and the way Eve is depicted. First, Eve came from Adam's body (specifically Adam's rib). Thus, since Adam came before Eve, she can be no greater than him. In Book 4, as well as in other places, it is clearly said that Adam's and Eve's "sex [is] not equal" (4.296). In Book 9, Adam directly assigns women a gender role, saying "nothing lovelier can be found/ In woman, than to study household good,/ And good works in her husband to promote" (9.232-234). In Book 8, the angel Raphael acknowledges Eve's…show more content… The reason for this is because Adam is the leader. Even after Eve had already disobeyed God and ate the fruit, Adam was supposed to neglect the fruit for himself. Interestingly, it was not that Eve applied to Adam's intellect in order to get him to eat the fruit like Satan did to Eve. He questions how he would feel if another Eve was made for him and concludes that he could never forget the first Eve. Thus, "Against his better knowledge, not deceived,/ But fondly overcome with female charm" (Milton
