Paradise Lost by John Milton is centered in a perfect existence: the Garden of Eden and its two inhabitants, Adam and Eve. The foundation of the story is creation and then the demise, or the Fall of humankind. Milton’s epic retelling of these events focuses on how Satan, Adam and Eve’s actions contribute and lead up to the Fall. The course Satan pursues to lead the couple into temptation is well observed and planned out, which explains the reason he approaches Eve rather than Adam. He is able to tempt Eve with intellectual language, flattery, and the promise of things she has subconsciously sought since she awoke into her new existence. In return, Adam is tempted not by Satan to disobey God, but by his own wife Eve. Milton is successful in creating the reader to feel sympathy for each character at different times, which causes complexity when deciphering who is ultimately to blame: Adam or Eve? In Paradise Lose, Adam and Eve are tempted to eat the fruit from The Tree of Knowledge by different methods, and by default are both to blame for the Fall.
Eve, from the time she comes to be in Paradise, questions her existence. Her first thoughts upon waking are “wondering where and what I was, whence thither brought, and how” (IV.451-452). She shares these thoughts and her findings of the path leading to the river reflecting her own face. During this interaction, Satan observes the adamant and obedient Adam, but also the curious and knowledge-seeking Eve. He learns God has given them one rule not to break: to not eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. In consideration of her search for identity, independency, and knowledge— Eve appears to be the obvious target for Satan to carry out his plan of the couple succumbing to temptation, therefor exacting revenge on God.
In Book IX, Eve exudes her search for independence by suggesting to Adam that they work separately for the day to complete the large workload ahead of them. Although hesitant, he obliges, and this is where Satan elatedly finds Eve on her lonesome to confront her. He is very clever with his methods of communication before hurtling straight into persuading Eve into eating the fruit. He entices her with flattery by complimenting her beauty, elegance, and basically worshiping her for these vanities in a god-like manner. Satan is aware his flattery is highly effective since Eve was earlier enamored with her own reflection. Next, he attacks another one of her weaknesses: the desire for knowledge. Eve is amazed at the swiftness of Satan’s, or technically the serpent’s, tongue since she has never experienced someone in the Garden speak with such intellect. The curiosity and flattery Satan provokes out of Eve leads her to follow him to what then she realizes is the tree that holds the forbidden fruit.
As Eve is persuaded, and ultimately eats the forbidden fruit, it is easy to view her as selfish, narcissistic, or even a villain with the likes of Satan. In reality, she is an individual with a very limited knowledge of the world she was brought into and a bursting curiosity of what the place is and who she is. Her intent when eating the fruit, although disobedient, is not with malicious intent. She is naïve and innocent, with a burning desire to feed her hunger for independency, knowledge and power. She does not understand that these are the factors of which will bring the Fall of humankind. At this point in her story, she cannot genuinely grasp what true evil or even death is, which she exemplifies by saying she does not believe her or Adam are “capable of death or pain” (IX.283). Satan only further “proves” how Eve feels and that God’s warnings must be false since he, the serpent, is still alive and speaking eloquently. In conclusion to his temptation of Eve to eat the Forbidden fruit, he utilizes his arguments to support himself and dispute God, and in the end Eve is not equipped to fight this on the same intellectual level as Satan.
While Eve’s weaknesses pertain to knowledge and independency—Adam’s weakness is beauty and Eve, herself. Satan does not have to tempt Adam firsthand, but rather uses Eve as a vessel to do so. After eating the fruit, and overindulging in it, the first thing she does is run to Adam and gives him a retelling of the day’s events. At first panicked and disappointed at the news, he ultimately comes to the conclusion that he does not want to be without Eve. Throughout Paradise Lost, Adam’s character seemingly lacks an identity and it makes sense that he would look to a stronger character, like Eve, to guide his decision-making. Eve’s jealousy of him finding a replacement for her, along with Adam’s inability to go on living without Eve, is responsible for his temptation and ending decision to eat the Forbidden fruit, even though he understands this means they are now doomed.
The difference in the pair’s sinning is that Eve craves knowledge and eats the fruit by choice, whereas Adam does so because he feels he has no other option. It is hard to play the blame game when there are three such prominent characters playing a part: Satan, Adam, and Eve. Obviously, Satan is at fault for setting the entire Fall of humankind into action, and it would be easy to place all of the blame on his first target, Eve. The facts are all there: she is tempted and sins first, and then goes on to bring Adam down with her. But when he is asked if he tasted the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, Adam is unsure whether or not to take responsibility or to place the blame solely on Eve. He settles on something in between and replies that Eve “gave me of the tree, and I did eat” (IX.174). I think to say that both Adam and Eve are to blame is the fairest response due to one important concept: free will.
Simply put, Satan has malicious intent, Eve sins first, and Adam follows in her footsteps for her. The downfall is a domino effect, a waterfall that trickled down into what was to be the Fall of humankind. The truth of the blame game is that every one possesses free will and makes their decisions. Satan is the true one to blame, and we see that his punishment is greater than that of Adam and Eve. In conclusion, Adam and Eve are tempted to sin in different ways but neither necessarily holds more blame than the other since they both have God’s gift of free will.
Work Cited
Lawall, Sarah N. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. Print.
Literary Mouthful 