Feminism In Milton's Paradise Lost

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Name: -  Charmi Vyas

Roll no: - 52

Study: - M.A Sem 1

Year: -  2017- 2019

Topic: - Feminism and Milton’s Paradise Lost

Paper: - 1. The Renaissance Literature

Submitted To – Department of English, Bhavnagar university, Bhavnagar.

·      Introduction

                                                                                               John Milton

John Milton was born in 9 December 1608 and dead in 8 November 1674. He was an English poet .he was known for his ‘ Paradise Lost ‘ . paradise lost is greatest epic poem in English literature. paradise lost might not seem like a text that feminist readers would want to pay lots of attention to, but don't you just love it?Jonh Milton set out to "justify the ways of God to man," which is pretty darn gutsy, if we do say so ourselves. And whether or not you think he succeeded, you've gotta give him cred for his mad versifying skills.

Especially if complex metaphors and finely tuned conceits really float your boat, you've got to think it's pretty darn cool that Milton made all of Satan's speeches tricky and totally twisty, while the voice of his God shines through simple and pure? And how awesome are those archangel battle scenes? Much as we loves us some Supernatural, the show's got nothing on this. That is, until you ask Eve what she's got to say, because Milton sure doesn't.

Feminism in Paradise lost

milton’s  construction of Eve in Paradise Lost is beset with dithering ambiguity, with her identity being defined and redefined within. The text has been construed during the Restoration, on the backdrop of the libertine culture and the increasingly active social role of women. Women’s identities were being redefined in terms of their virtue and ‘use’ value while their autonomy was being questioned. Milton’s portrayal of Eve has been touted both anti and proto-feminist, often derived from her interactions with Adam and later, Satan. Questions about her autonomy as a ‘reasoning’ self constantly under the gaze in a masculine ethos are thrashed out in the epic, with the ambiguities being highlighted in Book ix. Milton’s Eve is quite different from her Bible counterpart, for here, her character is allowed much visual and discursive space, with focusing on her evolving sexuality and thresulting effects.

Milton really stresses the strength of Eve's appetite and physical desire  and he downplays her mental capabilities. Sound familiar? Welcome to the entire history of Western philosophy where reason is associated with the mens, and low-down bodily desires are left the wimens.

 Milton is one of Christ’s most famous alumni, making the college a very good place to undertake work about him both in a practical sense and in a more wishy-washy it feels right sense.  Practically it means that college have a very fine collection of Milton’s works, both in modern critical editions and, crucially, in first printed editions.

They have some eight  copies of the first printing of Paradise Lost, for example, and the library staff, friendly and helpful as they are, are more than happy for undergraduates to have a little look at them. The college also produced a very good online resource for studying Paradise Lost, which is well worth a look for anyone interested in getting a flavor of what it is like to study English at university. You can find it here. In the wishy-washy “it feels right” sense, it means that you can visit the rooms Milton was rumored to keep as an undergraduate, the mulberry tree planted in the year of his birth, look at his portraits  in hall and generally tread the paths that he trod around college. It also allows you to feel a part of the academic community that first birthed Milton and then fostered a long and proud critical Miltonic tradition.  

But before we go any further, a quick plot summary of the poem itself.  Paradise Lost is a long poem written in 12 sections which traces the story of the fall of Satan from Heaven, the creation of Adam and Eve, their first days in Eden, their temptation and fall and their expulsion from the Garden via some wars in Heaven  and quite a lot of chat between Raphael and Adam about the creation of the world and what God is like. It is some of the most engaging and beautiful poetry written in English, and is, at times, profoundly moving. The creation account in Book 7 is particularly epic when God creates the seas: “boundless the deep for  I am who fill infinitude”. 

Unfortunately, I promised you tiresome misogyny, and the critical tradition around Paradise Lost does not disappoint. Eve is routinely held up, both in the period in which Milton was writing and in more modern times, as the cause of the Fall of Man. The basic premise of my dissertation was that this is unfair, and that Milton actually puts the blame far more on Adam for the Fall than he does on Eve. My argument was that the Fall of Man was actually better understood as an act of falling that happened between the creation of Eve and Adam’s eating of the apple, with Adam consistently messing up in the period between those two points and so effectively causing his own fall and that of Eve because of his inability to submit his passion for Eve to his reason. 

I  have  been fortunate enough to come up to Cambridge at a time when there is a broad and serious awareness of feminist issues and there are lots of opportunities to talk about issues to do with sexism both at an institutional level and more informally with other students. These discussions have had a big impact on my academic work. One of the great things about English as a subject is that it allows you to develop your own critical voice by taking in academic theory and criticism alongside cultural debate.

 My ‘feminist’ reading of Paradise Lost was very different to that of previous generations of feminist critics, but it was wholly rooted in close reading passages of text and I was able to engage within that academic tradition in a way that made me feel like I had something unique and useful to contribute and in a way that was an honest reflection of my own feminist leanings. There is a lot still to be done to address the way in which women are treated in our society and around the world and undertaking a project like this at Cambridge allowed me to address a small area of academia in which a woman has been mistreated and misrepresented and to sharpen my critical tools in order to address such mistreatment in other places

 Adam’s statement that a wife is “safest and seemliest”  when with her husband reflects the attitude of 17th century society: women are helpless and endangered without men, and they need their husbands’ guidance. These same “chauvinistic and incorrect” ideals are shown in Paradise Lost yet the “attitudes that are in the poem that show Eve to be of a weak character are to be satirized and criticized not taken seriously as Milton own opinion. Diane Kelsey McCauley declares that “far from being Milton’s ‘own voice’ Adam’s diatribes…epitomize stale antifeminine commonplaces still lingering in Milton’s lifetime”. Milton does not present his personal point of view in Adam’s outlook, but rather includes the position as “a useful guide to the perverse response we are not to make” in order to denounce the narrow-minded ideas and inspire readers to challenge them. 

in Eve’s nature, even after Eve learns the Creation story and has Adam for a companion.  she continues to yearn for more knowledge. Thus wishing to secure a place for herself in Eden through knowledge Eve steadily “moves from uncertainty to security and contentment” Awakening in the Garden of Eden as though from a dream, Eve searches for her identity and her place in Paradise. Satan provides Eve with a chance to gain knowledge and to become god-like. As Eve is not an equal companion for Adam, she seeks independence from her husband.

Persistence and longing are dominant in Eve’s nature; even after Eve learns the Creation story and has Adam for a companion.  She continues to yearn for more knowledge. Thus, wishing to secure a place for herself in Eden through knowledge.  Eve steadily moves from uncertainty to security and contentment  and shifts her loyalty away from the disembodied God to the more concrete realities of Satan and the Tree of Knowledge. 

Full of self purpose, Eve explores her surroundings in order to find answers to her questions of identity. Staring at her reflection in the water, Eve feels happy and secure. God, however, tears Eve away from her dream world, her world of contentment. Eve’s brief but significant bondage to her reflection shows that she loves herself and longs to understand herself bette  for the reflection is of herself. This, however, is not narcissism because Eve thinks that the reflection in the water is of another being, not of her.