How Does Eve Get Away From The Tree Of Knowledge?
In Paradise Lost by John Milton, Adam and Eve share a strong marital bond, but in the beginning, God and Adam share a godlike relationship that surpasses it. Adam sits higher than Eve in the hierarchy, in which Adam uses his authority to instruct his inferior counterpart, Eve. God creates Paradise and decides to give Adam and Eve free will to choose how they want to live their lives. God only gives Adam and Eve one condition: do not eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. However, Eve’s free will leads her to temptations that invoke her curious thoughts. Acting on her thoughts, Eve eats the forbidden fruit that God outlawed. After eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, Eve challenges the established hierarchy because she refuses to be Adam’s
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Eve’s self-love combined with Milton’s incorporation of free will exposes her weaknesses and ability to be manipulated by temptations, which in this case is the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. To escape Adam’s superiority and please her curiosity, Eve tries to remove herself from Adam’s presence to go adventure Paradise by saying, “Let us divide our labors, thou where choice leads thee or where most needs… casual discourse draws on, which intermits our day’s work brought to little” (9.214-224). Eve is beginning to believe she was not made for Adam, but that she can be independent and make decisions without Adam’s approval. In a journal article about equality in Paradise Lost, Elisabeth Liebert adds her viewpoint on why Eve wanders off on her own as she says, “[Eve] Attempted to step out of the role of inferior, of acolyte, and into the role of equal by adopting elements of a more masculine discourse and by appropriating those qualities characteristic of Adam’s means of knowing: authority and reason” (Liebert 159). Liebert’s claim suggests that as Eve was changing to become independent for herself, she was adopting Adam’s authoritative traits that would deem her equal to Adam and change the hierarchy. Adam tries to persuade Eve not leave his side, as she does not use reason to defend herself from evil temptations like he does: “Leave not the faithful side… the wife, where danger or dishonor lurks, safest and seemliest by her husband stays, who guards her or with her the worst endures” (9.265-269). Adam’s ability to reason out problems is far greater than Eve’s, but she insists that she can handle Satan or any other evils that arise. Eve uses her beauty to charm Adam, which results in her being able to make her own decision, even against Adam’s better judgment. Since Eve can persuade Adam to be submissive and agree with her decisions, this proves she is changing the structure of the hierarchy to become Adam’s
Eve’s self-love combined with Milton’s incorporation of free will exposes her weaknesses and ability to be manipulated by temptations, which in this case is the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. To escape Adam’s superiority and please her curiosity, Eve tries to remove herself from Adam’s presence to go adventure Paradise by saying, “Let us divide our labors, thou where choice leads thee or where most needs… casual discourse draws on, which intermits our day’s work brought to little” (9.214-224). Eve is beginning to believe she was not made for Adam, but that she can be independent and make decisions without Adam’s approval. In a journal article about equality in Paradise Lost, Elisabeth Liebert adds her viewpoint on why Eve wanders off on her own as she says, “[Eve] Attempted to step out of the role of inferior, of acolyte, and into the role of equal by adopting elements of a more masculine discourse and by appropriating those qualities characteristic of Adam’s means of knowing: authority and reason” (Liebert 159). Liebert’s claim suggests that as Eve was changing to become independent for herself, she was adopting Adam’s authoritative traits that would deem her equal to Adam and change the hierarchy. Adam tries to persuade Eve not leave his side, as she does not use reason to defend herself from evil temptations like he does: “Leave not the faithful side… the wife, where danger or dishonor lurks, safest and seemliest by her husband stays, who guards her or with her the worst endures” (9.265-269). Adam’s ability to reason out problems is far greater than Eve’s, but she insists that she can handle Satan or any other evils that arise. Eve uses her beauty to charm Adam, which results in her being able to make her own decision, even against Adam’s better judgment. Since Eve can persuade Adam to be submissive and agree with her decisions, this proves she is changing the structure of the hierarchy to become Adam’s