Importance of Preserving the Union in John Milton’s Paradise Lost Essay

The Importance of Preserving the Union in Paradise Lost Critics have long argued over the power structure in operation(p) in the gender relations of Miltons Paradise Lost. However, to really understand tenner and Eve and the intricacies of their relationship, it is necessary to view them in terms of a union, not as separate people vying for power. Because they are a union of contraries, the power dilemma is a moot point even though a hierarchy exists it is a hierarchy of knowledge, not of power, and it in no way implies that transport needs Eve any less than she needs him. Actually, they both need from each one otherwise equally as much because they each have strengths and weaknesses that are complemented by the other&emdash this necessarily leads to their interdependency. They are opposites, each with their own limitations (which Milton makes clear particularly by means of their creation narratives and their pre-fall relationship), who come together to form a very powerful and cohesive union. Everything that Adam and Eve do throughout the story of Paradise Lost, some obviously during and after the Fall, is directed at preserving their union. The balance of their relationship changes after the Fall and allows for the redemption of the union as well as humankind. Milton shows the opposite natures of Adam and Eve throughout their creation narratives. Adam is created during the day, and his creation emphasizes the heat of the sun As hot wakt from soundest sleepSoft on the flourie herb I put together me laidIn Balmie Sweat, which with his Beames the SunSoon drid. (8.253-56) The sun is both light and heat, and it plays an important role in Adams creation The sun helps creation by drying Adam (Flannagan 441). Conversely, Ev... ...woman they are two forces which must remain in balance, or if they change, they must change according to each other and come to terms with a new union. The relationship of Adam and Eve changes greatly in the course of Paradise L ost and though they lose much of what they begin with, they end with what they need each other and a newly defined union whose terms they both accept. Works Cited Froula, Christine. When Eve Reads Milton Undoing the Canonical Economy. John Milton. Ed. Annabel Patterson. New York Longman, 1992. 142-164. McColley, Diane Kelsey. Miltons Eve. Chicago U of Illinois P, 1934. Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Ed. Roy Flannagan. New York Macmillan, 1993. Webber, Joan Malory. The Politics of Poetry Feminism and Paradise Lost. Milton Studies. Vol. 14. Ed. James D. Simmonds. Pittsburgh U of Pittsburgh P, 1980. 3-24.