Content Category
Literary Criticism
Abstract/Description
A contradiction exists in John Milton’s Paradise Lost of Eve being simultaneously demeaned and esteemed. My paper focuses on these contradictions and explores the way in which Eve transcends the demeaned by analyzing the role of the female gender throughout the poem, epitomized by both Eve and female-gendered nonhuman entities: the Earth, the Garden of Eden, Reason, and Sin. This paper also delves into scenes of the poem that may at first seem oppressive for Eve, but that are actually complementary to the role of Eve and the female gender. This analysis serves to then uphold Eve as a representation of the powerful female gender that moves and creates throughout the poem, opposite from some of today’s critical theories with Eve being representative of an oppressive patriarchy.
Copyright and Licensing of My Content
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Location
B192 JFSB
Start Date
20-3-2015 1:45 PM
End Date
20-3-2015 3:00 PM
Included in
Eve Transcending Demeaned: The Construct of Female Gender in Paradise Lost
B192 JFSB
A contradiction exists in John Milton’s Paradise Lost of Eve being simultaneously demeaned and esteemed. My paper focuses on these contradictions and explores the way in which Eve transcends the demeaned by analyzing the role of the female gender throughout the poem, epitomized by both Eve and female-gendered nonhuman entities: the Earth, the Garden of Eden, Reason, and Sin. This paper also delves into scenes of the poem that may at first seem oppressive for Eve, but that are actually complementary to the role of Eve and the female gender. This analysis serves to then uphold Eve as a representation of the powerful female gender that moves and creates throughout the poem, opposite from some of today’s critical theories with Eve being representative of an oppressive patriarchy.