Preview

Adam and Eve: an Epic Poem

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1327 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Adam and Eve: an Epic Poem
Adam and Eve What makes Adam different from Eve and vice versa? Is it because Adam happens to be a man, and Eve is a woman? Even though this happens to be a true fact, there is a deeper meaning to contrasting Adam and Eve. John Milton’s epic poem, Paradise Lost, gives key differences when contrasting Adam and Eve. Paradise Lost can be summed up as being about the creation of the world, which is known as “the paradise” and the events before and after that surrounded the creation. Along with the creation of the world came the creation of the first two human beings known to mankind, better known as Adam and Eve. Although Adam and Eve were created equally by GOD, these characters shared different thoughts and performed different actions that distinguished them from one another, which lead to them having contrasting strengths and weaknesses. When GOD was in the process of creating the first two human beings, one would predict that they would be very similar. From the physical outlook, differences between Adam and Eve could be seen easily, simply because of the physical characteristics that differentiate man and woman. But if the human eye were to somehow dig deeper beneath the skin of Adam and Eve, one could see how the two were fairly different. One way of distinguishing one from the other and contrasting the two would be the strengths that each of them possessed. With the strengths, Milton not only showed the differences through the personality, but through the actions as well. The stronger of the two or the character that possessed the most strength was Adam. Even though this choice is very much debatable, Milton backs this up with examples within Paradise Lost. Both Adam and Eve possessed thoughts, and performed actions that one would consider strength. But there are certain strengths that stick out to one’s mind, and that had an effect surrounding the story. Eve’s greatest strength was her capacity for love, emotion, and forbearance. In contrast to Adam, Eve


Cited: McMahon, Robert. The Two Poets of Paradise Lost. Louisiana: Louisiana Tate University Press, 1998. Milton, John. Edited by Teskey, Gordon. Paradise Lost. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc, 2005. Ryken, Leland. The Apocalyptic Vision in Paradise Lost. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1970. Woodhull, Marianna. The Epic of Paradise Lost Twelve Essays. New York: The Knickerbocker Press, 1907.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Milton starts off as presenting Adam as a protecting, reasonable and logical man with great authority. God created Adam with free will, so he has to make a choice to obey God’s orders of not eating from The Tree of Knowledge, or to follow Eve’s decision. Throughout the book, Milton drops hints about Adam’s flaws; For example, how Adam does not share the warnings that God and Raphael tell him about The Tree of Knowledge, or how Adam can only think about having sexual relations with Eve instead of working. Men are believed to have logical and reason, but Adam shows the trait passion, which women are believed to have. In Milton’s re-told story of The Fall, Adam is seen to have passion and Eve is seen to have reason and logical, which is complete opposite of belief (Lansbury 2). All of these actions characterized by Adam could be why he had the blame set on him for The Fall of man.…

    • 568 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    While Milton’s retelling of the biblical tale of man’s origin within Paradise Lost is true to the bible, he manages to reinvent it in a slightly different manner – a manner that brings to light new questions about the roles Adam and Eve played in the fall of human kind. Speaking more specifically, his retelling of the fall of man seems to bring up questions about how gender operates within the biblical world and how it may relate to the time Milton comes from. At face value, the portrayal of Eve suggests that she is inferior and subordinate to Adam. There seems to be a stark contrast between Adam and Eve: where Adam is strong, rational, and intelligent, Eve is naïve and narcissistic. These differences between Adam…

    • 1755 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Adam and Eve’s sin can be compared to Equality 7-2521’s sins. Adam and Eve break one and only rule in the Garden of Eden by eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God gives Adam and Eve a permission to eat any fruit in the Garden of Eden except for the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A serpent tempts Eve to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and she gives some to Adam who was with her. Equality 7-2521 breaks many laws in his dystopian society where it is a sin to “be alone, ever and at any time, for this is the great transgression and the root of all evil” (Rand 17). He had the courage to seek and find knowledge from the Unmentionable Times, and to love the woman of his choice. Adam and Eve and Equality 7-2521 are aware of what will happen next, but they still fall into temptation and are condemned from their societies. Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and the story of Equality 7-2521 are similar by falling into temptation, yet knowing that it is wrong.…

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are similarities between Equality 7-2521 and Adam. They were both born with a natural curiosity. The curiosity caused them to do something that was explicitly forbidden. This led Equality 7-2521 to rediscover something that was wiped from human memory for a great length of time as stated on page 52: “We, Equality 7-2521, have discovered a new power of nature. And we have discovered it alone, and we alone are to know it.” (Rand 41)He attempted to share his discovery but was rejected and scorned. Adam’s curiosity led him to eat the “forbidden” fruit from the tree from the center of the Garden of Eden. This action caused his banishment from the Garden of Eden. What they both committed was considered by the governing authority to be sins. Equality 7-2521 was forced to run away because he dared to have an independent mind. Adam was forced out of Eden because he did not obey God. Also……

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Perhaps the most well known story of the Holy Bible is that of the creation story. In this story, God creates the earth in six days and rests on the seventh, after creating light, dark, oceans, and animals of all types. When he feels that there should be creatures other than animals, he creates man, in His image. He names this man Adam, and then creates a counterpart for his new creation, Eve. Adam and Eve lived together in harmony with God and all the other animals in the Garden of Eden, a paradise where evil did not exist, and their only rule was to not eat from the tree of Knowledge. However, Adam and Eve, under the temptation of the serpent, showed greed, and wanted to be more like God, so they ate the fruit, in order to become like God. When compared in depth, the protagonist of the creation story, Adam, and the street sweeper, Equality 7-2521, of Ayn Rand’s Anthem are condemned men, whose stories are very similar, save one key difference.…

    • 1337 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The story of Adam and Eve is one of the most culturally important and known stories in the Bible regarding the origin of mankind. It’s generally followed by Judeo-Christians but is also grasped by other religious views, though many tend to overlook minor key details that may alter the whole interpretation. First, God created a man named Adam to primarily tend to the garden he planted in Eden. There were many trees in the garden that happened to contain two special types of trees. God allowed Adam to eat from any tree he wished, except from one specific tree. Then, God created a woman to accompany Adam who automatically became his wife. The woman came across a serpent she claimed to have deceived her. In actuality, the serpent simply told her a fact that is later proven correct with the help of her temptation. After Adam and the woman both consumed fruit from the forbidden tree, they realized that they were naked and tried to hide from God. God came to find that Adam and the woman ate from the forbidden tree because they suddenly were full of knowledge. God punished the serpent, Adam, and the woman for their disobedience. He then banished them not as another punishment but to help them avoid temptation again. Within the controversial context of the story lie theoretical themes that can be analyzed by existentialism and the Post-Freudian psychoanalytic theory of eros, thanatos, and the Oedipal Conflict. The story can be viewed using the Oedipal Conflict as God plays the role of both the mother and father figure while Adam and Eve play the role of the rebellious children. Along with this conflict, the characters of the story demonstrate existentialism qualities and carry out actions that they are either eros or thanatos.…

    • 2969 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    WILLIAMS, J. (2009, Febuary 26). Stranger than paradise. Retrieved December 29, 2009, from New York times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/books/review/Williams-t.html…

    • 1742 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the second account of creation, God first creates Adam from the dust and then creates Eve from Adam’s body. Because Eve II is created later and in a different way, she is somehow inherently different from Adam. Not only is she different but she is considered to be beneath Adam in some way because her purpose for being created was to be his “helper” in cultivating the Garden of Eden. In this story the serpent tries to tempt Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The fact that the serpent succeeds in this attempt shows that Eve II has a desire for knowledge and power; she has a desire to be more godlike. Eve II differs from her counterpart and the two Adams in the fact that she doesn’t try to imitate God through science and achievements like Adam and Eve I and she doesn’t passively try to find God in nature like Adam II. Eve II strives for knowledge and power and for a status that is equal to God. Eve II represents the curiosity of humans and an ambition that is different from that of Adam and Eve I because she is willing to do whatever it takes to get it. She searches for her own way to understand the divine and in that process become divine herself. Eve II is reckless and rebellious and therefore is a representation of the darker side of human…

    • 511 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Dien Cai Dau-Book Analysis

    • 1913 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Tate, James The Lost Pilot. The Columbia Anthology of American Poetry. 1st ed. Ed. Jay Parini. Columbia University Press, 1995. 723-724Whitman, Walt Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night. The Columbia Anthology of American Poetry. 1st ed. Ed. Jay Parini. Columbia University Press, 1995. 214-215…

    • 1913 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    One of the grappling themes of this poem is the theme of Free Will. This concept came up during the 17th century when people started becoming aware of their surroundings. The Parliament was questioning the monarch, Charles I about his expenses, policies and methods of ruling. In fact, he was the first ever ruler to be executed. And Milton, being an effective intellectual participant, found himself right in the centre of these revolutionary changes. There was a genuine attempt to understand the Bible and its teachings. In Milton’s Paradise Lost, the idea of Fall of humankind seems to be meeting with that of Free Will, time and again. Eve’s assertion to work separately is in fact an assertion of this very free will. She believes that working separately will only lead to speeding up of their job of gardening. But this personal awareness is labelled by critics as an act of violation for it contradicts Adam’s wishes. One only asks why Adam’s wishes are so important. Why is Eve’s decision not given the same credibility as that given to Adam’s? Eve was Adam’s “help meet” (help mate).This is a fundamental problem. Does Eve exist only to help Adam? Is Milton trying to say that the phallus is primary? If Eve indeed was created only to help Adam, is not her position being compared to that of animals?…

    • 1250 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Milton's story contains two arcs: one of Satan (Lucifer) and another of Adam and Eve. It begins after Satan and the other rebel angels have been defeated and banished to Hell, or as it is also called in the poem, Tartarus. In Pandæmonium, Satan employs his rhetorical skill to…

    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The story of Adam and Eve and Anthem’s Prometheus & Gaea are alike yet they aren’t. They are 2 sets of rebels living in their own worlds. They’ve shown great potential in achieving new things. No one is quite like these four. In fact, they were the building blocks of their society. Despite their unique distinctions they are somewhat alike.…

    • 688 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Milton's Grand Style

    • 1565 Words
    • 7 Pages

    John Milton was highly ambitious to be the rival poet of all the classical masters namely – Homer, Virgil, Tasso, Boccaccio, and Dante. With this end in view, he mastered all poetic arts to write his long desired epic poems, Paradise Lost, and Paradise Regain. Though he was completely blind at the time of writing these epic poems, his poetic faculty was quite aright. During his prose period, he already achieved necessary learning of poetic style for which his prose style is also highly poetical and it has the poetical sublimity. To speak the truth, Milton excelled almost all the Literary Giants in respect of the sublimity of his language and poetic style. Even his poetical master, Edmund Spenser, lacked the sublimity, grandeur, and variety of style. In general, Milton’s style may be described as almost uniquely literary and intellectual. It is loaded with learning and bookish phrases; elaborate in construction and often alien in vocabulary. It is a perfect medium for the restrained and elevated, yet it is intensely expressive of the passionate personality of the poet.…

    • 1565 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Paradise Lost – Story of Man’s religious struggle -> Paradise Regained – Man’s Struggle after his Downfall…

    • 680 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Man with the Hoe

    • 1117 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Archaic words from Chaucer, Spenser and Shakespeare: "erst," "grunsel," "welkin," "frore," "lore," "grisly," "ken" etc.…

    • 1117 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays