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THE EDUCATION of EVE: Milton

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THE EDUCATION of EVE: Milton THE EDUCATION OF EVE: Milton Milton considers a "compleat and gener• ous Education" to be "that which fits a man to perform justly, skillfully and magnanimously all his offices." Apply• ing this dictum to Eve's case, let us first examine what constitutes Eve's offices and then attempt to assess whether the education she receives fits , . i l. her to perform them. by Jo-Anne Isaak K We are told in Book Seven that man was created ... to adore And worship God Supreme, who made him chief Of all his works.(2) In his temptation scenes (The Lady in This applies to woman as well, but the Comus, Eve in Paradise Lost, Christ in raison d'etre for Eve is delineated Paradise Regained and Samson in Samson more fully in Book Eight when Adam Agonistes) Mllton focuses upon a problem "presumed" upon God in asking for a that had become a Christian preoccupa• companion. The ensuing debate takes tion—the relationship between knowledge up almost one hundred lines, forcing and virtue. In each case the equation us to ask the point of this highly is clear: those who are knowledgeable improbable exchange between man and are able to resist temptation, while God. We are told, at the close of the those who are not, succumb. In Paradise debate, that God "knew it not good for Lost Milton takes pains to show that God man to be alone" (VIII, 445) , and the is not remiss in equipping Adam with the debate ends when God answers: valuable moral stay of an education. Thus far to try thee, Adam, I was The education of Adam has received a pleased, great deal of critical attention,(1) but And find thee knowing not of what of Eve's education? Critics have beasts alone, ignored this question, apparently assum• Which thou has rightly named, but ing that Eve receives more or less the of thyself. same education as Adam. In Of Education (VIII, 437-439) This statement accomplishes two ends Man "worships and adores the human simultaneously: it gives God's sanction beauty as an image of the divine to Adam's argument for the creation of beauty [and] desires to create another woman and it indicates succinctly the form like this." (143) "Generation, text of Adam's speech—self-knowledge. which is a divine function, is carried Adam recognizes that he, in contra• out exactly and easily in that which distinction to God, is not self- is beautiful, and the contrary in the sufficient, immutable or perfect. This opposite." (203) Thus, by a process deficiency, Adam explains, is "the of natural selection the divine at• cause of his desire" for a companion. tributes of mankind are amplified. But He hopes "By conversation with his like Adam's request of God is not only for to help/Or solace his defects." (VIII, the means of propagation; he desires 418-419). Further, because man is de• "collateral love"—a principal means by fective in the single state, pro• which, according to Ficino, man gains creation is necessary. knowledge of God: "The passion of a . Man by number is to mani• lover is not quenched by the mere touch fest or sight of a body, for it does not de• His single imperfection, and beget sire this or that body, but desires the Like of his like, his Image mul• splendor of the divine light shining tiplied, through bodies, and is amazed and awed In unity defective, which requires by it." (140) Through Love, "God draws Collateral love, and dearest the world to Himself . there is one ami t i e. continuous attraction, beginning with (VIII, 422-426) God, going to the world and ending at last in God, an attraction which re• For insight into the significance of turns to the same place whence it be• the argument Adam propounds for the gan as though in a kind of circle." creation of woman one can turn to the (134) Adam instinctively realizes that Neoplatonic theory of love elaborated in the experience of human love and in by Ficino in his Commentary on Plato's the desire to procreate lie the way to Sympos i urn: "God alone, in whom nothing transcendence. For love "leads up to is lacking, above whom there is nothing, heav'n, is both the way and guide." remains satisfied in Himself and suf• (VIII, 613) Later Raphael confirms ficient i n H i msel f. "( 1 59) (3) Man, Adam's realization and tells him fur• lacking this self-sufficiency, must ther that "Love refines/The thoughts, extend himself. He has within himself and heart enlarges, hath his seat/In the divine element of Beauty, which reason, and is judicious, is the scale/ "is a kind of force or light, shining By which to heavenly Love thou maist from God through everything." (140) ascend." (VIII, 589-592) All this indicates the complex, vital number of critics have observed that role Eve is created to fulfill; and Milton, in this passage, is suggesting she is, God tells Adam, made to order: the tragic flaw of self-love in Eve.(4) What next I bring shall please I believe Milton is also suggesting an• thee, be assured, other incipient tragic flaw—ignorance. Thy likeness, thy fit help, thy If we were given only the account of other self, Eve's awakening we would perhaps find Thy wish exactly to thy heart's nothing amiss in a newly created being desi re. making this type of error. But when (VIII, 449-451) we are given the account of Adam's What then, you may well ask, "wants/ awakening, we realize, by comparison, In female sex?" (IX, 821-822) The Eve's ignorance. After his initial answer, suggested many times in the amazement at his own creation and ob• epic and recognized by Eve herself, is servation of the world around him, knowledge. Until Book Ten, Eve knows Adam is able to give names to its little about the purpose of her components and deduces that the crea• existence, almost nothing of her en• tion implies a creator. But he does vironment and is confused about her not stop there; he is immediately relation to Adam. worshipful: he prays that he may be told how to know his creator so that We realize how ignorant Eve is by com• he may adore him. In short, the newly paring her with Adam. The disparity conscious Adam is highly evolved in• between the two in this respect is tellectually and spiritually. most overt in the passages which describe their first awakening. Eve The account of Eve's awakening also is described as acting initially reveals how easily she may be instruc• "with unexperienced thought." (IV, ted and by what means. When Eve first 457) Her senses are operative but her meets Adam, she rejects him, preferring intellect lags. Her attention is at• the image in the pond. But after Adam tracted by the murmuring sound of delivers his very moving plea for her water nearby. She sees the water's love (IV, 481-488), she realizes "How reflection of her image but is in• beauty is excelled by manly grace/And capable of recognizing it as such. wisdom, which alone is truly fair." As she tells us, she would have (IV, 490-491) "pined with vain desire" (IV, 466) for the image in the water had not a voice In Book Four (297-298) we are told ex• explained to her that she was looking plicitly that Eve was not intended to at herself and then led her to Adam, be as intellectually acute as Adam. the proper object of her devotion. A Aware of Adam's superiority in this area, she considers herself fortunate dream—a dream in which Satan tempts to have Adam as a companion: her with the fruit of the Tree of . I chiefly who enjoy Knowledge. Adam has been prepared So far the happier lot, enjoying for this occasion by his own dream thee of tempting fruit, a dream followed Pre-eminent by so much odds, by God's warning against the Forbidden while thou Tree. Instead of recounting his own Like consort to thyself canst experience and God's message Adam nowhere find. launches Into a long digression about (IV, 445-448) the nature of Fancy and Reason, ending The last line of this speech might be by assuring Eve that she is still sin• seen as commendable modesty on Eve's less. At this Eve cries, fearing to part but it might also indicate that have offended. On this occasion Adam she is ill-informed about the nature seems to be singularly unaware of the issue. Eve is not asking him to as• and importance of her role in the re• certain whether she is sinless nor lationship. does she feel, at least originally, Adam, from the moment of his creation, that she has offended anyone. She is is continually being educated. From troubled and is asking for an explan• no less an instructor than God he ation. learns about the world he is to live in, his dominion in that world, his Directly after Eve's dream God sends role as first father, the work he is Raphael to visit Eden. Her dream is to do, the interdiction against eating the occasion of the visitation; God the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and says to Raphael: the consequences of that trespass. At . Thou hear'st what stir on her creation Eve is informed only that earth she is to love Adam and bear "multi• Satan, from hell scraped through tudes." (IV, 474) For the most part the darksom gulf, she is to receive her education from Hath raised in Paradise, and how Adam and, as has been indicated, for disturbed very good reasons: he is intellectual• This night the human pair ..
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