Reconciling Evidence of Gender Hierarchy in Paradise Lost
The Argument
This chapter aims to address the subject of gender hierarchy by examining the opinions of multiple characters. So many of the opinions are demeaning toward women, that a first reading is jarring for a woman who has lived through the feminist movement of the 1970s and beyond. But, perhaps there is a larger picture to consider, which reconciles the jarring opinions.
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Hierarchy seems evident throughout Paradise Lost-—animals, man, and angels are ranked against one another and within their own group. One form of this hierarchy involves gender. Gender inequality was part of Milton’s culture, and there is plenty of evidence that he subscribed to it. There is also evidence that he questioned and modified this view on occasion. His appreciation for witty and bright women, and his own hankering for a wife with a worthy mind point to this. Therefore, as we might expect, Paradise Lost reflects mixed views on gender hierarchy. These different views are expressed by characters as diverse as Adam, Eve, Raphael, Satan, Michael, and the narrator—-even God and his Son! This pervasive evidence of gender hierarchy and its expression by such different characters was both unexpected and disturbing for me. But, as the poem wound down to a close, I felt a strange peace from an awakening intuition. A pattern had emerged over the poem: the evidence of hierarchy, in general, appears to be intricately linked to pride. And, pride, what the poem sees as the gravest of the cardinal sins, seems to be the cause-and-effect wheel that drives brassy competition, strutting accomplishment, and puffed superiority. Gender hierarchy is one expression of this sin. In an ideal world with right reason and intuition there would be no need for hierarchy—-and, therefore, no need for gender ranking. Having realized that the poem’s gender hierarchy is part of a larger contemplation about the nature of sin and pride, I ended up at peace with this issue in the poem. I would like to share the evidence for my position by examining the dialog of gender inequality from the many characters’ perspectives.
Some of the most compelling exchanges on hierarchy, including gender hierarchy, are made during the visit between Raphael and Adam. Raphael explains to Adam that angels and man are made of similar substance—-and that if Adam remains obedient to God, he too can become all spirit:
Your bodies may at last turn all to spirit,
Improved by tract of time, and winged ascend
Ethereal, as we, . . . .
If ye be found obedient, and retain
Unalterably firm his love entire
Whose progeny you are.
(Milton V.497-99, 501-3)
My immediate question is, does Raphael include Eve in this progression model? Are the rules of hierarchy only different when a woman is the subject? Logically, that does not follow. Can this path to a more refined state really ensures that women always stay a few steps behind?
Yet, there are many lines in the poem that work against a message of equal potential for Adam and Eve, including Raphael’s. When Adam finishes telling the angel how God created Eve, he admits to being enchanted by her. Raphael is quick to remind Adam to hold tight to his wisdom by not
. . . attributing overmuch to things
Less excellent . . .
. . .nothing profits more
Than self-esteem, grounded on just and right
Well managed; of that skill the more thou know’st,
The more she [Eve] will acknowledge thee her head.
(Milton VIII.565-6, 571-74)
But, Adam appears torn by warring opinions regarding his position with respect to Eve. When he first saw Eve, he perceived her to be inferior to himself:
Of nature her th’ inferior, in the mind
And inward faculties, which most excel,
In outward also her resembling less
His image who made both, and less expressing
The character of that dominion given
O’er other creatures . .
(VIII, 541-6)
But, there was more in Adam’s mind regarding Eve,
. . . . . so absolute she seems
And in herself complete, so well to know
Her own, that what she wills to do or say,
Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetst, best;
All higher knowledge in her presence falls
Degraded, wisdom in discourse with her
Loses discount’nanced, and like follow shows;
Authority and reason her wait,
As one intended first not after made
Occasionally; and to consummate all,
(VIII, 547-56)
These last lines seem like intuition. And, if we remember lines of Raphael’s from Book V, right after he and Adam begin their visit, the angel has made a pronouncement about the superiority of intuition over the rational:
. . . the soul
Reason receives, and reason is her being,
Discursive, or intuitive; discourse
Is oftest yours, the latter most is ours [angels] . .
Differing but in degree, of kind the same.
(V, 485-90)
In conclusion, Raphael’s opinions on Adam’s superiority over Eve can be challenged by his own contradictory reasoning. It might also be noted that Raphael is not the holder of all knowledge; he admitted to not being able to answer questions about the workings of the stars above. He does not have all the answers.
Is there other evidence of Eve’s inferiority? The narrator who describes Satan’s first sighting of Adam and Eve seems to imply Adam’s superiority.
Two of far nobler shape erect and tall,
God-like erect . . .
All worthy seemed, for in their looks divine
The image of their glorious Maker shone,
. . . though both
Not equal, as their sex not equal seemed;
For contemplation he and valor formed,
For softness she and sweet attractive grace,
He for God only, she for God in him . . .
(IV, 289-99–Italics mine)
And, though it may seem a tortured effort on my part, I think it is fair to weigh Milton’s words carefully and propose that the word seem is very important in these lines—acting to undercut the pat message of Eve’s subordination. I think there is reason to credit the narrator with giving the reader an opportunity to exercise intuition.
Eve herself seems to see herself as inferior. She is certainly aware that a tempter might see her as the weaker target compared to Adam. But, instead of running from the enemy’s challenge, she seeks it out—which might suggest her need to assert herself—to prove her parity. Or, it might suggest a quiet awareness of her equality. Or a little of both?
. . . I go, nor much expect
A foe so proud will first the weaker seek
(IX, 382-3)
Interestingly, Eve’s reasoning for meeting the challenge of a foe sounds like Milton’s own prescription for a stalwart Christian.
Eve:
And what is faith, love, virtue unassayed
Alone, without exterior help sustained?
Let us not then suspect our happy state
Left so imperfect by the Maker wise,
As not secure to single or combined.
Frail is our happiness, if this be so,
And Eden were no Eden thus exposed.”
(Milton IX.334-41)
Milton:
He that can apprehend and consider ice with all her baits and seeming
pleasure, and yet abstain, and yet distinguish, and yet prefer that which is truly
better, he is the true wayfaring Christian. I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered
virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her
adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for,
not without dust and heat.
(Areopagitica)
That Milton, who above all counts himself a spiritual man, puts his cornerstone belief for an active faith in the mouth of Eve counterpoints the image of Eve’s inferiority more than any posturing and vaunting by Adam, Raphael, or Satan. Eve is exercising that free will and reason that is one of God’s dearest gifts. My experience also suggests that our world does not give sufficient credit to emotional intelligence—which is what Eve demonstrates in these lines. Our world tends to value intelligence associated with fact gathering, appearances of strength, loudness—the vaunting we saw with Satan! The advertisers and extroverts of the world usually fill the air with their stout words, which often skew truth—and carry the day. Quieter voices and egos are often overwhelmed.
While many of the above appearances of gender inequality could be explained to some degree, there is one passage that is particularly difficult to reconcile as it is the Son of God who speaks! Adam and Eve have fallen, and the Son of God descends to Eden to confronts the pair, and makes an unbearably explicit subordination of Eve when chiding Adam:
. . . Thou didst resign thy manhood, and the place
Wherein God set thee above her made of thee,
Nd for thee, whose perfection far excelled
Her in all real dignity
(Milton X.148-151)
And, to Eve, after sentencing her to painful childbirth in the days to come, He squarely admonished her to submit to her husband:
. . . and to thy husband’s will
Thine shall submit, he over thee shall rule.
(Book X, 195-196)
These words are very damning words-—as far as gender equality goes. But, I would point out that the Deities-—whether God the Father or the Son—-have been coy and testing on many occasions in the poem. In Book III, watching Satan approach the garden, God foresees the fall of man and works Himself into quite a lather, calling man an “Ingrate,” since He had made man and angels “just and right, sufficient to have stood” (Milton III.97-8). God the Father seems uncommonly petulant for a Deity. In addition, God the Father allowed two days of war in heaven before ending the conflict by sending His Son onto the field of battle on day three. This was surely a bit of vaunting and showmanship. So, if a Deity’s words can seem so arch and dramatic, those words may not be the last word on a subject—-including the subject of gender hierarchy. A very coy God was in evidence when Adam asked for a “fit” companion in his loneliness (see section above on “Language—-Logical Contradictions”). So, could the illusion of gender hierarchy be another test? Surely the words of God are not always what they seem in Paradise Lost.
But, it was after I finished reading Books XI and XII that I began to feel the stirring of intuition that inspired me to lift myself above the petty squabbling of puffed superiority-—which includes concern over gender equality. It is so easy to react to the human affront to pride. I sense that one of Michael’s lessons for Adam moves the spotlight from the showy to the meek. After showing Adam the “product of those ill-mated marriages” (Milton XI.683-684) between wanton women and those men, who make great names and fame for themselves among men by waging wars, overpowering others, bringing home conquered spoils, Michael warns that though this is the way of worldly fame, what “most merits fame [is] in silence hid.” (Milton XI.699). In Book XII, Adam learns that the Son of God will become man and will redeem the sin of Adam and Eve. Adam, with hope and renewed faith, exclaims that
Henceforth I learn, that to obey is best,
And love with fear the only God, . . . .
. . . . . with good
Still overcoming evil, and by small
Accomplishing great things, by things deemed weak
Subverting worldly strong, and worldly wise
By simply meek;
(Milton XII.561-569)
Indeed, meekness and obedience have been expected and demonstrated by Eve throughout most of the epic. Now Adam learns that the Son of God will practice the same as Michael foretells:
. . . . . . . . though love
Alone fulfill the law; thy punishment
He shall endure by coming in the flesh
To a reproachful life and cured death,
Proclaiming life to all who shall believe
In his redemption. . . . .
For this he shall live hated, be blasphemed,
Seized on by force, judged, and to death condemned
A shameful and accursed, nailed to the Cross
(Milton XII.403-13)
These lines, as the epic comes to a close, are focused on teaching Adam to see with that “Celestial light shin[ing] inward” (Milton III.51-2). Milton seems to bring his story back to this lesson over and over. What Milton found when “wisdome at one entrance [was] quite shut out” (Milton III.50), was that the most important learning was of “things invisible to mortal sight” (Milton III.55).
As the epic winds down, my thought is that the many viewpoints expressed on the subject of gender hierarchy are the means with which Milton seeks truth. He was a believer in vigorous exchange of ideas, and this opinion was emphatically made in Areopagitica where he argued to:
deliver the press from the restraints with which it was encumbered;
[in order] that the power of determining what was true and what was false,
what ought to be published and what to be suppressed, might no longer
be entrusted to a few illiterate and illiberal
(Areopagitica)
And, a vigorous exchange of ideas was certainly entertained in Paradise Lost. In fact, the epic is filled with exactly the sort of opinions we hear in the world at large; but in Milton’s asides and arguments he himself demonstrates strength in humility by depending upon his spiritual muses to inspire him:
. . . what in me is dark illumine
(Milton I.22-3)
and
Shine inward . . . .
Irradiate, there plant eyes . . .
. . . . that I may see and tell
Of things invisible to mortal sight
(III. 44, 51-5)
Finally, it seems fitting to point out that Eve has the last word in Paradise! Yes, that may seem petty of me, but considering all the male swagger in this epic, I think Eve deserves her turn in the spotlight. And, her message is transformative for the race of man:
. . . though all by me is lost,
Such favor I unworthy am vouchsafed,
By me the Promised Seed will all restore.
(Milton XII.621-3)
And, she was so right. I reach the end of this discussion very much at peace with Eve’s journey in Milton’s great epic. Her journey was not unlike my own experience with gender hierarchy—and any hierarchy for that matter—social, workplace, intellectual. All those hierarchy wheels are set in motion by immodest pride. Our trickiest snare is avoiding the pull of vaunting ambition and pride in favor of the quiet faith in supernal grace, so that we might— as Michael promised—“possess a paradise within” (Milton XII.586-7).
