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| "She pluck'd, she eat" (PL IX.781). With these four monosyllables, Milton succinctly announces the Fall of Eve in Paradise Lost. Eve's Fall, however, is far more complex than a simple act of eating, for her disobedience represents a much greater loss of chastity. Indeed, Milton implies that the Fall is a violation not only of God's sole commandment but also of Eve herself, for Milton implicitly equates Dis's ravishment of Proserpina with Satan's seduction of Eve. Milton weaves the Proserpina myth, as told by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, throughout Paradise Lost as a trope for rape and Eve's loss of virginity, and this culminates in a metaphorical construction of the Fall as a rape of Eve by Satan. Milton's depiction of Eve's ravishment, moreover, is ambivalently misogynistic, for Milton casts Eve as a seductress who has largely engendered her own rape. Early in Book IV of Paradise Lost Milton compares Eden to beautiful landscapes of classical mythology, while insisting that his Christian Garden is "not" like such pagan settings. Milton's negative syntax implies the ineffability of Eden—this unfallen paradise cannot be described by a fallen poet to fallen readers and certainly cannot be evoked by pagan similes. Yet Milton's lush catalogue of classical landscapes forces an analogy, and as we amble through the myths, we conjure an image of Eden based on its classical precursors. Particularly salient is the first classical allusion, which compares Eden to Enna:
This description closely parallels the Proserpina myth in Ovid's Metamorphoses, in which Dis ravishes Proserpina and carries her off to be his queen in the underworld. Ovid begins:
Milton's negative syntax, therefore, not only draws us away from Ovid's Enna but also propels us toward it, for Ovid too employs a negative construction: "Not far from Enna's walls [. . .]" (Met. V.385-6). Furthermore, Milton's progression from the active participle "gath'ring" to the passive "gather'd" mirrors Ovid's progression from "legendo" (gathering) to "rapta" (she has been taken). In addition, Milton directly prefaces the above passage with "th'Eternal Spring" (PL IV.268), much as Ovid tells us that "spring is eternal" (perpetuum ver est). What resonates in Milton's description, however, are not the enumerated similarities between Eden and Enna but that which Milton leaves unmentioned—the striking comparison between Eve and Proserpina, between Satan's seduction of "our mother" and Dis's ravishment of Ovid's goddess. Milton does not explicitly compare Proserpina to Eve, yet the obvious parallel between these two innocent gardeners preyed upon by dark forces is a potent subtext. Indeed, upon completing his catalogue of myths, Milton reminds us that it is Satan who has led us into Eden and through whose eyes we see "True Paradise [. . .], where the Fiend / Saw undelighted all delight" (PL IV.282-6). While reading about the pristine Garden of Eden, we as readers may have forgotten our own fallen state and the dark force accompanying us into Paradise. Milton, however, reminds us that we, like Satan, are fallen and must see the Garden through a fallen lens. This unsettling reminder bears remarkable similarity to Ovid's sudden disclosure that Dis has been watching Proserpina gather flowers. "Paene simul visa est dilectaque raptaque Diti" (almost at once she has been seen and desired and ravished by Dis), Ovid writes. Ovid and Milton, then, both paint scenes of innocent gardening, leaving readers unmindful of the dark sexual voyeurism that taints these scenes. Only once we have absorbed their seemingly innocuous descriptions do the poets reveal that an evil force has been guiding our gaze with his own and thereby force us to understand that we as readers partake in the depravity of Satan/Dis. Milton, then, not only invokes Ovid to color his description of Eden but also, and more potently, uses both characters and events of the Proserpina myth to suggest the consequences of the impending Fall. Indeed, just as Ovid's Proserpina myth focuses primarily on Ceres's plight, Milton too turns to Ceres's search for Proserpina "through the world." More saliently, Milton writes that Proserpina's ravishment "cost Ceres all that pain." The final three sharp monosyllables evoke the opening of Milton's epic and the Fruit that caused "all our woe" (PL I.3). Thus, as early as Book IV, Milton establishes Proserpina's rape as a trope evoking the Fall. It is therefore not surprising that we next encounter Proserpina on the brink of the Fall, as Eve withdraws from Adam to garden on her own. Eve departs in a cloud of Ovidian images:
Eve is compared not to Proserpina but rather to Proserpina's mother, Ceres. However, just as the negative syntax in the simile of Book IV does not undermine, but rather implicitly fosters, comparisons between Eden and Enna and between Eve and Proserpina, the very mention of Proserpina in Book IX likewise suggests a relationship between her and Eve on the brink of the Fall. Furthermore, Eve does not have a mother, and throughout Paradise Lost Milton casts "our mother" as maternally self-sufficient.2 Thus, perhaps Eve can be both mother and daughter, both Ceres and Proserpina. The correlation between Ovid's Proserpina and Milton's Eve grows more tenable as we examine the larger context of Book IX, taking Milton's simile as a tool for reading rather than a single isolated analogy. Eve, we recall, leaves Adam so that she may garden more efficiently (PL IX.223-5). Likewise, in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Proserpina struggles to collect flowers rapidly—"aequales certat superare legendo" (she was striving to outdo her friends in gathering) (V.394). In Ovid's myth, this description immediately precedes Proserpina's ravishment: "paenae simul uisa est dilectaque raptaque Diti" (almost at once she has been seen and desired and ravished by Dis) (V.395). Likewise, immediately after Eve departs from Adam, she is "seen and desired" by Satan, who tempts her Fall. When Satan spies Eve, Milton evokes not only Ovid, but also his own
Proserpina-Eve simile of Book IV. Satan sees Eve surrounded by flowers,
which
This description clearly recalls Milton's earlier simile, in which Proserpina, "gath'ring flow'rs / Herself a fairer Flow'r by gloomy Dis / Was gather'd" (PL IV.270-1, emphasis added). The parallels between these metaphors are striking: in each, Milton begins the line with "Herself" and also uses the words "fair" and "Flower"; furthermore, Milton notes the marginal presence of an evil figure preying on an innocent female gardener-Dis gathers Proserpina, and the "storm so nigh" reminds us that Satan observes Eve as we read. Eve, like Proserpina, is cast as both gardener and flower, active agent and passive object. Overarching structural parallels between the Fall and Ovid's Proserpina myth continue throughout Book IX . Satan repeatedly addresses Eve as "Empress," "Queen," and "Mistress" (see, e.g., PL IX.532, 623, & 684), appealing to both her beauty and her desire to share Adam's reign. Likewise, Dis makes Proserpina queen of the underworld. As Arethusa tells Ceres, "regina [. . .] / inferno pollens matrona tyranni" (She was queen [. . .] the powerful consort of the tyrant of the underworld) (Met. V.507-8). The comparison between the tyrant Dis and Satan, introduced in Book IV, clearly continues in Book IX, as does the comparison between Eve and Proserpina. Furthermore, just as Eve eats the Fruit, Proserpina eats seven pomegranate seeds while in the underworld, and this act of eating proves to be her transgression, for the Fates have ordained that Proserpina can return to Earth only if she has not eaten in the underworld (Met. V.530-32). Thus, just as Eve breaches God's single command that she and Adam not eat from the Tree, Proserpina engages in the single act of eating that Ovid's Fates have prohibited. Finally, in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Jove divides the year into two six-month periods and gives Dis and Ceres equal share of Proserpina. Similarly, when Eve and Adam eat the Fruit, their transgression licenses Satan to share the reign of Earth with God. More compelling in equating Eve's Fall with Proserpina's ravishment, however, is the language of sexual desire and rape that permeates Book IX of Paradise Lost. During Eve's conversation with Adam, Milton emphasizes Eve's virginity and casts this as a cardinal virtue, labeling Eve "the Virgin Majesty" (PL IX.270). When Eve departs from Adam, Milton again alludes to the virtue of virginity, comparing Eve to virgin goddesses-Delia's train of nymphs, Pales, Pomona, and Ceres. Milton also notes the transience of virginity, for Pomona will soon cease to flee Vertumnus and Ceres will conceive Proserpina. Indeed, Milton specifically states that Ceres is "Yet Virgin of Proserpina from Jove" (PL IX.396). Interestingly, his syntax closely resembles a description of Eve immediately before she eats the Fruit as "yet sinless" (PL IX.659). The structural parallel between Ceres "yet Virgin" and Eve "yet sinless" underscores Milton's equation of Eve's virginity with her sinlessness and implicitly casts Eve's eating the Fruit as a loss of her virginity. In a cluster of classical and biblical allusions closely following Milton's enumeration of Eve's counterparts, Milton compares the Garden of Eden to the Gardens of Adonis, Alcinoüs, and Solomon. He claims that Eve's environment is "more delicious" (PL IX.439) than these gardens, all of which serve as locales for sexual encounters (between Adonis and Venus, Odysseus and Nausikaa, and Solomon and his "fair Egyptian Spouse" [PL IX.443], respectively). The allusion to Adonis is particularly worthy of note, for it contains an oblique reference to Proserpina. According to Ovid, Venus, upon the death of her beloved Adonis, invokes Proserpina and turns Adonis into a flower the color of pomegranates (Met. X.725-39). Proserpina, then, again enters Paradise Lost3, and the aggregate effect of Milton's allusions renders Eden a stage for a sexual encounter. When Satan first sees Eve, he is struck by longing, just as Dis is struck by desire for Proserpina. For Satan, Eve's "look sums all Delight" (PL IX.453), and his first words to Eve evoke Proserpina's rape, for Satan declares that he gazes "Insatiate" (PL IX.536) at Eve, who is "With ravishment beheld" (PL IX.541). The word "ravishment" is particularly intriguing in this context, meaning as it does "the act of carrying off a person," and, more pertinently, "the forcible abduction or violation of a woman" (OED). Although Satan ostensibly utters the word as a compliment meaning "ecstasy" or "joy," the alternate definitions of the word powerfully shadow his compliment. Furthermore, after taking Eve to the Tree, Satan is "to passion mov'd" (PL IX.667) and his words are "impregn'd / With Reason" (PL IX.737). Finally, when Eve eats the Fruit, "Earth felt the wound, and Nature [. . .] / gave signs of woe / That all was lost" (PL IX.782-4); "wound" suggests an infliction of harm, more consonant with rape than with an act of eating, and "all was lost" connotes a loss of virginity, historically regarded as a loss of all. 4While each of these sexually laden phrases alone might be overlooked, their aggregate presence, coupled with allusions to the Proserpina myth, diffuses a potent subtext of rape and sexuality throughout Book IX. Adam's reaction to Eve's transgression provides particularly compelling grounds for reading the Fall metaphorically as the rape of Eve by Satan. When Eve tells Adam that "the Serpent [. . .] with me / Persuasively hath so prevail'd" (PL IX.867-73), he stands "amaz'd, / Astonied" (PL IX.889-90), much like Ceres stands stunned as if turned to stone ("stupuit ceu saxea uoces" (Met V.509) when she hears of Proserpina's fate. Adam inwardly bemoans:
Adam's marking Eve as "deflow'r'd" strongly connotes rape, for the primary definition of "deflowered" is "deprived of virginity, violated" (OED). Why, we must wonder, does Adam regard Eve as "deflow'r'd," with the peculiarly sexual connotations of this word, if no sexual act has occurred? Furthermore, the embedded reference to "flower" recalls descriptions of both Eve and Proserpina as fair flowers. When Dis ravishes Proserpina, Milton describes her as a gathered flower (PL IV.270-1); now Adam casts Eve as a flower "deflow'r'd," a flower gathered by Satan. Adam further bemoans that Eve is "now to Death devote" and tells Eve "if Death / Consort with thee [. . . ]" (PL IX.954), suggesting a sexual relationship between Eve and a personified Death. The word "consort" has a specifically sexual meaning-"to be a consort or spouse to, to espouse; to have sexual commerce with" (OED)-and Milton has used the word to mean "spouse" and, in particular, to describe Adam and Eve's relationship, earlier in Paradise Lost (see, e.g., IV.448, IV.610, VII.529). Likewise, "devote" conveys personal attachment or loyalty. Adam's words, it seems, exploit a semantic tension contained by the word "Death." In classical mythology, Dis is both the tyrant of the underworld and a personification of death itself. Thus, the identification of Satan with Dis further identifies Satan with death. Satan "consort[s]" with Eve by raping her, and she, "deflow'r'd," is now "devote" to Satan5. Milton not only inserts Ovid's Proserpina myth as a trope of rape, however, but also characteristically transforms his classical analogue, casting Eve as a wanton sexual object who must bear the "guilty shame" (PL IX.1058) of her rape6. Indeed, the language of seduction and sexuality attributed to Satan spills over into Eve's actions. When Satan first spies Eve,
The word "rapine" evokes the ravishment of Proserpina, but seemingly reverses the actors. Eve plays the role of Dis, while Satan is Proserpina. Thus, Milton, even while espousing Eve's innocence (e.g., "sweet"), casts her as a seductress7. Indeed, the language of seduction and sexuality attributed to Adam, too, blames Eve for having "peril great provok't" (PL IX.921-2). Ultimately, Milton's treatment of Eve is intensely ambivalent-she is both an object of desire and a desiring subject, for even as Satan seduces her, she seduces him. This complex treatment of seduction extends to the Fruit itself, for when Eve arrives at the Tree she "gaz[es]" (PL IX.735) at the Fruit with "desire" (PL IX.741) and a "longing eye" (PL IX.743), much as Satan "gaze[s] insatiate" (PL IX.535-6) at Eve. Adam, in his internal musing following Eve's return, echoes the attribution of both active and passive behaviors to Eve with the sexually laden words "yielded" and "violate." Adam bemoans that Eve passively "yielded to transgress" (PL IX.902) God's command 8, but also that she actively "violate[d] / The sacred Fruit forbidd'n" (PL IX.903-4). The word "violate" evokes rape, for the second definition of "violate" is "to ravish (a woman)" (OED), and the peculiar syntax of Adam's phrase underscores this definition. Eve does not violate God's abstract command not to eat the Fruit, according to Adam, but rather violates the Fruit itself, a tangible object "sacred to abstinence" (PL IX.924). Eve's Fall, then, consists of both yielding and violating. Her roles as victim and seductress are ultimately one and the same, for after the rape has occurred, Milton reinterprets Eve's innocent seduction as a guilt-ridden action, thereby blaming the victim. Eve, not "Virgin," is not "sinless." Milton further underscores the sexual subtext of the Fall by describing the primary consequence of the Fall as lasciviousness. The Fruit inflames Adam and Eve's "Carnal desire" (PL IX.1013), and the two engage in "amorous play" (PL IX.1045) until weary. This voracious sex act is mutually desired by Adam and Eve, for Eve's "Eye darted contagious Fire" PL IX.1036) and Adam leads her "nothing loath" (PL IX.1039) to the flowery bank. Their sex, however, is fallen and corrupt, it seems, both because of its voracious nature and precisely because Eve is overtly sexual. She is not merely seduced but also a seductress. Indeed, Adam's hand "seiz[es]" (PL IX.1037) Eve's much as it did in Book IV (488-9), but Eve now eagerly seeks sex rather than yielding reluctantly to Adam. This reading of the Fall is disturbingly misogynistic, for Milton casts Eve as the seductress of her rapist and portrays sex desired by both Adam and Eve as an illicit act. Such a characterization of illicit sex is all the more distressing for modern readers who recall Milton's description of unfallen sexuality. In Book IV, Milton tells us that Eve's hair
Eve's own story of her creation further emphasizes female "subjection" and modesty: "thy gentle hand / Seiz'd mine, I yielded" (PL IV.488-90). Adam is eager for sex, while Eve is shy and reluctant; it is her role to "yield" passively, not to actively seduce. Ultimately, Milton's portrayal of unfallen sex, in which Eve "subjects" herself to Adam, is disturbingly more similar to rape than Milton's characterization of fallen sex, desired by both Eve and Adam. The depiction of Eve as wanton seductress peaks near the end of Book IX, when Adam and Eve wake from their "mutual guilt" (1042). Milton compares Adam to Samson in a simile that underscores the misogyny inherent in his portrayal of the Fall:
As we know from reading Milton's Samson Agonistes, Dalila(h) seduces Samson into revealing the secret of his strength (his hair) and then shaves Samson's head, stripping him of this "Herculean" strength. Interestingly, in both Samson Agonistes and the above passage from Paradise Lost, Milton describes Dalila(h)—Samson's wife—as a prostitute and implicitly casts marital intercourse as a sort of castration, an act treacherous for heroic man (see e.g., SA 531-40). Although Eve is not explicitly compared to Dalila(h), the analogy is powerfully present. Just as Samson rises from Dalilah's "lascivious lap" (SA 536), Adam rises from Eve's. Eve's desire for sex, then, renders her a prostitute, and she alone bears guilt for the fallen sex between her and Adam 9. This reading of Eve as lascivious prostitute can perhaps explain the narrator's account of Adam's Fall, in which Adam, "Against his better knowledge, not deceiv'd / But fondly overcome with Female charm" (PL IX.998-9) partakes of the Fruit Eve offers. This account seems to contradict Adam's earlier deliberations, which cast his imminent Fall as an act of love for, and connectedness to, Eve, not his falling prey to female seduction. However, the fallen Eve is no longer the innocent virgin whom Adam loves and to whom he feels connected, but is rather a seductive and carnal woman. Like the heroic Samson, Adam is shorn by wanton female sexuality. Ultimately then, in Paradise Lost Eve undergoes a transformation from a modest and reluctant virgin to lascivious seductress, and the Fall—representing a rape for which she is in part responsiblemarks her sexual alteration. Milton infuses the trope of Proserpina's rape throughout Book IX to depict the Fall of Eve. By the close of Book IX, however, Milton equates illicit sex with an act antithetical to rape—sex desired by Eve. It is proper for woman to be reluctant; when she is eager, her desire tarnishes sexual encounters, rendering them as obscene as rape. The reading of the Fall as an illicit sex act comparable to rape garners particular strength when we recall Milton's own chastity obsession throughout his career. In early writings Milton frequently equates chastity with poetic success 10. Thus, the loss of chastity implies the loss of literary achievement, a loss of utmost consequence for the poet Milton. Furthermore, in his Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, Milton writes that "happy conversation is the chiefest and noblest end of marriage, for we find [. . .] no expression necessarily implying carnal knowledge" (Hughes 707). It is quite possible, then, that Milton's own anxieties play themselves out in the text of Paradise Lost and that Milton exposes his preoccupation with chastity by depicting the Fall as a contemptible sex act. After the Fall, the sex act and poetry are both fallen, for the loss of chastity has serious consequences for the lover and the poet, for sexuality and language. In a 1637 letter to Charles Diodati, Milton writes: "Not with so much labour, as the fables have it, is Ceres said to have sought her daughter Proserpina as is my habit day and night to seek for this idea of the beautiful, as for a certain image of supreme beauty" (Patterson 27). Milton's search for supreme beauty, then, may be a search for chastity, a quest to restore Proserpina's virginity, and, similarly, to "sing celestial songs" (Hughes 695) of epic poetry. Indeed, the Fall "Brought Death into the World and all our woe / With loss of Eden, til one greater Man / Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat" (PL IX.3-5). This "greater Man" is most literally Christ, born of virgin mother, yet Milton, too, seeks to be the "greater Man." Later in his letter to Diodati, Milton quips: "You ask what I am thinking of? So may the good Deity help me, of immortality!" (Patterson 27). With his chaste epic ambition, Milton seeks to place himself in the role of savior, using his poetic brilliance to undo the Death engendered by the Fall.
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Works Cited Hughes, Merritt Y., ed. John Milton: Complete Poems and Major Prose . New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1957. Milton, Paradise Lost. In John Milton: Complete Poems and Major Prose. Ed. Merritt Y. Hughes. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1957. 211-469. - - -, Samson Agonistes. In John Milton: Complete Poems and Major Prose. Ed. Merritt Y. Hughes. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1957. 550-93. Ovid, Metamorphoses. Trans. and ed. D. E. Hill. Wiltshire: Aris & Phillips Ltd., 1992. Patterson, Frank Allen, ed. The Works of John Milton, Volume XII. New York: Columbia UP, 1936. |
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