Nope. Nope. Nope.
Milton! I really thought he was off to a good start this time. When Adam begins to describe seeing Eve for the first time, I honestly thought it was beautiful. Listen to this: "Grace was in all her steps, Heav'n in her eye, / In every gesture dignity and love. / I overjoyed could not forbear aloud...Giver of all things fair but fairest this / of all thy gifts" (VIII. 488-494). I just love his language there! You really get to see Adam's pure joy, utter excitement, and amazement at the sight of his soon to be wife; Eve was created specifically for him, not as an after-thought but an essential helper (the Hebrew word used for "helper" in Genesis 2:18 is actually really beautiful, but that's not the point of this post). Adam and Eve before the fall are such a pure vision of the marriage of Christ and His church, and we know God had that in His sights from the beginning.
While Milton starts out great, he quickly goes back to his old ways of degrading women. (Sure, it's not completely his fault, but still...) Adam says of Eve, "[Nature] on her bestowed / too much of ornament, in outward show / Elaborate, of inward less exact... In outward also her resembling less / His image who made both" (VIII.537-539, 543-544). At this point in time, I must remind myself that Milton wrote this in the 17th century. STILL. Basically, he says that Eve's inward being is "less exact" aka: she isn't as smart as man. Then, he goes on to say that Eve doesn't do quite as good of a job as himself in expressing God's image. Really, dude? I'm just going out on a whim here, but as the first two humans, who were created pure and without sin, they were probably both incredibly smart as well as physically fit. I'm rather annoyed with just how air-headed he depicts Eve, not just because she is a fellow woman, but she was also the first woman; she was an archetype of what we, her daughters, would be, except for one thing: she got to walk with God. The fruit of the tree of life was probably pretty good brain food. But, whatever.
PS- I commented on Natalie and Darby's posts
While Milton starts out great, he quickly goes back to his old ways of degrading women. (Sure, it's not completely his fault, but still...) Adam says of Eve, "[Nature] on her bestowed / too much of ornament, in outward show / Elaborate, of inward less exact... In outward also her resembling less / His image who made both" (VIII.537-539, 543-544). At this point in time, I must remind myself that Milton wrote this in the 17th century. STILL. Basically, he says that Eve's inward being is "less exact" aka: she isn't as smart as man. Then, he goes on to say that Eve doesn't do quite as good of a job as himself in expressing God's image. Really, dude? I'm just going out on a whim here, but as the first two humans, who were created pure and without sin, they were probably both incredibly smart as well as physically fit. I'm rather annoyed with just how air-headed he depicts Eve, not just because she is a fellow woman, but she was also the first woman; she was an archetype of what we, her daughters, would be, except for one thing: she got to walk with God. The fruit of the tree of life was probably pretty good brain food. But, whatever.
PS- I commented on Natalie and Darby's posts
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