Give the character sketch of Eve in Paradise Lost.

Answer: Eve is the second human created by God, taken from one of Adam's ribs and shaped into a
female form of Adam. Far from the traditional model of a good wife, she is often unwilling to be
submissive towards Adam. She is more intelligent and curious about external ideas than her husband.
Though happy, she longs for knowledge and, more specifically, self-knowledge. Her first act in existence
is to turn away from Adam and look at and ponder her own reflection. Eve is extremely beautiful and
thoroughly in love with Adam, though may feel suffocated by his constant presence. One day, she
convinces Adam that it would be good for them to split up and work different parts of the Garden. In her
solitude, she is tempted by Satan to sin against God. Adam shortly follows along with her.

Character of Eve

Along with Satan, Eve is the most important character in Paradise Lost; it is her idea to separate from
Adam (in Book 9), and she is the one who first eats the Forbidden Fruit and then convinces Adam to eat
it. In many respects, then, Eve's not likeable from the get-go. And in other respects, she's totally likeable
for her sense of independence and curiosity. After the Fall, Adam and Eve engage in a petty blame game,
where it becomes clear that, yes, Eve ate first, but Adam also ate the fruit, for his own reasons (chiefly
because he didn't want Eve to go down alone).

Eve is a simpler character than Adam. She is created from Adam's rib as his helpmeet. While she is
beautiful, wise, and able, she is superior to Adam only in her beauty. From the time of her creation,
when she looks in the water and falls in love with her own reflection, Eve is linked to the flaw of vanity,
and Satan as the serpent will use this defect against her.

Before the fall, Eve is generally presented as submissive to Adam and, to some extent, dependent on
him. Her reasoning powers are not as fully realized as his. However, Milton in no way suggests a lack of
intelligence on Eve's part. Eve listens to Raphael's description of the war in Heaven and the defeat of the
rebellious angels. When the conversation turns to more abstract questions of creation and planetary
motion at the start of Book VIII, Eve walks away to tend her Garden. Milton is quick to note, however,
"Yet went she not, as not with such discourse / Delighted, or not capable of her ear / Of what was high:
such pleasures she reserv'd, / Adam relating, she sole Auditress" (VIII, 48-51). In other words, Eve is
perfectly capable of comprehending the abstruse subject, but she prefers hearing the ideas from Adam
alone. The implied idea here is that Eve understands her position in the hierarchical arrangement and
leaves this conversation so that she will in no way usurp Adam's place with the angel.

Eve does have a tendency now and then to question Adam, but she does so in a rational, respectful
manner. In Book IX, such questioning leads to temptation. Eve tell Adam at the start of Book IX that they
can do more work if they work separately. Adam knows that Eve is more likely to be tricked by Satan if
she is alone and argues against separation. His love for Eve, though, allows him to be persuaded, and
against his better judgment, he lets her go. Most commentators see this action on Adam's part as
another example of his uxoriousness; he yields to Eve's argument, not because her argument is better,
but because he does not want to hurt her feelings. On the other hand, Eve wins the argument by
knowingly using her advantages over Adam. Eve sets herself up for the fall and is not equal to the task of
dealing with Satan by herself.

Eve yields to temptation through a combination of flattery (vanity) and sophistic argument by the
serpent. Satan is happy to find Eve alone and acknowledges that Adam would be a much more difficult
opponent. Satan knows Eve's weaknesses and plays on them. She is charmed by him and cannot detect
the flaws in his arguments.

After she eats the fruit, Eve immediately changes. She begins to think of ways of becoming Adam's equal
or perhaps his superior. But, fearful of losing Adam to another female creation, she decides that he must
eat the fruit also. Adam does so but not because of Eve's arguments. He eats willfully because he is
unwilling to be parted from Eve.

After the fall, Eve, like Adam, is acrimonious and depressed. However, her love for Adam initiates the
regeneration of the pair. She apologizes, and her love causes a change in Adam; they can face the future
together. Eve is also glorified by being told that her seed will eventually destroy Satan, though her
position in relation to Adam is made clear when Michael puts her to sleep while he shows Adam the
vision of the future.

Eve is certainly not a feminist heroine. Like so many characters in the epic, she has an assigned role in
the hierarchy of the universe. Milton does not denigrate women through the character of Eve; he simply
follows the thought of his time as to the role of women in society. Eve has as many important
responsibilities as Adam, but in the hierarchy of the universe, she falls just below him.