Scriptural vs. Societal Influence: Sex in John Milton’s Paradise Lost and Sinclair Ross’ As For Me and My House kalista pouget College

Throughout both John Milton’s epic Paradise Lost and Sinclair Ross’ novel As For Me and My House, characteristics and implications of sex are comparable. To elaborate, only sex within wedlock is regarded as righteous as both works support religious notions. However, Adam and Eve’s relationship is passionate and intimate in Paradise Lost unlike the strained, sexless marriage of Rev. and Mrs. Bentley in As For Me and My House. While unfaithfulness is destructive for both marriages, the extent and outcome of each instance of infidelity varies and produces different results. Also, although homosexuality is present in both Paradise Lost and As For Me and My House, heteronormativity is undeniably enforced. Same-sex attraction differs between the works when it is only implied about Philip in As For Me and My House whereas Raphael describes angelic homosexuality to Adam in Paradise Lost. The similarities between the works can be attributed to the fact that they share religious overtones while the differences can be explained by considering the shift in attitudes regarding marital sex, disloyalty, and homosexuality in the prelapsarian age of Adam and Eve to the fallen world of Rev. and Mrs. Bentley.

To begin, the only type of sex...