The Romantic Subtext Between Milton’s Satan and Eve Zury Andrade College

In Book IV of Paradise Lost, Eve relates her birth and her first meeting with Adam. She claims to first have been distracted by her reflection on a pond, where she would have stayed had a voice not warned her away. The person on the pond “started back, but pleas'd I soon returnd, / Pleas'd it returnd as soon with answering looks / Of sympathie and love” (4.463-465). While it seems to be a reference to Narcissus, something else is happening: Eve confronting a shadow of who she is. The shadow on the pond gives her answering looks of sympathy Like in the pond, there seems to be two Eves in the world of Paradise Lost: The beautiful and enchanting woman that enthralls Adam, that shadow on the pond, and the flawed woman who is seeking an unknown something, the one looking into the pond in danger of being consumed, and whom Satan seems to understand enough to be able to tempt away from virtue and paradise. Adam’s lack of understanding of Eve, along with her lack of explicit consent, bring forth questions regarding the validity of their marriage. According to Milton’s own Divorce Tracts, a marriage is considered felicitous if there is mutual understanding and attraction, parameters which Adam and Eve don’t meet. However, through an...