Eve is most certainly written as an unequal in Paradise Lost according to Alison L. Bare in “Feminism Regained: Exposing the Objectification of Eve in John Milton’s Paradise Lost.” The goal of this text is to offer a unique approach to analyzing Eve (hence the word choice in the title: “Feminism Regained…”), as well as why she does hold some of the blame for the fall. This is accomplished through Bare’s close reading of Eve. Additionally, Martha Nussbaut’s method for analyzing objectification is utilized (a method that consists of determining whether a person is regarded as inanimate). Bare’s introductory method is stating the significance of Milton’s Eve, which is that she is a famous literary character because she is deemed, in simplest terms, a “portrait of original women in Western literary tradition” (Bare, 93). The text is situated literarily as it leans on previous criticism including that of Floula, Nyquist, and Schwartz and it employs contemporary feminist critical methods. Summarizing this, an elaborate thesis exists as the last line of paragraph 2. Ultimately, Eve, though not blameless for the fall, is an objectified character.
Bare, Alison L. "Feminism Regained: Exposing the Objectification of Eve in John Milton's
Paradise Lost." English Studies, 6 Dec. 2017, doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/0013838X.2017.1405324.
