Alexander Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock” and John Milton’s Paradise Lost Essay

The main egg-producing(prenominal) characters in Alexander Popes The Rape of the Lock and John Miltons Paradise Lost are seen at first as extensions of the male characters, at the kindness of superhuman forces. Does their tumult show that they begin to break the chains of male prescript? A view of the actions of evening and Belinda can be seen as rebellion against their controllers. Eve, the main female character of John Miltons Paradise Lost, comes to the school principal in Book IX, after she has taken her first independent action, that of eating the apple. To belowstand the actions of Eve, it is important to understand Miltons view of the interactions between God, disco biscuit and Eve. Roberta Martin statesIn Paradise Eve, the m new(prenominal) of mankind, is the figure of a contained, other creative energy that is carefully derivative she herself was derived from tours rib, and she is under Adams domination in the hierarchy of the haves perfect Symbolic Eve is subor dinate to Adam because she is lacking. The Father intends her to be a deliberately limited and controlled Other. (61)On Eves first awakening in the garden, the difference between Adam and herself is do clear. While he wonders who he is, and is aware of himself as a tell apart entity, Eve wonders where and what she is, and is non aware of any difference between herself and her surround as one with no conception of the separateness of her being, she begins life as an Object, rather than as a Person (Martin, 70).From this perspective, it is clear that Eve is at first fully controlled by the desires of Adam and of God, her joint Creators. It is not until, brassy to vex a Person, she expresses her own desires then, further defying her masters, she chooses to eat the proceeds of the channelize of distinguishledge. She begins, tentatively, to have opinions of her own and paceghts as to how the Garden should work she starts innocently, with a speck as to how the work should be d one. Let us divide our labors, thou where choice Leads thee, or where most needs, whether to wind With Myrtle, find what to redress gutter Noon Our task we choose, what wonder if so near, Looks intervene and smiles, or aspiration new Casual Discourse puts on, which intermits Our days work brought to so little, though begun Early, and thhour of Supper comes unearnd. (Milton, 209).Adam objects sharply to this suggestion, leaving no doubt that Eve has gone against his wishes for, perhaps, the first time. for nothing lovelier can be found In charwoman/than to study household good,/and good flora in her Husband to promote (Milton, 209). And yet, he concedes sadly, But if much talk about perhaps/Thee satiate, to short absence I could yield. /For solitude sometimes is scoop out society/And short retirement urges sweet return (Milton, 209). Eve has won her first, sm both battle that for time on her own, without the companionship of Adam, whom she was conceived as confrere for. Ada m is not yet done attempting to assert his will, and Gods will, over Eve. But God left disengage the Will, for what obeysReason , is free and Reason he made right,But bid her well look out and still erect,Lest by some fair appearing good surprisd,She govern false, and misinform the WillTo do what God expressly hath forbid. (Milton, 212)Eve is, here, to be allowed some freedom of her will, but only if it is within the rules already draw for her. Temptation follows in the form of the Serpent and she defies the wishes of Adam and of God, and eats the produce she has been forbidden. This is her greatest act of rebellion, and the point at which she throws off the chains of her Creation. She gains the friendship that had been forbidden her she conceives of a desire, that of being an equal. She ponders In Female Sex, the more to draw his Love,/ and render me more equal, and perhaps,/ a thing not undesirable, sometime/Superior, for indifferent who is free? (Milton, 225)Suddenly aware of the possibility of her own death, she resolves to share the noesis she has gained with Adam, for So dear I love him, that with him all deaths/I could endure, without him constitute no life. (Milton 225) So choosing the highroad of love over the path of knowledge, she feeds the fruit to Adam, and brings the wrath of the Creator down upon their heads. Milton is not content to let Eves transgression, that of throwing off the patriarchal rule and allowing her own will to become paramount, pass lightly. For he closes, Thus it shall befall/Him who to worth in Woman overtrusting/Lets her Will rule. (Milton 234). If Eve is a first appearance of Adam and God, Belinda is a creation of small-arms conception of Woman, and the object of a struggle between homo and the supernatural. Rising only late in the morning, she spends hours at her toilet, provision obsessively in order to meet her admirers. Pope inquires Say what singular motive, goddess Could compel A well-bred lord tassault a gentle belle? O say what stranger cause, yet unexplored, Could make a gentle belle reject a lord? (Pope, 28)Belinda is the beloved of the sylphs, for her purity and beaut are made in their image. One whispers to her as she lies sleeping Know farther yet whoever fair and chaste/Rejects mankind, is by some sylph embraced/For spirits, freed from deathlike laws, with ease/Assume what sexes and what shapes they please (Pope, 29).When she ventures out, all fall to her charms, including the Baron Belinda smiled, and all the world was gay (Pope, 32). All, that is, except the Sylph, who sees in the Baron a tint for Belindas affections. The Baron conceives of a plan to wrest a fasten from Belindas unsuspecting head, thus despoiling her. Despite the guardianship of the Sylphs, he succeeds He takes the gift with reverence and extends/the little engine on his finger ends /This further behind Belindas neck he spread, /As oer the fragrant steams she bends her head (Pope, 38).The sylphs are enraged Not Cynthia, when her manteaus pinned awry/Eer felt such rage, resentment and despair,/ As thou, sad virgin for thy ravished hair. (Pope, 39). The spirits desert Belinda, and she is left at the mercy of new knowledge of love bereft of her beauty with the lock of hair, she waterfall into a dark despair, abandoning her previous beauty regime and descending into slovenliness. impelled to rage, she attacks the Baron for his unforgivably churlish actSee fierce Belinda on the baron flies,With more than usual lightning in her eyes,Nor feared the chief th unbalanced fight to try,But this bold lord with manly strength dumbNow meet thy feate, incensed Belinda cried,And drew a deadly poniard from her side. (Pope, 45) Belinda, in rebellion against the desires of Man, throws off the strictures of her previous role as vestal and takes the persona of Warrior. Restore the lock is Belindas cry she desires what has been taken from her to be returned, as she desires to return to her pre vious state of innocence. Belinda is not a marionette of the supernatural nor of Man her rebellion is against the unending march of maturity and gained knowledge, not against the machinations of those who would control her. Belinda has chosen the supernatural rather than the control of Man, and has wrested control of her ego back from the man who would control her. She is still a creature of Mans conception, but she is no longer a creature for Mans desire. Eve and Belinda represent two very different views of female rebellion and independence. Eve, in choosing to perform an action expressly forbidden by her creators, has chosen the path of opposition Belinda has chosen the control of one of her creators, rejecting the path of the other, who held himself in opposition to the firsts wishes. Belinda has chosen the path not of rebellion, but of total rejection of the assertion of Mans control.Works CitedPope, Alexander. The numbers of Pope A Selection. New York Appleton-Century-Croft s, 1954.Martin, Roberta C. How Came I Thus? Adam and Eve in the Mirror of the Other.College Literature, 27.2 (2000) 57-79.Milton, John. Paradise Lost. New York Odyssey Press, 1962.