University of Virginia Library

Bowers Blames Adam, Not Eve

Was Adam more guilty than
Eve?

A psychological analysis of
"Paradise Lost" suggests that
poet John Milton felt that Adam
was more at fault than Eve for
man's fall and expulsion from
the Garden of Eden.

This theory has been traced
by Fredson Bowers, chairman of
the University department of
English, in a study of Milton's
epic poem.

"I have endeavored to show
that Milton was as concerned to
motivate the fall of man psychologically
and dramatically as
he was to treat it theologically,"
Mr. Bowers said.

"I have tried to trace the manner
in which Milton, though
paying lip-service to the Pauline
doctrine that Eve was the transgressor,
concentrates instead on
the Pauline statement that Adam
felt undeceived. By examining
causes for Adam's fatal refusal
to accept the responsibility assigned
him as Eve's superior, I
suggest that Milton believed
Adam to be more at fault than
Eve."

The key to the interpretation,
Mr. Bowers said, is found in
analyzing hitherto unnoticed psychological
parallels between the
scene where Adam gives permission
to Eve to go alone to meet
Satan and Adam's accepting the
fatal apple at her hands, thus
completing the fall of mankind.

Mr. Bowers will present his
theory in a lecture tomorrow at
Goucher College in Baltimore.
His paper, entitled "Adam, Eve,
and the Fall in 'Paradise Lost,' "
is part of a four-day series of
events celebrating the 300th anniversary
of the publication of
"Paradise Lost."

The Goucher program is supported
by the Robertson Lectureship
Fund, devoted to bringing
to Goucher distinguished visitors
to lecture on literature and the
fine arts.