John Milton described an ideal marriage couple, Adam and Eve, in his Paradise Lost, inspiring us to recognize a couple who shares deep trust in God and his Grace, can embrace mutual true love. He eventually endorses a Christian belief in superiority of agape to eros.
The Fall of Man, Adam and Eve or Adam and Eve in the earthly paradise is a 1628-1629 painting by Rubens,Â
Adam eventually chooses to fall with Eve not because he is âdeceivedâ by her, but because he
is âfondly overcome with female charmâ (IX. 999). The adverb âfondlyâ is censorious and reminds us
that there is a powerful argument here against which Adamâs error is to be measured, but the logic of
this argument is unequal to the overwhelming emotion with which Adam shows himself being
overcome by Eveâs female charm. The moving words he speaks to her moments before eating of the
fruit are as noble as any lover ever spoke in literature: âOur state cannot be severed, we are one, /
One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myselfâ (IX. 958â9). Readers are justified at this moment to think
of Satan, who defiantly declared in the opening book of the poem that it is âBetter to reign in Hell,
than serve in Heavânâ (I. 263). What Adam is saying is disquietingly similar â it is better to love in
the fallen world than remain forever alone in paradise. Take away love and companionship and
paradise too can become just another kind of hell. Adam and Eveâs dire trespass undeniably debases
the sort of intellectual, chaste love Milton elevates as an ideal throughout the poem
