An Inevitable Sleep In Milton’s Paradise Lost

In Paradise Lost Eve is absent from Michaels’prophecy on man’s future. When Michael predicts man’s future to Adam, Eve is arranged to fall asleep. Considering her presence in Raphael’s conversation with Adam, it is easy to believe that her absence in Michael’s prophecy is plotted by Milton intentionally. However, there is little critical attention on this detail and the literary researches on this part are also scarce.Eve’s absence from Michael’s prophecy could be attributed to many reasons. This paper intends to explore the reasons of Eve’s absence, based on the textual analysis, the textual comparison and the social-cultural background in the seventeenth century in England, from the following aspects:Eve’s position in message-transferring order, Eve’s function in Adam’s moral development, Milton’s reference to the relative texts before Paradise Lost and the influence of the debate over women in the seventeenth century on the poet. With profound researches and explanations on these aspects, this paper concludes that Eve’s absence from Michael’s prophecy is reasonable and inevitable.On the aspect of Eve’s position in message-transferring order, Eve’s absence from Michael’s prophecy is relative to her position in the message-transferring order. In Paradise Lost, Milton has established strict hierarchic chains in the three worlds:Heaven, Eden and Hell. The hierarchic chains determine the message-transferring order within the three worlds. According to Eve’s hierarchy in the hierarchic chains, she receives message mainly from Adam in the message-transferring order. Therefore, Adam should be the one who delivers God’s message to Eve. Thus, Michael reveals the message about man’s future only to Adam.On the aspect of Eve’s function in Adam’s moral development, Eve’s absence is related to her function in Adam’s moral development. Adam has totally experienced two periods of moral development in this epic. Eve functions a lot in the first period. However, her function ends in the second period and Michael’s prophecy is the sign of the end of her function. Therefore, she should be absent in the second stage of Adam’s moral development when Michael is exercising his function.In terms of the aspect of Milton’s reference to the relative texts before him in creating Paradise Lost, this paper intends to discuss the major works that influence Milton’s design of the plot that Eve is absent in Michael’s prophecy, especially Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas’s works. Moreover, Eve’s absence is also relative to the influence of the debate over women in the seventeenth century on the poet. Eve’s presence in Raphael’s conversation with Adam and her absence in Michael’s prophecy are Milton’s response to the two sides of the debate and her absence is also the reflection of Milton’s purpose in his response:consolidating the traditional gender hierarchy.With the study on these aspects, the present paper concludes that Eve’s sleep during Michael’s prophecy is reasonable and inevitable in Paradise Lost. Recognition of this point is helpful in understanding the themes of the entire epic.