2. Adam and Eve’s Argument

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we think about the function of Adam and Eve’s argument at the beginning of Book 9, focusing in particular on the idea of perfection, the characterisation of Adam and Eve and their relationship, the naturalistic style in which their argument is rendered, and the relationship between male and female more broadly in the poem.

Course

In this course, Professor Karen Edwards (University of Exeter) explores of Books 9 and 10 of John Milton’s Paradise Lost through five key questions: (1) What do we learn from Satan’s soliloquy and his return to hell? (2) What is the function of Adam and Eve’s argument at the beginning of Book 9? (3) Are Adam and Eve’s falls the same? (4) How are Adam and Eve reconciled after the Fall? (5) What kind of poem is Paradise Lost?

Lecturer

Karen Edwards is Professor of English at the University of Exeter. Her research and teaching focuses on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English literature, especially the works of John Milton, in the context of natural history, the Bible and religion, and politics. Her recent publications include Milton and the Natural World (1999) and Milton’s Reformed Animals: An Early Modern Bestiary (2005-2009).