Rebellion and Challenging of Authority - Essay Example

Are Belinda and Eve puppets of the male characters and the supernatural forces, or does their rebellion and challenging ity show that they are beginning to break their chains? The depiction of major women characters in Book IX of Paradise Lost and The Rape of the Lock is apparently something that transcends the spirit of the times in which they were written. The rebellious nature of Eve in Paradise Lost and Belinda in The Rape of the Lock are not in any way understated by the poets, John Milton and Alexander Pope respectively. By entering into the mind of the women characters, both the poets present an interesting picture of female psyche that stands the test of the time and invites analytical studies related to the cultural construct of then female identity. Book IX of Paradise Lost presents Adam and Eve in their prelapsarian state and gradually develops to the theme of temptation and the original sin. The signs of self-will are shown by Eve, as she suggests to Adam that they can divide their work and go separate ways in the garden of Eden. As Adam is apprehensive of the enemy lurking in the garden, and shows his reluctance to separate from her, Eve protests, “How are we happy, still in fear of harm?”. To Adam’s fears about the Tree of Knowledge and the chances of Eve getting tempted, Eve declares that the very concept of heaven is false if there is suspicion among the two and a lack of confidence in each other: Frail is our happiness, if this be so; And Eden were no Eden, thus exposed. Eve’s sagacity to question the idea of a perfect state of bliss in heaven where differences and fear exist, though presented as part of a grand design, can in the contemporary scenario interpreted as a woman’s attempt to break herself free from the numerous norms set by the patriarchal society. The element of humanness that Milton attributes to Eve is capable of endearing her to the readers and to see her words and actions in a sympathetic light, even as the arguments that ensue after the original sin is capable of confirming the traditional Christian concept of seeing the woman as the eternal seductress who takes away the heavenly bliss man is capable of reaching, if not for her presence in his life. Adam’s words, “Go; for thy stay, not free, absents thee more;” hints at the paradoxical proposition of God trusting the free will of man and at the same time forbidding him and his companion from at least one thing in the Garden of Eden. The presence of a power relation which is deemed inappropriate in the eternal bliss and native innocence of the prelapsarian state of Adam and Eve is first recognized and contested by Eve. When Satan, in the form of an enlightened snake first flatters her and then reasons to her in a sophisticated manner, she does not try to run away from the reality of subservience that God’s creatures were supposed to exhibit towards God, and the same hat the woman had to exhibit towards man. Satan’s flattery when he calls Eve “Queen of this universe” and his words of assurance, “ye shall not die” and the reasoning, “…will God incense his ire / For such a petty trespass” is enough to make Eve think against the admonitions from God, and in turn from her companion, Adam. Burt these self-reflective arguments, which were supposed to be the reality of the Edenic existence before the original sin does not make her move to break the rule a sin at all but rather a move towards gaining her rightful, equal place in such an existence. And when Adam is also ‘tempted’ to commit the so-called wisdom of gaining the eternal wisdom of life, and “Earth trembled from her entrails”, he is depicted as follows: Against his better knowledge, not deceived, But fondly overcome with female charm Though this betrays the prejudice towards the role of Eve in the original sin, it also shows how Adam was susceptible to the charms Eve had over him. In The Rape of the Lock, Belinda is also presented as woman who leads a distinctive life that transcends the major theme of the poem, which revolves around the trivial yet ostensibly real incident of Lord Petre had cut off a lock of Arabella Fermor’s hair and the resentment that set in between two failies due to this. The presence of the sylphs makes it possible for Alexander Pope to reflect on certain prejudices that haunt the existence of women. Oft, when the world imagine women stray, The sylphs through mystic mazes guide their way, Through all the giddy circle they pursue. And old impertinence expel by new. The entire issue of the ‘rape’ of the lock is not seen as something that arises out of the existence of women in a world exemplified by the description of Belinda’s bed chamber. The trivial nature of the whole incident and the inevitable debates and reflections on it rather points to the cause and effect relationship of the cultural construct of femininity. At the same time, Belinda is not totally devoid of self-will that confirms her status to the male fantasy of what a woman must be. She is depicted as playing cars with true involvement and skill. The overweening power Belinda had even in a limited social circle is exemplified through the lines, “For who can move when fair Belinda fails?” The resentful pronouncement “she who scorns man, must die a maid”, betrays the existence of a female who is capable of breaking free from the rules of a patriarchal, family-centred society , even risking the worst (in the terms of such a society) in life. Eve and Belinda are depicted as operating in a male-centred world where their actions and words are controlled and interpreted by the whims and fancies of the patriarchal norms. But even amidst the gaze and power over their existence, these two powerful women are capable of attempting to do the forbidden. They trespass the boundaries set by the male community and enter the consecrated space restricted to the so-called powerful will of men. Questioning the power relations of their times in their own ways, these women move beyond the space assigned/restricted to them and challenge at least a few of the age-old traditions that facilitate the existence of a patriarchal world. Even as they operate within the fantasies of the male world, they are never puppets in the hands of male characters. They exhibit self-will and courage to face the consequences. It is possible to perceive in Eve and Belinda the forerunners of the women who fight for and gain their rightful place in this universe. 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