Eve, Mother of Science, Mother of Knowledge
- Zanah Danae
- Apr 11
- 6 min read
Updated: Aug 2
In Milton’s Paradise Lost, there is something quite primordially blasphemous to the Christian faith about Eve seeking knowledge and autonomy from the Tree of Life when parallel in the quest for scientific knowledge. Science can be referred to as anti-faith or anti-religion, or even its own religion (Euckland 278). For Eve to seek to know things outside of what she was given as “truth” and trust in (V . 62–68), is for her to be the true original inquirer of reality and scientific thinker. Unlike Lucifer, the other outlier in the Garden, Eve was born without knowledge. She does not understand Milton’s framework of reality, with heaven being the golden chain that holds the earth and the cosmos (II. 1051-52). She is born into only knowing what is shown before her. She begins to question it, and dreams of the mysteries unfolding in the darkness (IIII. 640-644). The isolation of humanity from God, in Milton’s tale, belongs on Eve’s shoulders because of the“temptation” and “weakness” that Adam warns her about (IV . 383–385). But the deeper and more complex issue of simplifying it to Eve’s sex is to forget her otherness, intellectual personality, and desire for autonomy (Zimmerman 262). Allegorically, Satan refers to the Tree of Knowledge as “The Mother of Science” in Milton’s tale (IV . 679). For Eve, the choice to eat the fruit is not a fall but a symbolic awakening of autonomy. She finally experiences the oneness and wholeness she sought by making that choice entirely without Adam. Her decision ultimately leads to a separation from God and paradise but also to a catalyst for humanity’s intellectual awakening and moral development. Eve struggles with the choice to share that information with Adam but ultimately does, splitting humanity forever from divinity.
Eve was the first to test limitations and boundaries and employ intellectual choice over servitude and emotional dependence, the true Mother of Science, of knowledge. In Milton’s tale, Eve is seen as a dreamer, thinker, and intellectual character right from her inception. She peers into the pool to see her reflection and wonder, and she thinks about the darkness and stars at night (IIII.640-644). Although Milton may be painting Eve as vain and narcissistic (McColley 101), she is, in a way, a classic intellectual who refuses to take people or things on their word without first testing or pondering on it. She is flattered and coerced by Adam’s narrow and engulfing love and (Zimmerman 263) wanting companionship, all the while questioning her origin and seeking independence. This independence could be hers alone, but instead, not in an act of betrayal but in an act of love she debates on sharing free will and knowledge with Adam. This choice is explored within Milton’s poem: whether it be her fear of being alone in the unknown world, God’s wrath, or out of love (IX. 831-833). Eve makes the choice to share knowledge with her companion even though she is risking their death. “Adam will share with me in bliss or woe” (IX. 831). Eve gives the opportunity for Adam to explore the path of knowledge as well. However, Adam looks less on it as knowledge and autonomy from God or servitude and sees it only as the emotional loss of Eve, and possibility of losing his companion (IV . 905-907). Eve giving Adam a choice, rather than Lucifer, has her take on the role of knowledge-giver, and for a moment in time, she is superior to Adam in intellect, cosmic autonomy, and knowledge but has fallen from grace and is irredeemable in God’s eyes. Doing this is where she becomes the catalyst for Milton’s version of humanity’s fall from grace but awakening intellectually and morally. Eve's choice can be seen as inevitable of any intellectual thinker. Her questioning and desire for knowledge, and curiosity leads to discovery and deductive reasoning. Eve’s choice ultimately fosters free will, knowledge, and growth, whereas staying in the Garden, tending to flowers, and living without struggle keeps humanity from progressing. Eve does not simply or weakly become tempted by Lucifer and eat an apple; she is perplexed over what exists beyond the Garden long before the choice is ever there. Lucifer’s ability to sway her by praising her wonderment and logic validates Eve.
When looking at Eve as a character who is the Mother of all Knowledge, we also have to see her as a complex character who perceives herself as other than Adam right from the beginning, questioning herself and identifying herself before she even sees him (Zimmerman 252). She leans on herself, first, and her questioning as that is what she was created with, and it defines her ability to logically and intellectually process reality better than Adam’s character. “As I bent down to look, just opposite, a shape within the wat’ry gleam appear’d bending to look on me” (IV . 460-462) Eve’s first moment on earth is one with herself; she is self-aware, whereas Adam’s first moment was with God, where he was with another in perfect love. Eve is alone, with her own identity (McColley 111). Eve’s questioning of her own self is an intellectual one, whereas Adam is offered answers, love, and attention immediately in Milton’s tale. Before meeting Adam, Eve is content with inquiring into reality and instinctually pursues her own reasoning and meaning, after meeting Adam she becomes only an echo of his personality or decisions (Zimmerman 250). After making the personal choice to eat the apple, Eve gains her independence and autonomy. Eve’s complex character shows that decisive, intellectual wonder leads to discovery. Intellectually weighing her options, Eve takes the apple and realizes free will, and the moral consequences of Eve’s choice for autonomy reverberate throughout the rest of the poem. After her awakening and her heightened sense of self, knowledge, boundaries, and limitations, she becomes autonomous from God. Therefore, the poem begins to explore the cost of autonomy, especially from divinity. Milton continues in Book X to show the punishment of Adam and Eve but not immediately without showing the view that knowledge is not inherently corrupting but a path toward liberation of mind and spirit. Eve’s journey is an internal one, a philosophical one, not a weak, evil one. Long before Lucifer convinces her that her theories are correct, it shows us the path that is often taken in scientific study. Eve questions established beliefs to make a groundbreaking discovery, a very scientific process indeed. The very foundations of her relationship with Adam and with God, forbidden to question, are put to the test, and Eve comes out a changed, liberated, human being. Eating the fruit, Eve represents thechange from innocence and ignorance to experience, the ultimate knowledge source, a necessary part of intellectual growth and development. There is no traditional fall of morality here; there is only a complex choice and transition into a movement toward deeper understanding.
Eve’s role as the “Mother of Knowledge” is a deep, complicated one. Not to be played down by Christianity as a weaker sex-based choice of folly, but as Milton shows, a choice of deduction, innocence, and curiosity that leads to greater understanding. Can we fault Eve for being a dreamer and possibly the first great thinker of our species? Milton says no, we must understand her and her trials and dreams before we judge her. If we take that on the poem's interpretation of Eve, It’s easy to say while reading Milton that we owe science and reasoning to Eve. We may be separated from the undying and oneness with divinity, but according to the Christian tale, we are forever progressing because she chose to share knowledge with Adam.
Works Cited
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McColley, Diane Kelsey. “Free Will and Obedience in the Separation Scene of Paradise Lost.”
Studies in English Literature, 1500–1900, vol. 12, no. 1, 1972, pp. 103–20. JSTOR,
https://doi.org/10.2307/449976. Accessed 8 Apr. 2025.
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Edited by Merritt Y . Hughes, The Odyssey Press, 1962.
Zimmerman, Shari A. “Milton’s Paradise Lost: Eve’s Struggle for Identity.” American Imago,
vol. 38, no. 3, 1981, pp. 247–67. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26303763. Accessed
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