nother inequity in Paradise Lost. Eve attaches to God's law through her husband, who happens to be her law. She is not told about the inhibition by God, but by her husband. Eve does not learn from God's angel Raphael, but again through her husband. Adam is made "for God only, she for God in him" (4.299). This chain, argues Maureen Quilligan, "negates a direct relationship between God and woman" (Woods, 18).
             Finally, the Eve of Paradise Lost assumes a lesser role in the dominion of earth. It is Adam's "fair large front and eye sublime" that declares "[a]bsolute rule"(4.300-1). He is "[p]re-eminent by so much odds"(4.447). Eve, "less expressing/ The character of that dominion given/ O'er other creatures," assumes the traditional role of preparing dinner and tending a flower garden (8.544-6).
             These cases of bias portray Eve as the weaker sex. It is in this basis that most readers believe that Eve is culpable for the fall of mankind. However, this writer contradicts this line of reasoning. Man's fall is caused not by Eve alone but by Adam as well.
             Eve's fall is a sequence, a train of events. She decides to walk around, is permitted by Adam to do so, encounters the snake, is deceived and accordingly, transgresses. Eve's fall is a result of her bravery. She and Adam are forbidden by God to eat from a particular tree. However, she refuses. Eve as a brave human sets off on a creditable expedition to seek out knowledge, "the prerequisite of true virtue," wherever it may be found. Convinced of the "magic virtue of the fruit," she cannot easily abstain from eating. That is why she asks for Adam's permission to leave. Nonetheless, he deters. And his dissuasions merely strengthen her resolve to have, for this one time, her own way. She pretends to be hurt by his mistrust; she assumes an air of injured dignity (9.279-81). She ...