Eclipse

We were covering Paradise Lost in Renassiance class today. Despite the fact that I really like the poem, I was a little spaced out in class, jotting down some random thoughts. However, as we came to the description of Adam and Eve I was jarred into attention by an appalling line about the genders:

For contemplation he and valor formed,
For softness she and sweet attractive graces,
He for God only, she for God in him

At this point, Theo looks at me, I look at Theo, we both look at the book, look back at each other and mouth, "What?!?!"
"Looks like you have something to say, Meghan," says Dr. Benthall.
"Yeah, this is wrong."
"Would you care to explain?"
"This is completely lacking in understanding the feminine genius! First, this ignores the fact that women actually can relate to God apart from man, because a woman can become the bride of Christ in the religious life. I suppose Milton can't be fully blamed because he was living without the Catholic understanding of Mary as the perfection of woman, and the Church as the Bride of Christ, but wow. Also, God created man and woman to guide one another to Himself. Apparently, Milton did not pay much attention to the role of Beatrice in Dante" Lest my fair readers by shocked at my unwonted verbosity I finished off my point with my typical eloquence, "I'm sorry. I'm going in circles, but this concept makes me so angry I could spit."

Later on in the poem, Eve says to Adam, "I was formed flesh of thy flesh / And without whom am to no end." What?!?! Yes, woman was created because it was "not good for man to be alone." However, God still created woman for her own sake. God is woman's end, not man. I love the idea of giving my life in devotion out of love for one man, and loving one man so much that I want to have a family with him. (I want to have your babies! *ahem*) But I would never want to do that without the awareness that my life (and my "end") belongs to God first. In addition to this, evidently Adam speaks of how he loves Eve yet her beauty distracts him. I mean, meh? It was Paradise. Fallen nature was not an issue at this point. What about the complementarity of the sexes? God knew what He was doing in creating Eve from the rib of Adam. Not the head, not the foot, but a bone created to protect his heart. However, another person has made this point far more eloquently than I can:

Than at those words was I; I grew God's lover
So wholly, needs must Beatrix' self admit
Eclipse, and I became oblivious of her.

But this displeased her not; she smiled at it,
So that the splendor of her laughing eyes
From one to many things recalled my wit

It took him a while but Dante learned to view beauty and his beloved as God intended: a window through which to view God Himself. Not as a distraction.