Speaking like Eve: Gender and the "Perfect Language" in Milton''s Paradise Lost

• Main Authors: Yi-jan Shen, 沈怡箴
• Other Authors: Rudolphus Teeuwen
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/10228522229524719101

碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 外國語文學系研究所 === 101 === The pursuit of the perfect language intrigued and obsessed the literary circle of the seventeenth century, as political turmoil and chaos initiated the desire for the stable even in the aspect of language. As the perfect language is self-explicative, it indicates a perfect correspondence between the signifier and the signified in order to guarantee the purity and singleness of the meanings to avoid confusion and ambiguity inevitably occurring, for instance, in postlapsarian language. The concept of the perfect language, nevertheless, finds evidence in Milton’s prelapsarian world, where unfallen Adam is endowed with divine insights to discern the nature of the animals and translate his comprehension into perfect matching names. However, the presumption of the perfect language in the prelapsarian Eden is challenged by critics as the preconditioned absoluteness could not possibly exist for it would have preempted any possibilities of inferring, implying, and guessing from the context. In my thesis, I argue that languages marked by gender as masculine and feminine dominate in the characterization and narratives of Adam and Eve, for gender is the sole mark distinguishing the first couple along with their hierarchical roles as man and man’s helper. I examine Eve’s gendered discourse in particular as Eve as a lesser vessel turns out to be the main target of Satan’s verbal temptations and sophistries. I analyze the traits of gendered discourses and discuss how they render Eve more vulnerable, disadvantaged, and disempowered in face of Satan’s rhetoric and eloquence. Also scrutinized are the critics’ viewpoints concerning Eve’s gendered discourse, which significantly reveals certain ingrained biases attached to stereotypical expectations for women shown in the critics’ word choices and arguments in regard of Eve.