'Winning companions: Eve's pool-gazing at Paradise Lost 4.449-491'

Description of Activity

This talk stemmed from my research on how John Milton focuses constructs and scrutinizes models of companionship in his epic poem Paradise Lost. It took on the famous scene in Book 4, in which Eve describes her creation – in particular, her encounter with her own reflection, her desire for its ‘answering looks / Of sympathie and love’ (4.464–5), and the tactics used by God and Adam to draw her away from that reflection and into union with the latter. This scene is primarily noted as exemplifying Eve’s vanity, but I demonstrated how things become less clear-cut when we consider it in terms of classical and Renaissance models of friendship and marriage.

Period	11 Nov 2015
Event title	Schools and Colleges Literature Day
Event type	Workshop
Location	Portsmouth, United KingdomShow on map