You are here

FAU Collections » FAU Research Repository » FAU College Collections » Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College » Honors Student Theses

"...At the ear of Eve"

Download pdf | Full Screen View

Date Issued:
2006
Summary:
The organ of hearing, in John Milton's Paradise Lost, is inextricably connected with both the physical and the spiritual; it is the point of entry through which Satan's words enter Eve's brain, subsequently process, and lead eventually to the fall of mankind. Its symbolic importance is also indisputable, as it is a metaphor for the feminine passivity and penetrability that make Milton's Eve a particularly vulnerable target. There is, however, already a pre-existing connection between the ear and its role in Paradise Lost. The seventeenth-century medical texts of Milton's contemporaries gender the physiology of the ear and the process of hearing and therefore contribute to its importance in the pivotal temptation scene; that is, the rhetoric surrounding the physiology of the ear is the down fall of humankind in the epic poem. As a result of the dangerous connection between science and language, Milton's characters are already predestined to sin.
Title: "...At the ear of Eve": hearing, gender, and the physiology of the fall in John Milton's Paradise lost.
1777 views
173 downloads
Name(s): Pollari, Niina.
Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Thesis
Date Issued: 2006
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: electronic
electronic resource
application/pdf
Extent: v, 47 leaves.
Language(s): English
Summary: The organ of hearing, in John Milton's Paradise Lost, is inextricably connected with both the physical and the spiritual; it is the point of entry through which Satan's words enter Eve's brain, subsequently process, and lead eventually to the fall of mankind. Its symbolic importance is also indisputable, as it is a metaphor for the feminine passivity and penetrability that make Milton's Eve a particularly vulnerable target. There is, however, already a pre-existing connection between the ear and its role in Paradise Lost. The seventeenth-century medical texts of Milton's contemporaries gender the physiology of the ear and the process of hearing and therefore contribute to its importance in the pivotal temptation scene; that is, the rhetoric surrounding the physiology of the ear is the down fall of humankind in the epic poem. As a result of the dangerous connection between science and language, Milton's characters are already predestined to sin.
Identifier: 314781174 (oclc), 11583 (digitool), FADT11583 (IID), fau:1317 (fedora)
Note(s): by Niina Pollari.
Thesis (B.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, Honors College, 2006.
Bibliography: leaves 46-47.
Subject(s): Milton, John, 1608-1674
Symbolism in communication
Fall of man
Body, Human, in literature
Literature and science -- England -- History -- 17th century
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/11583
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Host Institution: FAU

In Collections