Write 7 page essay on the topic In a unified discussion linking your texts, analyse how they explore the issues surrounding our understanding of gender identity.Download file to see previous pages...

Write 7 page essay on the topic In a unified discussion linking your texts, analyse how they explore the issues surrounding our understanding of gender identity.

The seducers and the manipulators, the equivalent to Satan, are Goneril and Regan, both women. The even-tempered, rational, intelligent and compassionate character in Lear is Cordelia, also a woman. Therefore, the two works treat gender as mirror images of one another. This essay will explore this concept in further depth. 2. A Comparison of Gender in Paradise Lost and King Lear The first issue is the issue of flattery, which is present in both King Lear and Paradise Lost, although the flattery in Lear persuades the man, while the flattery in Paradise Lost is used upon, with great success, on the woman. Since the ability to flatter in both instances, and the need for Eve in Paradise Lost to hear flattery and succumb to it, and for Lear to hear flattery and succumb to it, leads to both of these characters’ ruination, this speaks to how each text treats the issue of gender. One could say that Shakespeare sees the male as being the fool, because Lear is a fool for believing his deceitful daughters, while Milton sees the woman as being the fool, as Eve’s act in succumbing to flattery was as foolish as Lear’s succumbing to flattery. ...

The book that featured Eve’s seduction was in Book IX. Milton makes it clear that Satan seduces Eve, not Adam, because Eve was considered the more persuadable of the two because of her lesser intellectual capabilities, and because she was considered to be weaker – “The Woman, opportune to all attempts…Her Husband, for I view far round, not nigh…Whole higher intellectual more I shun…And strength, of courage hautie, and of limb…Heroic built, though of terrestrial mould…Foe not informidable, exempt from wound” (Milton, 1976, p. 194). This shows the way that Milton portrays the genders is that women are considered clearly inferior, not just physically, but mentally. This is the reason why Eve was able to be seduced by the serpent. Milton then goes on to describe how the serpent was able to seduce her – by flattery. The serpent calls Eve sacred, wise and “Mother of Science” (p. 199). The serpent then goes on to call Eve “Goddess humane” (p. 200). These are the words that the serpent uses, and Eve is powerless to resist – “He ended, and his words replete with guile…Into her heart too easie entrance won” (p. 200). Eve was able to reason that the fruit might give her knowledge, as she called it “This intellectual fruit” (p. 201). Thus, Eve was portrayed as somebody who isn’t as smart or as strong as Adam, and was too easily tempted to eat the apple by a serpent who addressed her as a Goddess, and by calling her wise, sacred and the mother of science.