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Modern Day America By John Milton 's Paradise Lost Essay

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When the “Founding Fathers” of America laid the foundation of the United States, they strove to create a society in which “all men are created equal” (Jefferson, n.p.). Despite this noble ideology, however, the subordinate status of women at the time as well as a booming slave trade prevented our nation from truly achieving this utopian vision. Now, over 200 years later, modern-day America still struggles in achieving true equality for all citizens. While women in the United States have inched closer to equality than ever before and appear to possess the same rights as men, underlying issues persist. Lingering concepts of traditional gender roles, a disturbing sexual double standard effectively encouraging “rape culture,” and the fact that women still receive less than men for the same vocation combine to prevent true equality of the sexes even today. Various literary, musical, and visual forms of art reinforce and perpetuate notions of female inferiority in the minds of many individuals using a plethora of techniques. John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667, 1674) and Temptation of Adam and Eve (1425) by Masolino, for example, appear to accomplish this by tying sexism to the Fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden. On one hand, both Milton’s epic poem and Masolino’s Fresco point to the idea that Eve, and therefore woman, should be blamed for original sin. However, the Biblical account of original sin in Genesis and Milton’s emphasis on free will in multiple writings imply
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