Eve’s Childless Future and Genesis 3:19 in Paradise Lost

Blaine examines Paradise Lost by John Milton with regard to Eve's childless future and Genesis 3:19. In Paradise Lost 10.989-91, as Adam and Eve examine their options in the aftermath of their fall from grace, Eve proposes that they remain childless so as not to produce a race of offspring tainted by original sin and hence doomed to die. Although her intention is to spare untold multitudes the pain of mortality and to preempt the guilt her mate is already feeling about bringing death upon his yet-unborn descendants (10.815-27), Adam indicts her of "Reluctance against God and his just yoke" (10.1045), with "reluctance" denoting not hesitation or delay but a now obsolete sense of "opposition".