All About Eve

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Although the story of Adam and Eve’s temptation and fall occupies only a brief passage in Genesis, this narrative has profoundly influenced interpretations of womanhood, marriage, and humanity’s quest for knowledge. Eve has been portrayed in diverse and evolving ways, reflecting the shifting attitudes toward gender, morality, and the nature of sin. Answers to the age-old question: “why did Eve eat from the tree” reflect vastly different world views. Did Eve seek to be more God-like, or was her “weaker” female mind deceived by the serpent’s rhetoric? This course explores portrayals of Eve across time in literature, art, and cultural discourse. Through this, the course examines how poets, artists, and thinkers have alternately condemned and revered the first woman, the so-called mother of all mankind. By the end of the course, students will grapple with questions central to Eve’s enduring relevance. Should Eve be honored as the ideal subservient wife, condemned as the seducing temptress whose choice– as Milton wrote of the first taste of the forbidden fruit– “Brought death into the world, and all our woe,” or lauded as a symbol of the environmental movement?