The contradictory social formation of paradise is inherently unstable, and I'm convinced that nothing is more important in our understanding of the dynamics of the Fall than these principles: the principle that Eve is absolutely free and equally rational, equally capable of rational and virtuous choices, but also the conflicting principle that Eve is to some extent subject to Adam's authority.The contradictory political impulses in the poem are brilliantly worked out in the first description of Adam and Eve. 