In Book 9, when Adam realizes that Eve has eaten the forbidden fruit, he suddenly drops the garland he has been diligently making for her, evoking pathos from the reader:
On th’ other side, Adam, soon as he heard
The fatal trespass done by Eve, amazed,
Astonied stood and blank, while horror chill
Ran through his veins, and all his joints relaxed;
From his slack hand the garland wreathed for Eve
Down dropped, and all the faded roses shed:
Speechless he stood and pale, till thus at length
First to himself he inward silence broke.
Though Milton could have rendered Adam's reaction to Eve's "fatal trespass" in a more melodramatic way—a scream or a flood of tears, for example—his choice to show Adam dropping the garland is far more powerful and realistic: Adam's "speechless" and "pale" demeanor convey his "horror chill."
Though Eve is not a totally unsympathetic character—the reader is meant to see that Satan led her astray, and that her intentions were not purely evil—the reader is also clearly meant to feel sorrow and pity for Adam, whose carefully made gift for Eve will go unworn (the roses are "shed" as soon as he drops the wreath). While Adam has been thinking of Eve, Eve has been thinking of herself, and her own desire for knowledge—without considering Adam's feelings or opinions.
Eve's individualism presents a threat to the hierarchy of Eden and Heaven (Eve is at the bottom of the ladder, below God and Adam): though this makes her a complex, independent character, within the narrative of Paradise Lost, she is also an anti-hero who dishonors womankind with her error.
