Milton’s Paradise Lost has been an influential work in shaping Western society and, consequently, family as the base of society. Paradise Lost’s power lies in “‘allegorizing and psychologizing’ what Milton gives” (Murray, 91). More than the interactional effect on family in general, Paradise Lost mirrors Milton’s unconscious depiction of family in particular. Writing Paradise Lost is what Freud names “considerable expenditure of energy” enabling Milton to translate his “unconscious” (101) to written words; these words “may accrue new colors and meanings which Milton never dreamt of” (Murray, 92). Milton himself is fascinated and perplexed by the role of woman, her condition in family and her state of mind. His doctrines about divorce besides his several marriages (Le Comte, 94-100) can prove a conflict in his life: is woman’s role sexual or meta-sexual? The outcome is the reflection of his contradictory ideas about Eve---the prototype of womankind---in Paradise Lost which never meet reconciliation. The traces of Milton’s projection, pre-Oedipus and pre-Electra complexes, and incest can be found in the family model he creates in his work. Milton’s own projection is reflected in the characters of God and later Adam. God’s projection of unwanted desires takes the shape of a Lacanian naming process: Satan (God’s wish for tyrannical supremacy and articulating power), Adam (God’s need for physical existence and conscious obedience) and Eve (God’s want for sexual desires and conscious rebellion). It seems that Eve is portrayed as the product of Adam’s projection---a projected projection. The nuclear family Milton depicts in Paradise Lost consists of God, Satan, Adam and Eve. Eve’s role in this family is quite problematic: to God she is not only a daughter but also a mother. Adam (unconsciously) and Satan (consciously) rebel against God the Father and “father-as-superego” when they turn into the rivals of Father in contacting Eve---their “pre-Oedipal mother” (Kerrigan, 189). It seems that Milton’s conflict and his complex portrayal of woman underlie incest and pre-Electra complex at the base of Eve’s relation with God, Satan and Adam. Besides the role of daughter and pre-Oedipal mother to God, Eve functions as sister to Adam and Satan. Furthermore, her creation out of Adam’s body (Adam’s rib during his sleep), shapes her as the daughter to Adam.

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