If Adam has a flaw before the fall, it is uxoriousness. This term, which means "dotingly or irrationally fond of or submissive to one's wife," was applied to Adam early on in criticism of Paradise Lost. Adam tells Raphael that Eve's beauty affects him so much "that what she wills to do or say, / Seems wisest, virtuosest, discreetest, best; / All higher knowledge in her presence falls / Degraded" (VIII, 549–552). Even though Raphael warns Adam that this attitude toward Eve is improper and that Satan could use it to tempt the humans, Adam eats the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge precisely because he cannot bear to be without Eve. As a near perfect human, Adam is ruled by reason. He immediately understands Eve's sin in eating the apple, but he willfully ignores his reason and eats because of his love and desire for her. Adam's uxorious attitude toward Eve, which perverts the hierarchy of Earth and Paradise, leads directly to his fall.
After the fall, Adam is prey to self-doubt, to anger and sullenness, and to self-pity. Ironically, Eve's love for him starts Adam on the path back to righteousness. Adam, after the fall, will never again be the old Adam, but he does recover his reason, he develops a new understanding of and love for Eve, and he sees the good that God will produce from his and Eve's sinful action. Adam goes from being the perfect human to becoming a good human.
