In 1905, Mark Twain published something surprising. His work in his later years tended more
toward the critical and the vitriolic.
This piece was tender, heartfelt, innocent and emotional. Having suffered the loss of his beloved wife
Livy in 1904, Samuel Clemens reflected on his Edenic married existence in Eve’s Diary.
First found in the Christmas issue of Harper’s Magazine, Eve’s Diary was a short companion piece to his
earlier comic story Extracts from Adam’s
Diary. A light comic burlesque on
the Book of Genesis, Adam’s Diary focused
on the grouchy chiselings of the first man vis-à-vis the troublemaker who
sprung from his rib. Eve’s Diary shows the first woman to be
more open, honest and, frankly, smarter than her companion, and his life is all
the better for her being there.
It is fitting, then, that The Mark Twain House & Museum
in collaboration with the Harriet Beecher Stowe
Center and the World Affairs Council
of Connecticut, welcome another open, honest and smart Eve to our little corner
of the globe on May 6th at Manchester ’s
Cheney Hall. EVE ENSLER is, in many
ways, the Darwinian evolution of the Bible (and Twain’s) Eve.
Where Twain’s Eve is willing to endure much abuse out of
love for her husband, Ensler has become an outstanding advocate for the world
to end abuse against women. Where
Twain’s Eve will often sublimate her intelligence to make her male counterpart
seem brighter, Ensler fights for women to own their intelligence and rebel
against social and political patriarchies.
Where Twain’s Eve relentlessly pursues Adam, one cannot help but feel
Ensler would say, “Enough of this!” and move to her own corner of Eden.
There are, however, indicators that Ensler and Twain’s Eve
are still soul-sisters. They both share
an inordinate amount of compassion for other living beings. They both love openly and unashamedly. Both Eves are incredibly inquisitive and are
not afraid to talk about their feelings.
And, they both write.
Maybe the biggest area of evolution comes with the concept
of original sin. Twain, perhaps in
deference to his sainted wife, avoids mention of “the fall” in Eve’s Diary. Eve’s consumption of the
apple and the subsequent banishment from Eden
are skipped over in her diary. Maybe he
is assuming that this topic was adequately covered in Adam’s Diary:
“She says the snake advises her to try the fruit of that
tree, and says the result will be a great and fine and noble education. I told her there would be another result, too
– it would introduce death into the world…I advised her to keep away from the
tree. She said she wouldn’t. I foresee trouble.”
Of course, Eve eats and then tempts Adam, subsequently
blaming him for their downfall. And, of
course, they cover up their genitalia with fig leaves out of a nascent sense of
shame, something heretofore unknown in the Garden of Eden, a paradise from
which they are about to be expelled.
Ensler has, famously, ripped off the fig leaf covering
women’s vaginas with her (in)famous Vagina
Monologues. She cries out against
the mutilation of women’s genitalia and forced rape. She has refuted that eating from the Tree of
Knowledge is a bad thing. She repudiates
Adam’s curmudgeonly responses to Eve’s feelings with I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the
World. She has sought to eliminate
women’s sense of shame regarding their sexuality, their bodies, and, most
importantly, their minds. She has fought
to create a better sense of parity between the genders.
“About an hour after sunup, as I was riding through a
flowery plain where thousands of animals were grazing, slumbering, or playing
with each other, according to their wont, all of a sudden they broke into a
tempest of frightful noises, and in one moment the plain was in a frantic
commotion and every beast was destroying its neighbor. I knew what it meant – Eve had eaten that
fruit, and death was come into the world.”
Ensler’s efforts to halt violence against women and to
celebrate the female body and spirit have taken her to some of the most
war-torn parts of the globe: Afghanistan , Bosnia ,
the Democratic Republic of
the Congo , to name a few. In effect, Ensler chooses to live in the
world and change it rather than retreat to a Club Med-style Eden .
Instead of bringing death into those worlds, this Eve seeks to promote
peace, life, love and education. These
are goals that, in the end, are shared with Twain’s take on the biblical
Eve.
We welcome both Eves back to the Garden with the quote Twain
uses to end Eve’s Diary, tellingly
written in the hand of Adam:
“Wheresoever she was, there was Eden .”
An Evening with Eve Ensler at Cheney Hall, sponsored by The
Mark Twain House & Museum, the Harriet
Beecher Stowe
Center
"I Am an Emotional Creature" is Hartford Public Library's One Book - One Hartford selection for 2012.
