Analysis of "Fruit of Knowledge":

C. L. Moore's short story "Fruit of Knowledge," featured in the collection The Best of C. L. Moore (1975), retells the creation story with the exemplification of a new female character. According to some versions of Judeo-Christian lore, Adam had a wife before Eve in the garden of Eden named Lillith. However, Lillith was disobedient, so God made Adam a new wife called Eve. Eve was patient, beautiful, loving, but most of all, obedient. Lillith was forgotten and never again mentioned in the annals of biblical history.

Moore's story brings Lillith to the very forefront of the tale, perhaps even citing her as the reason for the fall of humankind. In the short story, Lillith arrives in the garden to see Adam---none of the angels who live there are at all pleased to see her, in fact, they are agitated by her presence--and her attraction to him is immediately noticed. She delights in the slightest touch of their shoulders or the tiniest croon of his voice--but she distrusts what she practically worships so deeply. She dislikes what can bring her to her knees to easily: "[T]he sight of him frightened Lilith because it pleased her so. She did not trust a beauty that brought her to a standstill under the trees, not quite certain why she had stopped" (172).

At her approach, the angels try to warn Adam of her--Lilith is regarded as a force of evil by the angels, which shows Moore taking this old biblical tale to a new level. Where Lilith was simply disobedient (or something less politically correct), in Moore's story she is described as "the Queen of Air and Darkness" (170). Adam immediately clings to her side out of a need for companionship: "'You weren't here. I couldn't find you...I watched all day among the aniamls, and they were all in twos but Man. I knew you must be somewhere...I thought I'd call you Eve when I found you--Eve, the Mother of All Living" (174). When Lilith corrects him, the reader understands that Lilith was not created by God, but by Adam's need for a mate--his need for a 'two,' in the most base sense of the concept. He is completely innocent as to why this is--he has not yet eaten from the Tree of Knowledge, but Lilith is for some reason completely aware of these facts. Perhaps she represents already the darker side of human nature.

Moore also makes very solid references to God's seeming blindness. At first it almost plays out to be that God has not noticed the presence of Lilith until the next morning another woman has entered the garden of Eden--the real Eve, the one for Adam will forsake all others. To add injury to insult, really, God has taken Lilith's body to shape Eve's, and now Lilith exists as a sort of bodiless mist. To add injury to insult, really, God has taken Lilith's body to shape Eve's, and now Lilith exists as a sort of bodiless mist. Lilith's immediate jealousy and rage---Eve is, at best, pathetic,---spurs her to convince Lucifer to tempt Eve into biting the fruit. Once Eve has bitten, Lilith reasons, God will strike her down and Adam and Lilith will be united once more. What she does not plan on, however, is Adam taking the fruit that Eve offers. He obtains knowledge and is no longer innocent and beautiful to Lilith's eyes. All three are cast from the garden by the Almighty, though Lilith begs God to strike her down, for it was her fault and her plan. When God does not, Lilith vows her sons will take their revenge on Eve's---sons, she foresees, whispering in Eve's ears, that will be named Cain...