We can clearly see Anne Hébert's rehabilitation of Eve as a malevolent female archetype in two poems sharing the identical title of 'Eve' but separated chronologically by a period of eighteen years. Whereas the first of these poems makes no specific allusion to Eve as the first sinner, but simply presents her awakening sexual desire, the second, by ironically and angrily evoking the original sin traditionally imputed to Eve and associated with that desire, constitutes an explicit and impassioned cry of revolt; here the feminine lyrical voice, in full consciousness of woman's wrongful persecution throughout history, invokes Eve as a female saviour, thereby subverting her usual status as a malevolent female archetype.
