Hopeful hellfire ultimately denied in Eve's reluctance to partake of forbidden fruit? (9)
I believe the answer is:
applicant
'hopeful' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
I cannot understand how the remainder of the clue works.
(Other definitions for applicant that I've seen before include "Candidate for a post" , "Person attempting to get a job" , "someone wanting a job" , "Job-seeker" , "Candidate for job" .)