A Comparison Of God And Satan In Shakespeare's Paradise Lost

His rhetoric appeals to their emotions and logic, which virally invades the victim’s decision-making and makes man reason with giving up to temptation. Paradise Lost opens by describing the birth of original sin lead by Satan’s revolt from God and his hard fall, setting the framework for the rest of Milton’s story of Satan’s plan to bring men to join him in his evil kingdom. Before Satan’s fall, the flexibility of his free will makes him “[trust] to have equaled the Most High,” (I, 40). Coming in second to God, the envy for His positio... ... middle of paper ... ...eps planning to exact revenge. This state of repentance distinguishes man apart from Satan’s ways of only wishing to continue with evil and sinning.

Seeing paradise only reminds Satan of what he lost as a result of his fall from Heaven. Satan comes to the conclusion that he is the very embodiment of hell, bringing it everywhere he goes : “The Hell within him, for within him Hell /He brings, and round about him, nor from Hell/One step no more then from himself can fly (20-22).” Compared to the Bible, we actually get to see the torment Satan suffers as he lives his life as God’s adversary. Satan actually takes responsibility for his fall , pointing out the flaws that led to it: “Till Pride and worse Ambition threw me down” ( 40 ) . Unlike the Satan in Genesis and Job, Milton’s Satan clearly understands why he has fallen. As Satan continues to ponder his situation , he realizes that even if there was a chance for his redemption, he would never be comfortable being God’s servant.

Satan introspects in the first soliloquy (lines 32-113), searching for the motivation and reasoning behind his fall. He struggles with why he felt the urge to rebel. This very doubting suggests that his rebellion does not originate from a conscious effort; it is part of his internal makeup. Therefore, God created a flawed angel from the beginning (this is also supported by the fact that Sin comes from Satan's head while he is still in Heaven). Satan first acknowledges that his pride and ambition caused his fall (4.40).

When Paradise Lost begins, the vainglorious actions of Satan have resulted in his removal from heaven and placed him on the path to exact revenge against those who have done so. Though, the reader is hardly able to experience any distaste when reading about this man who opposes the consented force of good. He is are charming, dark, fanatical and desperate in his attempts. It is from these characteristics, that the reader may be swayed into viewing him as the protagonist (or even the hero) of the tale. Even C.S.

He leaves only Satan’s side of the story as the reader 's first interpretation of the events. As the fallen Angels awake in the lake of fire, Satan beings his heroic speech; he, being the Angel closest to God, is looked as the leader of the fallen rebels. In his speech, Satan speaks of the tyranny of God and how it is “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.”(I, 263) The disobedience Milton mentions is that of the Humans Adam and Eve; however, Satan is also disobedient in that he rebelled, not because of God’s tyranny, but because Satan wants what he wants rather than what God wants. In the Demon’s debate about their course of action, Milton describes their words as “cloth’d in reason’s garb.”(II, 226) Satan himself is unaware of his own pride and jealousy. His original disobedience is the reason that Adam and Eve fall; lured by Satan’s seemingly reasonable words, Adam and Eve disobey God as he did.

Only Beelzebub's idea seems to work, but that to will be proven false with time. In the Bible, Moloch was the god of the Ammonites who sacrificed their children to him, believing that then he would bring them power. They lusted after power and went to extreme, perverted measures to attain it. In Paradise Lost, Moloch also lusts after power. After being cast down to hell, he calls for the demons to wage war again on heaven.

Paradise Lost and the War in Heaven From the beginning of book 1 the war in heaven seems more than a simple, finished event. In reality, we have the authorized formal side presented: the war was ambitious, impious, proud, vain, and resulting in ruin. Satan’s first speech implies that there was another side-even after we have partly discounted the personal tones of the defeated leader who speaks of the good old lost cause, “hazard in the Glorious Enterprise.” That too is a formal side, presented by the losing actor in the drama. Then Satan goes on, to reveal, before he can pull himself together in defiance, something more: Into what Pit thou seest From what highth fal’n, so much the stronger provd He with his thunder: and then who knew The force of these dire Arms? (I, 91, ff) A little later the surprise has been bolstered with a kind of indignation: But still his strength conceal’d Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall.

Throughout Paradise Lost, written by Milton, there are many primary motivations that consequently guide Satan in his actions, revenge, power, and lastly, praise of his own followers. First, Satan is guided throughout Paradise Lost by the revenge he wants God to deal with. He decided to go against the lord and live in the dark place where the damned go. Satan must live with the fact that he was one of the highest angels in heaven, but it still was not good enough to become a ruler along with god. He got mad, and lost his spot that he once held.

He was a former high angel from Heaven named Lucifer, meaning, "light bearer" (John). Satan became jealous in Heaven of God's son and formed an allegiance of angels to battle against God, only for God to cast them out of Heaven into Hell (Milton 35). This did not bother Satan at first since he became the leader in Hell rather than a servant in Heaven. Satan believed that it was, "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven" ( I-l. 263). Much of Satan's reliance on getting things accomplished came from his ability to lie and deceive.

He would manipulate and deceive in any fashion as long as he can destroy God’s creation. Satan admits that God was good but his goodness made him feel “miserable” (IV, 73) because of his “boasting” (IV, 85). It is likely that God had no intention of boasting but that does not stop the evil that persists in Satan’s mind from thinking that way. At last, Satan severs his connection with God forever as he states, “farewell, hope; and with hope farewell, fear; Farewell, remorse, all good to me is lost” (IV, 107-108). Satan bids farewell to who he was before, a god amongst the heaven and abandons all hope of any repentance from God.