When reading an epic poem, one is continuously examining the work as the reader progresses through each book and as new characters are encountered. Although Satan is controversial character in this epic, Satan can be considered as a figure of heroism in Paradise Lost. One may be under the impression that Milton makes Satan appear heroic and appealing early in the epic to gain the reader’s sympathy. Milton manipulates empathy in his reader to convince the reader’s how seductive evil is and to teach the reader become more vigilant. In Paradise Lost, Milton uses Satan’s strength, ambition, leadership, and pride as his tragic flaw to establish his status of an epic hero. In Paradise Lost, the reader is given an idea of Satan’s physical
Satan feels compelled to please the demons and stand up for what he believes is right. Not only does Satan show leadership within his society, but within himself. Satan has not hindered he knew he would be eternally damned to hell and approached by chaos and death. Steadman said this about leadership, “The process of moral self- determination—the driving urge toward self- definition that we normally recognize in the heroes of Homeric epic—is equally operative in Milton’s Satan, yet this very preoccupation with self, along with the craving for domination and the hunger for glory, forms the cornerstone of the infernal city. The Satanic image, as Milton presents it, is the devil’s own creation.” (Steadman) Every epic hero has a tragic flaw, in Satan circumstances his tragic flaw was pride. Throughout the end of the epic Satan steadily loses his heroic qualities; Satan’s heroic deeds were rooted in sin. Hughes makes the valid point by referring to the Greek was thinking proving Satan heroic pride, “If we look at Satan from Hellenic point of view, he is heroic, and, I take it, it is from this point of view that the Romantics looked at him.” (Hughes) One of the main rationale for Satan’s pride is he believes he possess more power than God. Satan assumes that his army is superior to Heaven’s. Satan’s army is half the size of what is in Heaven and that they can take over
Satan assumes that an army as brawny as his should have never fallen to God’s army. Satan’s pride blinds him to the point that he does not realize that God can easily defeat such an army, even though they "stood" like “gods.” “How such united force of gods, how such As stood like these, could ever know repulse?” (1.629-30). Satan’s army is half the size of what is in Heaven and they believe that they can take over heaven. Satan is under the impression that he knows what is best for all the angels. Satan believes that he is superior to God. When Satan was in Eden in the form of a toad whispering a dream in Eve’s ear; Satan believes that God is not knowledgable of what he is doing. The same circumstances apply to when Satan is in Eden talking to Eve at the tree of knowledge of good and
Without Satan’s Rebellion, man would possibly not have been created and would certainly not have fallen, and no justification of the ways of God to man would have been necessary or possible. A proper understanding of the rebellion of Satan is likewise essential to the whole philosophic meaning of the epic (The motivation of Satan’s Rebellion)
Furthermore, within these two main models of heroism critics mostly attempt to define the characters of Satan, Adam and the Son of God, depending on their characteristics throughout the poem. Historically, it has been the character of Satan who is defined as the hero of Milton's epic, one who was defined by the Romantics as a 'tragic-hero'. At the beginning of the poem he is presented as one with an iron fast will, who will overcome his challenges in order to gain a victory, like the heroes of the classical epics. Upon waking up, cast out of Heaven by God, Satan's first action is to attempt to rally his troops, defiantly proclaiming that they can “make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. ”4 (PL, I: 255, p.156) Milton manages to create a Satan so vivid and compelling it is little wonder that so many were drawn to this figure,
His determination is shown by the quote ‘He circled, four times crossed the car of night’. This makes it obvious to the reader that Satan’s desire for revenge is much more than a simple whim it is lust. In Book 2 of Paradise Lost, Satan’s determination is introduced as he leaves the other fallen angels in Pandemonium to wreak havoc on Earth and orchestrate their revenge. It is now, in book 9, that his efforts come to fruition, as Eve eats from the Tree of Knowledge and convinces Adam to do the same, consequently, man falls. Despite this, Satan does not receive his full punishment until Book 10
From the very beginning of time, many people believe that Satan is evil because they weren’t taught otherwise, but john Milton proves it in his poem that Satan is very much just like us, and you can be sympathetic for Satan because he disobeyed God .In paradise lost by John Milton, Satan is a sympathetic character because he comes off more like man then the figure of God. Anything he does, Feels, or acts on is just like a human
Following the standards of classic tragic heroes, Satan is a determined leader with an extreme amount of hubris. He knows that God is the most powerful being and yet he still rises against him, wanting more than just God’s highest approval. As compared to most tragic and epic heroes, Satan begins in a position of supreme status but his tragic flaw leads to his downfall. In Book I, Milton describes Satan’s fatal flaw of hubris:
Before any of this happens, Satan is kicked out of heaven. Satan betrays God by raising up an army against Him and Satan is gone. This is an indication of Satan’s bad temper, jealousy, and envy. Satan had been put in charge of so much, but he was always coveting the top position. It was the position with all the power and he wanted it. The day that Satan was kicked out of heaven was the true beginning of the fall that would ruin God’s creation forever. Satan revolted from God and created his own army of ...
In John Milton’s epic, Paradise Lost, the author establishes Satan as the most complex and thought-provoking character in the tale through his depiction of Satan’s competing desires. Throughout the first four books of Paradise Lost, Satan repeatedly reveals his yearning both for recognition from God and, simultaneously, independence from God. The paradox that prevents Satan from achieving his desires may be interpreted as a suggestion of Milton’s establishment of a sympathetic reading for this character, as he cannot truly find happiness. In actuality, the construction of Satan’s rivaling aspirations evince Satan’s repulsive depravity to Milton’s audience and encourage readers to condemn his character.
In order to attempt to discern if Satan is a tragic hero, his character must fit a certain profile. According to Aristotle's theory, the tragic hero has the potential to be great, but is doomed to fail. The tragic hero, although fallen, still wins a moral victory. The general characteristics follow that the tragic hero is a noble, is responsible for their fate, contains a tragic flaw, and is doomed to make a severe error in judgment. Eventually, the tragic hero falls from a high status, realizes the mistake that was made, faces and accepts their death, and finally ends in a tragic death. It is important to state that, in all tragic heroes, the audience is affected by fear and/or pity. In Paradise Lost, the reader is easily able to relate to Satan, even pity him at some points...
In considering Aristotle’s idea of hamartia, someone who is a good person, but fell from grace, and apply it to Satan then it seems reasonable to interpret Satan as having hero like characteristics. Aristotle would say that a courageous person is inspired by confidence, faces dangerous, and acts appropriately to this courage (Nicomachean Ethics). Not only is Satan a courageous figure, but starts off as a good character even though he makes mistakes along the way. In the first two Books Milton does this very thing of portraying Satan as a hero to appeal to the readers so that they are able to identify with his charact...
The question of whether Satan is the hero or the villain of John Milton’s Paradise Lost has been largely debated by scholars over the centuries. The ones who believe Satan is the villain of the epic, more commonly known as the Anti-Satanists, tend to argue that Satan is too foolish to be considered a hero, as his “hostility to Almighty power” is ultimately a futile endeavour (as God’s power is omnipotent) (Carey, 135). C.W. Lewis, also an anti-Satanist, goes as far as to claim that to “admire Satan, then, is to give one’s vote not only for a world of misery, but also for a world of lies and propaganda, of wishful thinking” (Lewis, 203). The ones who claim Satan is the hero of the epic, the Satanists, perceive him as the rebellious angel who rises up and defies God’s monarchy and “the tyranny of Heav’n” (174).They choose to focus on Satan’s “nobler qualities, his loyalty in leadership, fortitude in adversity, unflinching courage and splendid recklessness” (Satan/Promo, 3). While these two positions are both valid, this paper will be focusing on a third position; the individuals who believe that Satan is neither the hero nor the villain of the epic. Helen Gardner addresses this notion, claiming how “Satan is, of course, a character in an epic, and he is no sense the hero of the epic as a whole. But he is a figure of heroic magnitude and heroic energy, and he is developed by Milton with dramatic emphasis and dramatic intensity” (Baker/Helen, 208). Satan is without a doubt the antichrist, or “villain” in the biblical scriptures, however one must take into consideration his alternative and more ambiguous portrayal in Paradise Lost. In this paper, I will analyze Satan’s actions, physical portrayal and speeches in Book I of Paradise Los...
Milton uses many events like the ones listed above to encourage the reader to view Satan as a hero. "Satan is described to be the brightest and most important angel" (McColley 32). These traits of Satan show how one might recognize Satan as the second in power right below God, who was the highest power of all. Before Satan decides to give up what he has and to rebel against God, he was one of the wisest and most beautiful of all the angels in heaven (McColley 24). Although Satan was beautiful, the most important trait that makes him fit into the hero category is that he was the most powerful angel in heaven.
After reading Book 1 of Paradise Lost, which was about Satan starting to plot against God, I was impressed by Satan’s determination to make an attempt to take over Heaven once again, even though he and his followers were chained to the flaming lake, tortured, as their punishment from God. I admired the fallen angels’ determination to defeat God by warping his good creations to evil, since they all know that God is too powerful for them. Although Satan is banished from Heaven, and cast down to Hell by God, Satan’s evil character has not changed.
Ask anyone to draw Satan and you 'll get a red snake-like figure with horns and a pitchfork. Satan, as introduced in the Hebrew bible is an unworthy adversary of God. His longing to be like God is quickly recognized and dealt with. God banishes him from Heaven and sends him to Hell. That 's the last we see of him until he talks with God about his faithful servant Job. In each interaction we see Satan in, we get only a glimpse of who he really is. Satan 's motive is not developed and we assume he does evil simply because he is evil
The identity of the true protagonist in Paradise Lost is a mystery. One would gather that Milton, a Puritan, would have no problem casting God as the hero, and Satan as the antagonist. However, looking back in history, Milton saw that most epic heroes had conflicts that prevented them from accomplishing their goals. God and his Son have no conflict, and Adam’s story does not really begin until the Fall of Man. Therefore, Milton was forced to select Satan as the hero of Paradise Lost because he adheres to the guidelines of epic poetry set by Homer, Virgil and others. There are many examples of how Milton uses and edits the tradition of these previous epics in the formation of the Devil as a hero. One of the most basic examples of heroism in epic poetry is the exhortation of the leader to his followers. In The Odyssey, Homer lets Odysseus give a speech that would convince anyone they could survive the journey to the Strait of Messina, "Then we die with our eyes open, if we are going to die, or know what death we baffle if we can. (Ln.1243-1245)" After passing the Sirens, the ship approaches the Strait, and the crew sees the twin terrors of Scylla and Charybdis, they are mortified. Odysseus again lifts their spirits with this speech, "Friends, have we ever been in danger before this? More fearsome, is it now, than when the Cyclops penned us in his cave? What power he had! Did I not keep my nerve, and use my wits to find a way out for us?
Paradise Lost is one of the finest examples of the epic tradition in all of literature. In composing this extraordinary work, John Milton was, for the most part, following in the manner of epic poets of past centuries: Barbara Lewalski notes that Paradise Lost is an "epic whose closest structural affinities are to Virgil's Aeneid . . . "; she continues, however, to state that we now recognize as well the influence of epic traditions and the presence of epic features other than Virgilian. Among the poem's Homeric elements are its Iliadic subject, the death and woe resulting from an act of disobedience; the portrayal of Satan as an Archillean hero motivated by a sense of injured merit and also as an Odyssean hero of wiles and craft; the description of Satan's perilous Odyssey to find a new homeland; and the battle scenes in heaven. . . . The poem also incorporates a Hesiodic gigantomachy; numerous Ovidian metamorphoses; an Ariostan Paradise of Fools; [and] Spenserian allegorical figures (Sin and Death) . . . . (3)