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.
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 ... ... middle of paper ... ...rt over.
Milton’s poem is written from the point of view of Satan and in such a way that he appears to be the heroic figure of the tale. Satan is given lines to uplift the demons of hell, seeming to empower them and as he sets off to derail the lives of Adam and Eve, the insight the reader has into the thoughts of the Devil almost make him appear to be the hero. The Satanic character of Milton’s Paradise Lost is shown to be primarily motivated by revenge against God, the creation of chaos, and the gain of power yet somehow he is stilled viewed as the hero to the reader and the other fallen angels in the story. As Satan and his followers were thrown from the heavens by God, during the poem, the fallen Angel seeks his revenge by creating another revolt against the Lord. At the beginning of the poem the Angels who have been cast down to hell speak of the actions they should next take, whether they should seek revenge or should be peaceful and submissive to the lot they have been given.
The classic tragedy Paradise Lost, written by John Milton, demonstrates how the fallen angels lose the paradise they have been given, and how this fall directly effects the downfall of man as well. Before anything ever was, all matter was chaos; utter darkness and filth. A mighty being, God, rose up out of chaos and created the firmament called Heaven, and all the universe (4). The angels, and archangels that populated Heaven, danced in the realms of the magnificent light (8). Lucifer, the highest archangel, stepped fourth and accused God of his power, jealously tying to take it from him.
He uses Satan's heroic qualities to introduce his followers his ability to corrupt the good. Satan is one of the greatest angels in Heaven and is known as Lucifer, meaning, ‘light bearer’. This shows he was once a good angel. Milton makes the reader see him as a leader and a strong influence on all in his presence. Satan states: "How such united force of gods, how such / As stood like these, co... ... middle of paper ... ...pportive of him, later reveal his truly destructive character, resulting in the reader disliking Satan.
This shows he was once a good angel. Milton makes the reader see him as a leader and a strong influence to all in his presence. He best describes Satan's ways when stating, "His pride/ had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host. / Of rebel angels, by whose aspiring/ To set himself in glory above his peers" (Milton Book I). Satan's pride was the main reason that God banned him from heaven.
John Milton’s Paradise Lost is an epic poem that describes the fall of Satan and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. Satan is the protagonist of Paradise Lost and has several characteristics in which readers may identify with him. Throughout the poem, Satan is not only a tragic hero but also the key character that drives the plot and portrays many flawed human qualities. As an angel fallen from the high esteem of God and a possessor of hubris that leads to his downfall, he represents a tragic hero but also a character in which readers may identify with. Following the standards of classic tragic heroes, Satan is a determined leader with an extreme amount of hubris.
Satan journeys through loss and inner conflict. He opposes the status quo and his establishment;he allegorically crosses a threshold to creating his final purpose. Even when he is struck down he is relentless and does not give up. He eventually circumvents his oppressor (god) and creates his own existence and his own realism, he tempts Eve and by extension Adam. Satan is the first and truest form of being throughout Milton’s epic that we relate to because he is vain, we have all been angry, jealous, greedy, vain and in Adams case in “love” Satan is the first and most important character to accept these feelings.
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.
In John Milton’s Paradise Lost, the parallelism between Satan and Eve’s fall is strong in that they were once both the highest before pure perfection. Lucifer is associated with evil, which stems from his free will leading to his rebellion against God and, ultimately, his great fall. He is known as the one who introduces sin to Adam and Eve – the first humans to ever exist. His plan to go against God is the beginning of a whole new world to the universe and a whole new significance of himself as the one known for human error and evil. Eve, “the mother of human race,” is Satan’s target to pull her down to his world of sin because she also wishes to become independent of Adam making her susceptible to anything that can separate her from him (4.475).