The Alien Leader in the English Civil War: Examining Paradise Lost and The Blazing World

The Alien Leader in the English Civil War: Examining Paradise Lost and The Blazing World

Throughout history, many great conquerors and powerful leaders were aliens in their communities. Examples are Alexander the Great, who was Macedonian and led the Greeks, Josef Stalin, who was Georgian and later became dictator of the U.S.S.R., Adolf Hitler, the Austrian Fuhrer of Germany, and Napoleon Bonaparte, the Corsican nationalist conqueror in France. In two primary works of seventeenth century British literature, Paradise Lost and The Blazing World, John Milton and Margaret Cavendish both employ the device of the alien leader, but they employ these devices in different ways; which belie their thoughts on alien-ness and leadership, Milton being a Roundhead and Cavendish a Cavalier during the course of the English Civil War, however, while the historical and contemporary applications are fascinating, the textual analysis provides a strong basis in and of itself to theorize on their applications of the alien leader.

Milton’s Satan is a leader of a familiar population in an alien place. Milton’s God[1] is a leader of a created population in a created place, but the population and the leader are wholly new to one another, thus making the leader alien to the people. Cavendish’s Empress, on the other hand, is an alien leader to a population familiar with their surroundings. When we examine these similarities and differences, we find two specific and important questions emerge: first, is the leader a more effective leader because he/she is alien? Second. does the leader like his/her alien state?

To be an effective leader, obviously, one must first be a leader. One cannot be an effective or successful teacher if one has no students, nor can one be an effective communicator if no audience exists. In much the same way, a leader requires both a sphere—a king without a kingdom is no king--and followers. This may seem to be overly simple, but this understanding is often neglected when considering leadership, whether alien or familiar. Satan’s sphere was altered to enable him to lead. God had to create humans so he could lead them. The Empress was, like Satan, subjected to circumstances beyond her control which placed her into a different sphere with radically unusual followers.

When Satan and his followers fall from heaven and descend into hell in Paradise Lost, Satan becomes the prince of Hell by default, as he was the wartime leader of the angels.