The Role Of Satan In Milton's Paradise Lost

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.

Both spirits try to advise him on a course of action, with the evil one usually being more influential. The evil angel speaks of the power, which Faustus thirsts after. Faustus does not want to be a servant to God. He was become disillusioned with the idea of heavenly pleasures when he realizes he can profit immediately from service to the devil. In an exchange with the good angel he shows his lack of interest in having to work for rewards: Good Angel: “Sweet Faustus, leave that execrable act!” Faustus: “Contrition, prayer, repentance, what of these?” Good Angel: “O, they are means to bring thee unto heaven” With this display of lackadaisical attitude toward God, the likeliness of Faustus repenting be... ... middle of paper ... ... but for Faustus’ weak soul it is impossible.

If Satan truly had no free will, then nothing would be his fault, as he alleges. God tells Jesus that humanity can find grace because Satan deceives it into falling, (3.130-2). But, if Satan is deceived into falling, can he also find grace? Works Cited: Milton, John. Paradise Lost.

When a person hears Satan, a streak of fear, and the thought of evil arises. People fear Satan, and think of him as evil, but in John Milton’s Paradise Lost, he displays a thought of the Father being the evil being, and Satan a tragic hero. In Paradise Lost, Book 1 and 2, the minor areas where God is shown, He is displayed as hypocritical. He contradicts himself by creating the humans to be of free will, but when Satan displays free will, he is shunned. Satan could be described in many terms, and by many people, but all can be disputed.

It could be argued that the flaws in Satan’s character is such that we should feel no admiration toward him and neither fear or pity him but he can be seeming to inspire these emotions. Clearly this is seen when Milton states Satan’s tragic flaws such as envy, pride, and his ambition towards self-glorification. Satan’s pride is stressed throughout Paradise Lost. The important part to remember here is that Satan knows his weaknesses and flaws in his character through out the book. In Heaven, Satan’s pride convinces him that he is equal to God and thus sparks his ambition to defy God and challenges him for a democracy, while being envy at God’s appointment of his Son, this gives Satan the final excuse to challenge God’s

Paeadise Lost In John Milton’s Paradise Lost, we can see that there are the two ideas damnation and salvation through the characters of Satan and Adam & Eve, respectively. It is Satan’s sin of pride that first causes him to fall from God’s grace and into the depths of hell. This same pride is also what keeps him from being able to be reconciled to God, and instead, leads him to buy into his own idea of saving himself. With Adam & Eve, we see that although they too, disobeyed God, they repented of their sin, and were reconciled to the Divinity through the saving judgement of the Son. It is their ability to admit their wrong doings to God that allow them to have the promise of returning to Paradise; something that Satan was not able to do.

The reader no longer needs to label the morality of such a character; Satan defines himself with the use of the pronoun 'my' and the preceding definition and assessment that 'My self am hell'. Furthermore through Satan's own assessment the distancing technique by the word 'my' appears to exaggerate the notion of the definition of himself, the natural pause due to the unusual syntax further accentuates this. The use of Milton's alliteration in 'Racked with deep despair' when describing Satan's countenance only empathises this pitiful nature. However this sense of self dou... ... middle of paper ... ...ng that G-d deliberately leads Satan into greater evil. From the outset it appears that G-d and Satan remain in opposition together, an important characterisation of Milton.

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. Sooner or later, the same feelings of inferiority and the desire to overthrow God would rise. Satan becomes bitterer as his soliloquy goes on and resolves that his fate is sealed : “So farwel Hope, and with Hope farwel Fear,/ Farwel Remorse: all Good to me is lost;/Evil be thou my Good;”( 108-110). He then goes on to continue his revenge plot on God. Angry with God for putting him in the position to fall , Satan sees the same potential for failure in Adam and Eve.

He promised that he will “never do anything good. To always harm will be our only pleasure, because it will go against the desires of Him we are fighting.”2 He then continues saying that if God tries to create good from Satan's evil, then he will work to twist God's goal and make sure that evil comes out of good. Satan's goal is to cause God grief and knock His most cherished plans off course. The New American Bible says, “Do not return evil for evil, or insult for insult; but, on the contrary, a blessing, because to this you were called, that you might i... ... middle of paper ... ...d take over Heaven. Because of his pride, Satan refused to bow to God, saying that it would be to low for him to do so.

In his epic poem Paradise Lost, John Milton presents Satan as a complex and multifaceted figure. As Jeffrey Burton Russell describes in The Prince of Darkness, Milton’s goal in writing this epic poem was to “justify the ways of God to men” (Russell, chap.12, p.15). With this in mind, it is easy to interpret the character of Satan as a mere foe, the evil at the opposite of God’s goodness, and to see God as the obvious protagonist of the poem. Things in Milton, however, are not quite as black and white, and while the justification of God’s actions is at the centre here, it is the character of Satan who drives the poem forward, as a protagonist should. Satan is presented as a heroic figure from the very beginning of the poem.