Throughout history a lot of poets were writing poem about Lucifer and his fall from heaven, some of them in their poems alluded to him while they describe another character, some others narrated his story from bible and other holy books either to make readers familiar with the story, or to the didactic purpose. George Meredith in his poem Lucifer in the starlight exposed Lucifer in some respect, he focused on his fall and how he came to spread his “black planet” on earth (line 8). Meredith was influenced by john Milton’s paradise lost, but he shifted his focus from man’s disobedience to Lucifer’s revenge on human, and how he literally came to earth to take it over by his darkness as it has been set that the destiny of those who follow Satan is hell “I to such blockheads set my wit! I damn such fools! Go, go, you're bit” (swift line 21-22). The rudimentary theme of this poem revolves around revenge as Lucifer resolved to take his revenge upon human beings after his fall from heaven.
Lucifer was a former angel in heaven, when he defied God’s command by refusing to prostrate for Adam, God banished him from heaven due to his pride. He would be a denizens of hell where his name changed to Satan, in Arabic language Satan means out of God’s mercy. He stayed in the bottom of hell, on a “starry night” he feels depressed, he “upraise” which has two different connotations either he would be aware of how he had been seized in hell for “starry” probably means a decisive night to Lucifer, or he intended to revenge upon human beings forcefully “black planet shadowed Arctic snows” (line 8).
Meredith employed irony, in the first line he describes Lucifer as “prince”, yet in the third line portrayed him as “the fiend” who overwhelmingly swun...
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...to commit sin when God banished him from heaven. Besides, Meredith made use of paradox when he mentioned the darkness of Lucifer covered the whiteness of the snows “the black planet shadowed Arctic snows” (line 8). Then he invaded a “wider zones” by his darkness, while he is flying on air to spread his “black planet” he remembered his fall from heaven which “pricked his scars”. By presenting his “scars” as a physical sign, Meredith illuminated how it affected him, he could not forget it for long “old revolt”, it occurred along time ago since he remembered it. The scars may be physical and psychological since its pain is unending “In contemplation of whose ugly scars” (pope line 73). Therefore, every time he remembered the “old revolt” his hatred will be stronger than ever, it reinforces his hatred toward human beings, and make plan how to revenge to retain his loss.
In the poem, Addonizio references to the CEO and details. As stated in the poem, “The CEO has lost touch the details. I’m worth as much, but I care; I come down here, I show my face, I’m a real regular.” (Addonizio) Addonizio writes in Lucifer’s voice in which she states that God has lost touch with his followers. Adding on, Lucifer speaks in the voice of a politician when he says that he is a real regular and comes down to show his face. Similar to a politician running for office, a politician goes to each state to establish a baseline with his voters. The politician will go to each and every state to relate to his voters to obtain more votes to win the election. Likewise to Lucifer, he should take over God’s role, because Lucifer can relate to the people. Lucifer claims that he comes down to show his face to relate to the people. Lucifer states that people should like him more than God, because he shows his face more than God. She uses the CEO and details as symbols, because many of her readers can relate. In the work field, the CEO is the big boss and the details are usually the people working under the CEO. In this poem, the CEO serves as a symbol for God and the details serves as a symbol for his followers. Addonizio uses the symbols in her poem to connect to the reader since they can relate to the big boss CEO and the small detail workers. Also,
The great debate whether Satan is the hero of Milton’s Epic Poem, Paradise Lost, has been speculated for hundreds of years. Milton, a writer devoted to theology and the appraisal of God, may not have intended for his portrayal of Satan to be marked as heroic. Yet, this argument is valid and shares just how remarkable the study of literature can be. Milton wrote his tale of the fall of man in the 1674. His masterpiece is an example of how ideas of a society change with time. This is because it wasn’t until the 1800’s during the Romantic era, that people no longer saw the hero of literary works as perfect in every way. It started to become more popular to develop the flawed character similar to the ones written in the classics. A literary criterion that is based on a protagonist, who undergoes conflict on the outside and from within and is prevented by a specific flaw to accomplish their main goal, creates an epic Hero. In Paradise Lost, God does not face conflict because he is perfect and all-knowing, and Adam’s conflict is not presented from the very start, Satan’s is. Because Satan is the main character of the work and possesses qualities that would deem him heroic, such as his determination against tough odds, his ability to lead, and his human-like nature to error, he can be seen has the Hero of the famous 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 heav...
In this passage Satan comes to the understanding that if he were to be given a chance for forgiveness, he would simply fall again twice as hard, which is exactly what occurs in I, Lucifer. He accepts the trial run on earth and at the end of the month rejects it, dooming himself again, and having to face the pain of his fall anew. While Satan's accounts of his fall, the garden of eden, and other biblically based stories seem plausible enough, he is still shown throughout as a completely unreliable narrator through obvious and intentional contradictions. This directly conflicts with Milton's narrator who claims divine inspiration for his work, suggesting a very reliable narrator. Due to this discrepancy in narration, I, Lucifer serves as an intriguing foil to Paradise Lost that continues the c...
..., this self-justification and rationalization is a way of him saying, I am justified, which is an innate human quality. This representation is very different from what most people are used to seeing, which results in the reader relating to him and viewing him as victim because we identify with him. The humanizing aspect of Satan in the poem to have an initial reaction and say I am wronged in this situation is identical with our innate reaction to similar incidents. Even though we are different than Satan in many ways, we usually do not take accountability when we are expected to. Thus, we sympathize with Satan in this poem because we also rely on self-justification to avoid taking blame for our wrong doings and accept that we are sometimes wrong. Hence, since we understand his situation due to the way it mirrors our human nature, we consider Satan to be a victim.
Firstly, a few words about Satan would seem prudent, as he is the first of the fallen angels, the leader in the revolt, and the first to venture to earth to corrupt mankind. He is Milton’s main character, and the only one to extend outside of strict biblical interpretations of his character. He appears first in the Bible (if you discount the snake in the Garden of Eden) in the Book of Job, in which he convinces God to test Job by taking away all his worldly possessions and bringing harm to himself and his family. He is addressed with the angels and named as Satan, so his status as an angel who helps bring pain and suffering is no stretch from the ‘biblical truth’. Old Testament Books such as Isaiah and Ezekiel refer to what appears to be Satan, but are in the midst of passages that reflect upon wicked, fallen kings. In Isaiah 14:12 it is written, “how you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!” Most speculation is that this directly refers to Satan, although in no other passage is he referred to as Lucifer. The passage is actually concerning a Babylonian king, as is Ezekiel 28:14-15, which laments (for the King of Tyre), “you were the anointed cherub… till iniquity was found in you.” These passages are about wick...
... While the lack of light in Hell and in Satan himself represents the absence of god and his grace.One of William Blake’s visions he tells that,the reason Milton wrote in shackles when he wrote of spiritual creatures as angels and god, and of devils and hell, is because he was a factualpoet and of the devil's party without knowing it, wrote his vision of Paradise Lost by John Milton (Kean 50).
First, it is important to note that throughout Inferno, Dante (as the author) uses four different terms to refer to the king of hell; the names used are: Lucifer, Dis, Beelzebub, and Satan. In Canto 34, the first three terms are each used once. According to the notes in Allen Mandelbaum’s translation of Inferno, The first term Lucifer, means “light bearer” and was used to describe “the most beautiful of all the angels before he rebelled against God.” After his Rebellion and expulsion from heaven, “Lucifer was renamed Satan” (fourth term). The second term Dis, was “used by Virgil in the Aeneid to describe Pluto; Dante then adopts this term to refer to Lucifer instead.” Lastly, the term Beelzebub, comes from the bible where it was “the name given to the chief of all devils in the Gospels.” The term Beelzebub also refers to “a false god who is powerless in front of the true divinity.” Lucifer’s appearance is described in great detail in what seems to be an effort to emphasize the theme of deceit; After all, it was Lucifer’s betrayal of God that landed him, a once beautiful creature, in a pitiful place and what gave him the most repulsive physical features. In lines 28-37, Dante (the pilgrim) narrates the sight of Lucifer in the
Lucifer was a defiant archangel who was forsaken by God and banished from heaven. The title, "Lucifer in Starlight," is not a reference to an uprising in hell, but rather a reference to Earth because it is describing a place where stars are visible. The rising is also mentioned in the first line. "On a Starry Night, Price Lucifer Uprose" (1). The first line ironically refers to Lucifer as an honorable prince, while a fiend in the second.
Milton’s Satan in Paradise Lost is a complex character meant to be the evil figure in the epic poem. Whenever possible Satan attempts to undermine God and the Son of God who is the true hero of the story. Throughout the story Milton tells the readers that Satan is an evil character, he is meant not to have any redeeming qualities, and to be shown completely as an unsympathetic figure. Satan’s greatest sins are pride and vanity in thinking he can overthrow God, and in the early part of the poem he is portrayed as selfish while in Heaven where all of God’s angels are loved and happy. Satan’s journey starts out as a fallen angel with great stature, has the ability to reason and argue, but by Book X the anguish and pain he goes through is more reason for him to follow an evil path instead. Even so, Milton uses literal and figurative imagery in the description of Satan’s character to manipulate the reader’s response to the possibility that Satan may actually be a heroic figure. As the plot of the story unfolds there are moments where the reader can identify with Satan’s desires and relate to his disappointments.
Milton shows that the potential for evil was innate in these beings and was not the result of corruption from an external force. Lucifer believes himself to be God’s equal and desires omnipotence for himself. Lucifer’s pride is his undoing, and he is cast into hell where he becomes Satan. The pride is intrinsic to Lucifer’s nature and results from God giving angels free will. Indeed, Satan later considers repenting and seeking God’s forgiveness upon seeing Earth and all of God’s creation and being overwhelmed by emotion. However, he realizes that even if he did receive forgiveness, he would grow dissatisfied with his position in heaven once again and fall a second time “book four quote “ . This establishes evil as being a constant part of Satan; the evil could not exist without the good, but it is an inherent part of
This leaves the reader a bit confused, but still makes one think Lucifer is the enemy. It may seem as if Lucifer has risen to Earth, but as the reading continues we can see he is above Earth or above the “rolling ball”(3). Even though the poem refers to earth as a “rolling ball”(3) God pictured it as a plane, with Heaven on a higher plane and Hell on a lower plane, not a sphere. As Lucifer is in the stars above earth he is looking down “in cloud part screened,” (3) and observing the sinners. He is observing the sinners from line four “Where sinners hugged their specter of repose”. The sinners are referring to the people on earth and according to the bible Adam sinned, therefore all of his sons and daughters are sinners as well. He may be able to relate to these “sinners”. This also shows he is vying for his acceptance back into heaven, and while that doesn’t really work he then sets his mind of the people who will become apart of his hell. It’s apparent how cocky he is as he is tracing over the people who are entering his “dark” realm. Lucifer then continues to fly over the Earth and over the “… huge bulk o’er Afric’s sands…”(7). Here he is describing the sands of Africa, possibly the Sahara desert which is endless amounts of sand. This stanza could feel like Hell to anyone if one was stuck in the middle of it, but it could have felt like home
Through lines 98-102, the narrator is saying that there is too much hatred and sin to justify. Satan mentions that if he attempts and achieves to reconcile with God, he is bound to relapse and become worse than before. In his heart he knows that God has given up on him and the other fallen angels. They believe that God created a new world known as man, to replace them. All good is lo...
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...
Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus is a psychological study of inner struggle. One of the most prominent themes in Doctor Faustus is the conflict between good and evil within the human soul. Marlowe’s play set the precedent for religious works concerned with morals and suffering. The play is centered on the title character, Doctor Faustus who is painted by Marlowe as an ambivalent character who is easily led down a path of agnostic tendencies.