Satan: The Adversary

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Recommended: Milton’s satan analysis

In Paradise Lost by John Milton, Satan is depicted as a malicious and deceiving character who is fueled by his own ambitions to overthrow God. His role and appearance in Paradise Lost is conveyed through his envious behavior, his foolish attempts to battle God, and his cunning deceptions. Satan’s manipulative and malignant personality is also demonstrated in various verses of Scripture and CS Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters by demonstrating his spiteful behavior and self-deluded lies.
Satan, once the bearer of light, fell from heaven due to his disdainful envious behavior. He thought of himself equal to his creator, God, and wanted to aspire to his ruler. For example, in Milton’s Paradise Lost it reads, “To set himself in Glory above his Peers, / He trusted to have equaled the most high” (1). His ambitions and desire to gain the highest of authority and power reveals he is primarily motivated by his envious behavior and jealousy of God. Satan was cast into Hell because he became too proud and believed that his power was equal to God’s own power. His need for fulfilled aspirations is also illustrated in CS Lewis’ The Screwtape Lettters. Lewis’ satiric and ironic letters is about a demon, Screwtape, writing to his nephew demon, Wormwood, about how to control human emotion so that they would not follow God. In the first letter, after Screwtape discusses a successful story of eluding an atheist away from God he states, “He is now safe in Our Father’s house” (2). Their “Father’s house” is referring to Satan’s Hell and because Satan is given the title of “Father” he is set to the equal status of mankind’s Father, the Almighty. Satan’s behavior and narcissistic ego is supported in the The Screwtape Letters, his envious behavior provokes his...

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...say the truth because his natural language is lying. Milton dramatizes the power possessed by Satan, and how he takes advantage of this power in order to satisfy his own causes, which is to disobey and attack God.
Satan’s aspired manner of conduct, his absurd attempts to battle God, and his misleading craftiness construct his intriguing and vital character in John Milton’s Paradise Lost. As illustrated in Paradise Lost, The Screwtape Letters, and Scripture, Satan is a vicious baleful demon who uses deceitful strategies for his own ambitious gain. Satan’s power of manipulation, form shifting, and his own free will, led to his fall as the ruler of hell.

Works Cited

Hengeveld, Nick. BibleGateway.com. 23 January 2014. Web.
Lewis, C.S. The Screwtape Letters. London: Aslan Publishing, 1955. Print.
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Detroit: Lucifer Publishing, 1996. Print.

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