A paradise from hell

837 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Character analysis of satan

Satan’s spiteful actions, attitude, and appearance are exposed in John Milton’s Paradise Lost and other texts. Satan is a mesmerizing but revengeful figure who utilizes doubt to break the relationship established between man and God.
Satan desires to be worshiped; he aims to rule without the intrusion of God and humans. When neglected from praise he is consumed in envy and ambition for supremacy. His greatest asset for revenge is humans. Satan attempts to make humans sin and therefore step away from God. In Paradise Lost he shows the power of his deception:
So saying, her rash hand in evil hour/ Forth reaching to the Fruit, she pluck’d, she eat:/Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat/Sighing through all her Works gave sign of woe,/ That all was lost. Back to the Thickest slunk/The guiltie Serpent, and well might, for EVE /Intent now wholly on her taste. (6)
The serpent tempted Eve to sin by convincing her that disobeying God would favor her, although it is otherwise. He is very cunning, twisting every situation in his benefit. In Scripture it states:
You won’t die! the serpent replied to the women. God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil. The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. (Genesis 3:4-7)
Satan is deceitful. He knows that defiance will be the ultimate betrayal for God because the path established by the Lord has been abandoned through sin. Eve wi...

... middle of paper ...

... his angelical form to trick individuals into believing him and his ideals. However, he is a lie, and so is his beauty. A lie that will condemn the relationship of man and God.
Satan is tormented by the spite and revenge he feels towards God. His ambition is driven by the destruction of humankind and faith. In Paradise Lost he is the mesmerizing force that surges the act of sin. His character in Scripture is manipulative and disguising while his actions in The Screwtape Letters are organized and shrewd. Satan seeks to be praised and is defiant towards religion and God. His actions and attitude are the obstacles in the relationship between man and God.

Works Cited

Hengeveld, Nick. BibleGateway.com. 14 January 2014. Web.
Lewis, C.S. The Screwtape Letters. London: Aslan Publishing, 1955. Print.
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Detroit: Lucifer Publishing, 1996. Print.

Show More
Related

  • Comparing Disobedience In Paradise Lost 'And The Duchess Of Malfi'

    852 Words  | 2 Pages

    His determination is shown by the quote ‘He circled, four times crossed the car of night’. This makes it obvious to the reader that Satan’s desire for revenge is much more than a simple whim it is lust. In Book 2 of Paradise Lost, Satan’s determination is introduced as he leaves the other fallen angels in Pandemonium to wreak havoc on Earth and orchestrate their revenge. It is now, in book 9, that his efforts come to fruition, as Eve eats from the Tree of Knowledge and convinces Adam to do the same, consequently, man falls. Despite this, Satan does not receive his full punishment until Book 10

    Read More

  • Paradise Lost’s Satan and The Grand Inquisitor's Evil

    773 Words  | 2 Pages

    By being one of God’s most illustrious angels, Satan proves his devotion towards God by serving him. He is so zealous that he desires to be God’s only second in command. Similarly, Satan’s dedication to God is like the Grand Inquisitor’s. The Grand Inquisitor served God as a follower and preacher of his word. “It’s long— eight centuries— since we have been on his side and not on Thine” (Dostoevsky, 238) The Grand Inquisitor, like the Church’s predecessors, followed God’s word and Jesus for a long time before they abandoned God an...

    Read More

  • Dangers Of False Hope In Frankenstein

    840 Words  | 2 Pages

    Satan aspires to rise above God in power, yet his ambition makes him unable to recognize the impossibility of such desires. Satan’s lofty position as God’s second-in-command raises his ambition: “lifted up so high/ I sdeined subjection, and thought one step higher/ Would set me highest” (Milton 4.49-51). The angel’s ambition drives his hope for absolute power and convinces him that he could fulfill such grandiose desires. However, God is unequalled in supremacy and can never be defeated; his absolute dominance renders Satan’s hopes futile. The angel will never be able to challenge God’s power, let alone defeat the omnipotent. Still, Satan is overly ambitious and thus blind to the impossibility of defeating God. Satan’s ambition parallels to the monster’s desperation for love in Shelley’s Frankenstein. As the monster observes the daily lives of the cottagers, he develops an ardent longing to enjoy the love and sympathy of mankind. He knows his desires are impossible to fulfill, but his desperation drives him to feign ignorance: “I persuaded myself that when they should become acquainted with my admiration of their virtues they would compassionate me and overlook my personal deformity” (Shelley

    Read More

  • Paradise Lost Annotated Bibliography Essay

    491 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Lehnhof’s summary he states how Satan grew envious of God’s power. Due to his attempt of overthrowing God he is cast out of heaven along with his league of fallen angels. As well how although Satan

    Read More

  • The Role Of Satans Competing Desires In John Milton's Paradise Lost

    969 Words  | 2 Pages

    Satan frequently characterizes “the tyranny of heaven” and employs negative diction in his depictions of both heaven and God (I.124). His negative portrayals of God and his kingdom highlight his utter dissatisfaction with being subservient to God and, from that, his desire for autonomy. In the exposition of the text, Satan’s emotions toward God make themselves apparent when Satan “throws his baleful eyes / That witnessed huge affliction and dismay / Mixed with obdúrate pride and steadfast hate” (I.56-58). Satan reveals himself to be furious with his continued subjugation to God as well as his inability to truly revenge himself against his subsequent punishment. According to Satan, God’s dissimulation of his power tempted Satan and others to rise

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Paradise Lost And Frankenstein

    1615 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Paradise Lost, one of the differences God is aware of the betrayal his creations unlike Frankenstein. There is a point where Adam desires a companion to share the world with, thus God creates Eve from one of Adam’s ribs. He is in a predicament now, due to there are now two beings to love now, but who deserves the more affection. He “can neither love himself adequately nor love Eve as himself unless have love God adequately – and so make his love for Eve, the unity of their shared self, an expression of that higher love” (Gross 95). This scene displays one of Adam’s limitations of his free will. Thus creating her in being the submissive which eventually became her downfall, Adam’s and the rest of humanity. Eve is flawed, she has the inclination of self-love, a quality she should not be capable of possessing or acting upon. The only love that she should be expressing is her love for Adam in a way also loving God. This becomes their weakness. Satan learns about this weakness and exploits it as his advantage to enact his scheme. He influences a susceptible Eve, by coercing her into eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge. He claims to Eve about the fruit “By the fruit? It gives you life To knowledge by the threat’ner? Look on me, Me, who have touched and tasted; yet both live” (Book 9 l. 686-688). Satan is able to persuade them to consume the fruit that provides them

    Read More

  • The Unholy Trinity as a Reverse Allegory

    1095 Words  | 3 Pages

    Satan's three main characteristics; envy, deceit, and pride; are also a contributing factor in the relevance of...

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Eve And Paradise Lost

    1892 Words  | 4 Pages

    The serpent even states to Eve that “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (NIV, Gen 3:5). The next few lines are completely different from what is shown by Milton. It says that when Eve saw that the fruit was good and she began to desire wisdom she took some and ate it. Then she game some to Adam who was with her. This is a very large contrast from Milton’s work because this shows that Adam was present the whole time of the serpent and Eve’s discussion. In the poem “Verses for Madonna of humility with the temptation of Eve” Lynn Powell takes a very graphic and almost nostalgic look at the story of Adam and Eve. Her poem states “Eve 's lying at eye level, propped up on an elbow./And never has abyss been so good to pink,/ the void a perfect foil for her foreground flesh./She fits into the black like a woman/ ready to be skewered in a vaudeville act./ You can tell the painter loves her, the way/ You can tell the painter loves her/ he 's touched her every place he can with paint./ And he 's noticed what she 's thinking:/ holding the pear, as Hamlet did the skull,/ while gazing up at someone who 's got everything to lose./ Eve 's about to make the choice Mary has to live with./

    Read More

  • John Milton: A View of Evil vs. Ignorance

    785 Words  | 2 Pages

    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 can be described in many terms, and by many people, but all can be disputed.

    Read More

  • Satan is No Hero in John Milton's Paradise Lost

    1717 Words  | 4 Pages

    Milton's introduction of Satan shows the reader how significant Satan is to Paradise Lost. He uses Satan's heroic qualities to his followers, and his ability to corrupt to show the thin line between good and evil. Satan was one of the highest angels in Heaven and was know 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 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. Satan always tried to be number one and a leader, instead of following in God's shadow. He would of lived a life in Paradise forever, but he had to follow his feelings as he states, "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven" (Milton 31). This shows how strongly he felt about not being above everybody else.

    Read More

  • Choice Essay On Eve's Choice: No Freedom

    1002 Words  | 3 Pages

    Since dawn, Satan, now in the form of a snake, has been searching for the two people that represented the future of all mankind. Satan is looking for mankind to destroy them just for revenge, to get back at God. Satan is full of envy and thirst for revenge. Obviously he would want to find the weaker person first, Eve. Satan would like to find Eve by herself, but he didn 't think it was likely. But Satan actually found Eve all by herself working. Satan in the form of a snake approached Eve and complimented her. Of course Eve was amazed and flattered. She was not amazed because of the compliments he gave her. Eve was amazed on how the snake (Satan) was talking. She thought animals couldn 't talk but Satan told her he how he was dumb as the other animals but as he ate the apple from the tree he became smarter. He was able to think high thoughts, and speak. Satan was slick and Eve was naive. When Satan was telling her about this tree she thought he was talking about a random tree, not being the tree of knowledge. Satan took her to the “tree”. Eve told him she could have saved him the trouble. She told Satan “But of this Tree we may not taste nor touch; God so commanded” (Book IX, lines 651-652). Eve tried to be smart and tell him how they couldn 't eat from the tree of knowledge because God told them not to. She knew it was trouble if she did. She had no freedom to eat from the tree nor touch

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Characterization Of Satan And The Devil In Paradise Lost

    1109 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ask anyone to draw Satan and you 'll get a red snake-like figure with horns and a pitchfork. Satan, as introduced in the Hebrew bible is an unworthy adversary of God. His longing to be like God is quickly recognized and dealt with. God banishes him from Heaven and sends him to Hell. That 's the last we see of him until he talks with God about his faithful servant Job. In each interaction we see Satan in, we get only a glimpse of who he really is. Satan 's motive is not developed and we assume he does evil simply because he is evil

    Read More

  • The Triumph Of God By Paradise Lost

    1400 Words  | 3 Pages

    Before any of this happens, Satan is kicked out of heaven. Satan betrays God by raising up an army against Him and Satan is gone. 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 ...

    Read More

  • Misconceptions About God

    1997 Words  | 4 Pages

    Satan is the prince of this world and Jesus said that the world would hate you if you believed in him because it hated him first. The entire world ideology is based on an underlying sea of rejection in every shape and form. It’s known as the dog eat dog world for a reason. Clever as he is the enemy has planted the seed of rejection within the heart of the body of believers through the lie that God lives to punish for lack of perfection in performance. This is nothing more than his underlying root of rejection. This has bred into the church self righteousness, bigotry, cultism, cessations, wrath, hatred and so many more isms than we want to admit to.

    Read More

  • Satan as a Hero

    1437 Words  | 3 Pages

    Satan proves his leadership by managing to cause the fall of other angels as well. He has a legion of rebel angels that he has somehow convinced to join him in his revolt against God. The angels and he mistakenly believe him to be just as powerful as God (line 40). Perhaps his futile attempts to win are what attract the sympathy and understanding of human beings, for mankind is constantly trying to change things they will never be abl...

    Read More

More about A paradise from hell

Open Document