Analysis: The Character Satan in John Milton´s Paradise Lost

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“Milton's Satan is one of the most dynamic and complicated characters in all of literature.” Throughout Milton’s Paradise Lost, there are many primary motivations that Satan lives by. Although God told people that they are supposed to follow his guidance or be shunned from heaven, Satan decides to do so. He creates a very interesting, but at the same time, scary dynamic plot. When I think of what motivates myself to make the decisions I do, it is the thought that some day, I could end up in a place like that. Throughout Paradise Lost, written by Milton, there are many primary motivations that consequently guide Satan in his actions, revenge, power, and lastly, praise of his own followers.
First, Satan is guided throughout Paradise Lost by the revenge he wants God to deal with. He decided to go against the lord and live in the dark place where the damned go. Satan must live with the fact that he was one of the highest angels in heaven, but it still was not good enough to become a ruler along with god. He got mad, and lost his spot that he once held. “Arms to try what may be regained in Heav’n” (1: 270) These followers want to plot revenge by corrupting the human race and turning them against our lord. They use the two human’s god created, Adam and Eve, to do this deed with. Because of this, we will always have to deal with the anger and jealousy Satan creates. Throughout this story, there is a prominent motivation to get revenge against god because he chose his son against the highest angel being Satan.

Secondly, throughout this story, Satan is motivated by the power that he holds amongst everyone else. Before he decided to go against the lord, he was an angel of God. He found out that the lord was going to have a son who would guide beside him. Satan got very jealous because he thought that he deserved to rule with God, rather than his son. He got some of the angels who once supported the lord to then go against him. There was a fight between heaven and all of the fallen angels for power. Satan was warned that no one could beat heaven in the end, but he doesn’t believe so. He continues to want to fight, and states it is “better to reign in hell than to rule in heaven.

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