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Milton's portrayal of satan
Milton's portrayal of satan
Milton's portrayal of satan
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Recommended: Milton's portrayal of satan
Sheena Mammen
Professor Lynch
English 102 H
April 3, 2014
Milton’s Paradise Lost
Milton’s depiction of Satan in Paradise Lost makes it likely for us to identify with Satan.
The way Satan acts is both smooth and deceptive. He embodies the characteristics of someone who would make a strong leader. The rhetoric Satan employs enables the audience to get insight into his internal state of mind. Satan is able to gather an army and help bring upon the fall of “Paradise” through his rhetoric and devious ways. His goal is to ensue as much chaos and evil as he possibly can. The way Satan expresses his thoughts, furthers the idea that he is out for vengeance and power. Satan desires to be the best, which requires him to be: tactful as well as cunning. In his speeches, he employs various rhetorical strategies, that convince the fallen angels as well as the audience, to side with him during points of the book. Satan’s discourse with other characters or his monologues also explains to the audience who he is as a character.
Satan’s discourse make’s the audience aware of his apparent need for power. He wants to be able to out shine God,which has left him chained to the burning lake. Satan in his first “speech” discusses his fall from Heaven after attempting to overthrow God. Satan in this particular speech is showing that he is strong willed, crafty and persistent. He doesn’t feel as though all hope is lost. “What though the field be lost/All is not lost; the unconquerable Will/And study of revenge, immortal hate/And courage never to submit or yield:/And what is else not to be overcome.” (Book 1.105-109) He is saying that all hope isn’t lost because God hasn’t really won. And that regardless of the fact that he has fallen, ...
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...is using rhetorical questions like those present in Shakespearean language. Satan can be seen asking these type of questions to emphasize his point. It can also be seen as scarcasm the way Satan addresses the other fallen angels. The language Satan employs in parts of his speech can be seen as similar to the soliloquies from Shakespeare. It enforces the fact that he is a smooth talker. When Satan uses this rhetorical device, the audience is able to see what he is thinking.
Milton’s Paradise Lost shows Satan as both devious and heroic in a sense. He uses various rhetorical devices in order to convey his message. His dialogue and monologues provide us with an understanding of his character. Milton gives the audience the chance to relate to Satan, to show them that how much they fall short of God’s grace. But the audience is also fully aware of Satan devious nature.
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...
In John Milton’s epic, Paradise Lost, the author establishes Satan as the most complex and thought-provoking character in the tale through his depiction of Satan’s competing desires. Throughout the first four books of Paradise Lost, Satan repeatedly reveals his yearning both for recognition from God and, simultaneously, independence from God. The paradox that prevents Satan from achieving his desires may be interpreted as a suggestion of Milton’s establishment of a sympathetic reading for this character, as he cannot truly find happiness. In actuality, the construction of Satan’s rivaling aspirations evince Satan’s repulsive depravity to Milton’s audience and encourage readers to condemn his character.
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.
At the beginning of the poem, Satan is viewed as a very majestic angel of great stature and an even bigger leadership skill. He is pictured as a hero in book one solely because the poem focuses on him and because it shows his pain "Both of lost happiness and lasting pain"(1) [55] "Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes"(1) [56] "That witness'd huge affliction and dismay"(1) [57] his second transformation is where his evilness shows, Satan, after hearing about the new race and the new land, earth, travels all the way to earth in order to see it and see the new race. He tries to enter heaven, and to do so he transforms into a cherub, to deceive ...
From the very beginning of time, many people believe that Satan is evil because they weren’t taught otherwise, but john Milton proves it in his poem that Satan is very much just like us, and you can be sympathetic for Satan because he disobeyed God .In paradise lost by John Milton, Satan is a sympathetic character because he comes off more like man then the figure of God. Anything he does, Feels, or acts on is just like a human
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. According to my sources, Satan is displayed as the hero, while God is the evil deity, and Milton was wrong for writing Him as so. In this essay, I will show my thoughts on the subject of Satan as an evil deity, and other’s opinions on the matter.
There have been many different interpretations of John Milton's epic, Paradise Lost. Milton's purpose in writing the epic was to explain the biblical story of Adam and Eve. Although the epic is similar to the Bible story in many ways, Milton's character structure differs from that of the Bible's version. Through-out the epic Milton describes the characters in the way he believes they are. In book II of Paradise Lost, Milton portrays Satan as a rebel who exhibits certain heroic qualities, but who turns out not to be a hero.
From the beginning of book 1 the war in heaven seems more than a simple, finished event. In reality, we have the authorized formal side presented: the war was ambitious, impious, proud, vain, and resulting in ruin. Satan’s first speech implies that there was another side-even after we have partly discounted the personal tones of the defeated leader who speaks of the good old lost cause, “hazard in the Glorious Enterprise.” That too is a formal side, presented by the losing actor in the drama. Then Satan goes on, to reveal, before he can pull himself together in defiance, something more:
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
The identity of the true protagonist in Paradise Lost is a mystery. One would gather that Milton, a Puritan, would have no problem casting God as the hero, and Satan as the antagonist. However, looking back in history, Milton saw that most epic heroes had conflicts that prevented them from accomplishing their goals. God and his Son have no conflict, and Adam’s story does not really begin until the Fall of Man. Therefore, Milton was forced to select Satan as the hero of Paradise Lost because he adheres to the guidelines of epic poetry set by Homer, Virgil and others. There are many examples of how Milton uses and edits the tradition of these previous epics in the formation of the Devil as a hero. One of the most basic examples of heroism in epic poetry is the exhortation of the leader to his followers. In The Odyssey, Homer lets Odysseus give a speech that would convince anyone they could survive the journey to the Strait of Messina, "Then we die with our eyes open, if we are going to die, or know what death we baffle if we can. (Ln.1243-1245)" After passing the Sirens, the ship approaches the Strait, and the crew sees the twin terrors of Scylla and Charybdis, they are mortified. Odysseus again lifts their spirits with this speech, "Friends, have we ever been in danger before this? More fearsome, is it now, than when the Cyclops penned us in his cave? What power he had! Did I not keep my nerve, and use my wits to find a way out for us?
The question of whether Satan is the hero or the villain of John Milton’s Paradise Lost has been largely debated by scholars over the centuries. The ones who believe Satan is the villain of the epic, more commonly known as the Anti-Satanists, tend to argue that Satan is too foolish to be considered a hero, as his “hostility to Almighty power” is ultimately a futile endeavour (as God’s power is omnipotent) (Carey, 135). C.W. Lewis, also an anti-Satanist, goes as far as to claim that to “admire Satan, then, is to give one’s vote not only for a world of misery, but also for a world of lies and propaganda, of wishful thinking” (Lewis, 203). The ones who claim Satan is the hero of the epic, the Satanists, perceive him as the rebellious angel who rises up and defies God’s monarchy and “the tyranny of Heav’n” (174).They choose to focus on Satan’s “nobler qualities, his loyalty in leadership, fortitude in adversity, unflinching courage and splendid recklessness” (Satan/Promo, 3). While these two positions are both valid, this paper will be focusing on a third position; the individuals who believe that Satan is neither the hero nor the villain of the epic. Helen Gardner addresses this notion, claiming how “Satan is, of course, a character in an epic, and he is no sense the hero of the epic as a whole. But he is a figure of heroic magnitude and heroic energy, and he is developed by Milton with dramatic emphasis and dramatic intensity” (Baker/Helen, 208). Satan is without a doubt the antichrist, or “villain” in the biblical scriptures, however one must take into consideration his alternative and more ambiguous portrayal in Paradise Lost. In this paper, I will analyze Satan’s actions, physical portrayal and speeches in Book I of Paradise Los...
Satan, can be viewed as the protagonist of this poem, because he deals with the constant struggle of overcoming one of his biggest enemies, himself. HE must come to terms with his doubts and weaknesses in order to become his own hero. Milton creates a character in Satan, one so seductive, that it causes us to resonate with him, sympathize his mistakes, even if it is against our own ideals. Milton’s creation of Satan is a metaphor for evil’s abilities to lure us in, even when we don’t realize it. He does however possess a complex character, a reflection of ourselves, making his role in the epic understandable and much more relatable. Satan represents human error, and his character embodies our own feelings of envy and despair. Satan is a dynamic individual that requires a closer look at ourselves, in order to begin his evaluation. Now Milton’s God, in Paradise Lost, is a underdeveloped character, simply a bundle of vast ideas. He is not a character that can be related to, lacking emotion. He is Flat, a 2 dimensional static individual with no depth whatsoever. He narrates, explains why things occur the way they do. God allows the bad to exist by offering his Son as sacrifice. The son is the connection between God and Milton’s
John Milton’s Paradise Lost is an epic poem that describes the fall of Satan and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. Satan is the protagonist of Paradise Lost and has several characteristics in which readers may identify with him. Throughout the poem, Satan is not only a tragic hero but also the key character that drives the plot and portrays many flawed human qualities. As an angel fallen from the high esteem of God and a possessor of hubris that leads to his downfall, he represents a tragic hero but also a character in which readers may identify with. Following the standards of classic tragic heroes, Satan is a determined leader with an extreme amount of hubris.
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.
In Milton's Paradise Lost, he writes the story of the fall of Satan, his followers, and mankind. Many critics often view Satan as the unlikely or tragic hero of the epic poem. Satan is, obviously, the main character throughout most of the poem, but not necessarily the hero. Satan's main purpose is to fight G-d, and try to be on the same level as Him. The important thing is to realize that Satan is sin, and being humans, who are all born into sin, we can easily relate to a sinful character. G-d is holy and perfect. This is something which we, being fallible humans, cannot begin to comprehend. Satan does, at the beginning, follow many of the attributes which coincide with Aristotle's definition of a tragic hero; however, after the first few Books, Satan looses his status as a tragic hero rather rapidly. Along with this, Satan's thoughts parallel the idea of "Evil, be thou my good," (p76, line 110) which is the opposite of what G-d intends.