The Role Of A Tragic Hero In John Milton's Satan

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The role of a tragic hero is not necessarily always a good person in it’s self, Shakespeare 's character Macbeth from "The Tragedy of Macbeth" and Batman from the DC comics are both examples of a tragic hero that was truly villains. Milton’s main character in his epic poem Paradise Lost is a prime sample of how a tragic hero may not be an actual hero. Satan, known from the Bible 's geneticist, is the actual root of all evil, he is the being that waged war against God and tricked the first humans into eating the forbidden fruit, the being that wishes death to heaven and earth. One may think that calling one such being a tragic hero may be in itself pure blasphemy. However, Milton’s version of Satan both holds the true biblical story of him and …show more content…

Milton 's Satan demonstrates all of these characteristics perfectly with the requirement of the definition, his error in judgment was betraying and waging war against God, this is what leads him to be banished from the kingdom of heaven and sentenced to the eternal torment of hell, which is his punishment for his error and fate. As for the requirement of a realization of one 's mistake and demonstration of pride, he demonstrates by speaking with his second-in-command Beelzebub of how they failed in their first attempt at conquest but still not acknowledging the fact that he was wrong and refusing to admit defeat. When looked at from the point of definition, Milton 's Satan holds characteristics from many characters who also took the role of tragic hero. Shakespeare 's character Macbeth is a prime example, he like Satan was prideful and tried to take over a kingdom but in the in failed. Also modern day characters such as Batman play the role of tragic hero and have similarities with Milton 's character, Batman is a tragic hero because he is extremely prideful and in the end loses everything, living in a sad state again similar to the fallen

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