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Religious themes in american literature
Religious themes in american literature
The character of satan
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Edward Spencer celebrated allegorical writing with his classic romantic epic "The Faerie Queen." Even as Milton criticized the use of allegory, he indubitably implemented the use of it in "Paradise Lost." Although Milton does use allegory, his use of the form tremendously differs from that of Spencer. His application of allegory is a reversal of the typical Spenserian allegory.
Milton uses a reverse allegory as an abstract representation of the Holy Trinity of God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit by an Unholy Trinity of Satan, Sin and Death. As indicated by Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, an allegory is: "a figurative sentence or discourse, in which the principle subject is described by another subject resembling in its properties and characteristics. The real subject is kept out of view and we are left to collect the intentions of the writer or speaker by the resemblance of the secondary to the primary subject." In accordance with Webster's definition, Milton clearly executes the exact opposite of what a true allegory entails. The Unholy Trinity does not embody the characteristics of the Heavenly Trinity, but in actuality it embodies the exact opposite of everything that the Heavenly Trinity stands for.
Satan is an allegorical representation of God the Father. Both Satan and God are seen as Father figures; God as the Father of all that is virtuous, and Satan as the Father of all that is wicked. Just as God is the King of heaven, Satan claims himself King of Hell. God is the originator of Goodness, as Satan is the originator of Evilness. All in all, Satan is a perverse representation of God.
Satan's three main characteristics; envy, deceit, and pride; are also a contributing factor in the relevance of...
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...ty works together for a common goal, all are wicked and deceitful, and would undoubtedly turn on one another. Death would kill Sin, just as Satan would have killed Death, if it meant that he would have remained unharmed. Satan is the father and creator of the family; therefore nothing good can become of the relationship.
The idea that the Holy Trinity can be directly allegorized by a dysfunctional, Unholy Trinity is not applicable. The two may be structured in the same general manner; however, according to Webster's definition of "allegory" the two are not a true form because the "secondary subject" does not express to the reader the "primary subject's...properties and characteristics.
"Works Cited
"Allegory." Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary. 1198.
The Holy Bible. King James Version. New York: American Bible Society. 1885
Across these three works Satan was transformed from a seductive, but flat, character, to a suffering monster, to a complex, multidimensional antagonist. Within the Christian world, Satan provides an interesting representation of evil. He can be used to demonstrate the charms of sin or its consequences. The these three works demonstrate a changing and increasingly complex understanding of evil and sin.
In John Milton’s, The Paradise Lost, Milton’s representation of Satan makes us uncomfortable due to the recognition of his humanizing and relatable reaction to what happened to him. The reader expects Satan to be an evil, and malevolent figure who does evil acts because he loves it and there is no defense for it. While these aspects are prevalent in his character in the poem, Satan does not come across as a completely wicked person but instead, a victim. The representation of Satan has a personifying quality that any of us may have and do not want to admit. In book one, Milton’s portrayal of Satan makes us uneasy because we relate to his actions, which are ordinary human responses to similar situations. It is troubling to say that in this particular poem, Satan resembles humans. However, our human nature is to have an instant reflex to justify our actions without taking any responsibility, which resembles the way Satan justifies his mischievous acts in this poem. Most of the time, we would never think of Satan as a victim; yet, we find ourselves discovering our human nature in Satan’s rationalizations. So, what humanizes this monstrous figure? After thoroughly reading book one, there are many instances when Satan justifies what he has done to make sense of it. Satan believes that God deceived him because he did not know how much power he possessed. According to Satan, God did unjust things that justified his actions. Satan has a whole rationale that God had arbitrary power that caused Satan to become the way he is in the poem. This perception serves as Satan’s foundation on behalf of his justification, which we all can relate to because he does not take responsibility but pr...
This epic simile portrays shockingly disgusting imagery of war and death, which are both consequences of eating the fruit of knowledge. Sin and Death, Satan’s daughter and son (who is also his Grandson) take full advantage of the Fall of Man and construct a bridge between Hell and Earth through Chaos, constructed of anything ‘Solid or slimy’. This allowed death, sin and disease to enter the world, similar to the great Greek Myth of Pandora’s box, where a woman named Pandora unleashed all the negative emotions from their captivity inside a box. Thus, showing both Milton’s classical influences and education at Christs College, Cambridge and how attitudes to women have remained constant through many centuries, from the period of the Ancient Greeks to the 1600s. Man’s disobedience would be the sole point of blame for all the wrongs in the world to Milton’s audience, not only was this a story but the events transpired. This was an easy way for the Church to explain the mass destruction caused by the Great Plague from 1665
Satan is very easy to sympathize because he is more like man than god is, he has more characteristics and feelings that god does not have. He has jealousy, fear, pride and he makes mistakes like we all do. His pride is what got him where he is today, thinking he could take over heaven for the better of the angels. But when has god ever made a mistake? He doesn’t because he’s so perfect. When one looks around it is clear every human around you is not perfect. We all make mistakes, regrets, but that does not mean we should be thrown away from earth. The way Satan thinks, feels, and acts is all very human and that’s one reason we can sympathize with him, because we’ve all been there at one point in time. At an all-time low, that’s we he ends up embracing his future like he should.
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.
In order to consider this as such an allegory, we must define the scope of the struggle. That is to say, what is good and what is evil? In the Christian tradition, there is a fictional figure that creates all the evil in the world. Some people call this figure “Satan” however, that word derives from the Hebrew word meaning “adversary” and can refer to both physical and nonphysical entities. As such, there is no singular evil Satan figure. The name of “Lucifer” used in Isaiah is a reference to a fallen Babylonian King and it is only later, well after the writing of the Bible, that Lucifer is adapted to refer to an evil entity. The term “devil” is just as enigmatic in that it means “accuser” and can stand for any being either divine or mundane. As such, there is no singular evil entity in Christian mythology blamable for evil in the Christian tradition. It must therefore make sense that anything that is evil is that which is against or not of God.
The doctrine of the Trinity, as seen in the Holy Bible, means that there is one God who eternally subsists as three distinct persons: the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Although they are stated differently, God is one in essence and three in person. If examined closer, one can see three important principles. One being, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are each distinct persons, the second is each Person is fully God, and the last is there is only one God. In the Bible for example, it speaks of the Father as God, Jesus as God, and the Holy Spirit as God. If one were to simply read these passages, it could seem to be somewhat contradictory. One could believe that these are three different ways to look at God, or maybe three different roles that God plays. However, the Bible also indicates that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all distinct persons. For example, since God sent his son Jesus into the world, as seen in the book of John, He cannot be the same person as the Son. Furthermore, after Jesus returned to God, the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit into...
He knows that God is the most powerful being, and yet he still rises against him, wanting more than just God’s highest approval. As compared to most tragic and epic heroes, Satan begins in a position of supreme status, but his tragic flaw leads to his downfall. In Book I, Milton describes Satan’s fatal flaw of hubris. “Th’ infernal serpent; he it was, whose guile. Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived.
...s Online - Harvard Theological Review - Abstract - The Social History of Satan, the "Intimate Enemy": A Preliminary Sketch. Harvard Theological Review, 1991. Web. 21 Mar. 2014.
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
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.
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.
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...
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.
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