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Satan As A Sympathetic Hero in "Paradise Lost"

Uploaded by srheric on Apr 23, 2007

Satan As A Sympathetic Hero in "Paradise Lost"

If one were not imbued with the preconceived separation of Satan and God into evil and virtue, then the reader of John Milton’s Paradise Lost would undoubtedly judge Satan the poem’s hero and God as the ruler of an oppressive hierarchy in heaven. By his use of characterization and tone, Milton’s Satan becomes the sympathetic martyr of Paradise Lost.

Christianity paints Satan only in terms of evil: a jealous, “sinuous snake,” that tempts man to disobey God. However, the Bible fails to further analyze Satan’s motives and character, thus he remains a static “villain.” Milton’s portrayals of God and the fallen Archangel are more complex than the Bible assumes. Far from the righteous leader of the civilized world, Milton characterizes God as an all-consuming, unforgiving force that not only expels His rebel angels out of His Kingdom, but also damns them to a miserable existence of torment. As Satan led the insurrection against God’s thrown, he undergoes the most torture. God claimed to have bestowed all His creatures with Free Will, yet he punishes those who exercise that power by denying them the happiness of Heaven. “The Arch-Fiend lay Chained on the burning lake nor ever thence Had risen or heaved his head but that the will and high permission of all-ruling Heaven.” God is a proponent of Free Will; he allows Satan to operate and spread his evil throughout the world even though He could easily crush him. Apparently some crimes outweigh others in God’s eyes; a threat to His crown calls for immediate attention while the havoc wreaked upon the world by Satan is allowed because God has given the gift of Free Will to His creations- sometimes. To God, in accordance with Milton’s analysis, it is His way or no way at all; sure his creatures have a choice-worship Him or go to hell. The reader cannot help but notice that God seems less the kindly Heavenly Father and more the uncaring, hypocritical, and selfish Deity. If one might discard the black and white separation of “good” and “evil” it is easy to sympathize with Satan’s plight; thrown from his home because he disagreed with it’s King, deformed, and facing torture for the rest of eternity, he is justified in his decision to wage war against Heaven’s “Tyrant” for what other choice does he have? “To be weak is to...

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Uploaded by:   srheric

Date:   04/23/2007

Category:   Literature

Length:   4 pages (847 words)

Views:   10666

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