Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Department of English
Course: Milton
February, 2019
INTRODUCTION
poet Milton beside Shakespeare, Dante, Homer and Virgil in the pantheon of world literature.
Satan, one of the main characters in Paradise Lost, failed in the rebellion against the tyranny
of Heaven and was cast into the darkness of Hell and led to man’s fall from grace. There are
many compelling qualities to his character that make him intriguing to literary critics and
readers.1 Namely, some of the readers and critics see Satan as an attractive character that is
able to turn people into sympathising with him and his struggles. On the other hand, some of
them see him as pure evil that only uses his power of deceiving and seducing people in order
to get what he wants. For instance, critics as Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Blake and
William Hazlitt champion Satan and view his character as a glorious hero. They emphasize
Satan’s courageous spirit and his pride as well as his rebellious side. However, critics as
Charles Williams and C. S. Lewis underestimate Satan and see him as a depiction of pure
evil.
In the next few paragraphs we will see how Milton’s portrayal of Satan in Paradise
Lost influences readers in a way that causes them to sympathize with him. As Satan is much
more like us than God, it is much easier for us to imagine a situation and sympathize with it
than an omniscient deity. Also, how Satan’s features can be connected with struggles that
men can encounter in life and with flaws that we all have. Through Milton’s description of
Satan we will see how he uses Satan’s character in order to reveal the deeper meaning of the
1
Yang, S. H. Body Narrative of the Image of Satan in Paradise Lost. Advances in Literary
Study, Scientific Research Publishing Inc., 2015, p. 1.
1
image of Satan and differentiate masked appearance form inner reality. In other words, how
human nature in itself can be very cruel, selfish, rebellious and hypocritical.
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 I only because the poem
focuses on him and because shows his pain, "Both of lost happiness and lasting pain ̸
Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes ̸ That witness'd huge affliction and dismay."2
The very descriptions of Satan’s physical dimensions and the size of the tools he carries mark
him out as a kind of hero. His limbs are long and large; his bulk is as huge as that of the Titan
who fought against Jove or that of Leviathan which God of all His works created
hugest that swim the ocean stream. He has a mighty stature so that, when he rises,
the flames on both sides of him are driven backward and roll in billows. He carries a
ponderous, massy, and large shield on his shoulder. This shield is compared to the moon
as seen through a telescope. His spear is so big that the tallest pine tree would be but
a wand by comparison, etc.3 Namely, this description demonstrates Satan’s great qualities.
However, his awareness of his power caused in him the greatest ambitions which will lead
According to P. B. Shelley, Satan is a devil, but "very different from the popular
personification of evil malignity and it is a mistake to suppose that he was intended for an
idealism of implacable hate, cunning, and refinement of device to inflict the utmost anguish
2
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Paradise Lost I, 55-57.
3
Jamal Subhi Ismail Nafi’. Milton’s Portrayal of Satan in Paradise Lost and the Notion of
Heroism. International Journal of Literature and Arts. Vol. 3, No. 3, 2015, p. 22-23.
2
on an enemy."4 Considering that the Satan feels that he has been wronged by God, unfairly
cast down from Heaven for daring to proclaim his independence and autonomy, it is not so
peculiar for the human to sympathize with him because all these reasons are things to which
people can easily relate or the things that people can easily desire. In Shelley’s eyes, Satan is
a champion of the oppressed, or mankind, who is fighting against God and his "tyranny".
However, some critics hold that Milton only makes the Satan attractive to the readers because
he wants to show how it is easy to deceive us as well as how the evil can be physically
Further, William Blake expressed his opinion about Milton’s portrayal of Satan in
Paradise Lost "by saying that Milton was of the devil’s party without knowing it. He
expressed this opinion chiefly in relation to the portrayal of Satan who, according to him,
has been depicted as a character possessing certain grand qualities worthy of the
highest admiration." 5 Shelley supported this view, as it is already stated, in his "Defence of
Poetry", where he suggests that it is a mistake to think that Satan is the popular
Hazlitt shows both positive and negative side of this view. According to him, " Satan is the
most heroic subject that was ever chosen for a poem . . . In the poem, Satan was
endowed with certain attributes which are worthy of epic heroes, and which make him
someone to whom we can relate to, in a way, that through his moments of pain, sadness and
abandonment we are not aware of his actions behind that. The one only sees him as a creature
4
Shelley, B. Percy. The Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley ed. R. Ingpen and W. E.
Peck in Ten Volumes, Benn, 1965, p. 129.
5
Jamal Subhi Ismail Nafi’. Milton’s Portrayal of Satan in Paradise Lost and the Notion of
Heroism. International Journal of Literature and Arts. Vol. 3, No. 3, 2015, p. 22.
6
Ibid.
3
who felt oppressed and rebelled, and thanks to his persuasive and clever speeches the one
believes him. Even though Satan is no longer the beautiful angel he once was, he is still
Besides his size, Milton emphasizes his leadership qualities, showing that Satan is not only
courageous himself, but he also can easily persuade and inspire courage in his followers.
Namely, Satan persuaded one ̵third of the angels to rebel with him and when they lie dazed in
the lake of liquid fire, the courageous speech of Satan roused them from their stupor and
make them bold and active once again. For instance, his opening speech shows his qualities
and him as a leader: "Though changed in outward lustre, that fixed mind, ̸ And high disdain
from sense of injured merit."8 Free will is another factor of Satan’s character to which we can
relate. The allure of free will is where power and attractiveness of Satan’s lies. He may be
useless when it comes to fighting the God and the Son, but in his will he is free and in his
mind he is supreme:
7
Paradise Lost I, 192-197.
8
Paradise Lost I, 97-98.
4
In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven,
Satan’s indomitable spirit, his readiness to act under all circumstances, witty and persuasive
speeches and his eagerness to assume his difficulties, responsibilities and danger of
leadership are what make the reader attracted to his character. As Eric Hoffer said: "The
leader has to be practical and a realist yet must talk the language of a visionary and the
idealist."10
Charles Williams and C. S. Lewis, which strongly refutes the positive view of Satan held by
the Romantic poets and critics.11 According to Lewis and Williams, Satan’s attempt to defy
almighty God is fundamentally irrational. Williams also asserts Satan’s proud as a foundation
of his malicious acts: "Milton may sometimes have liked to think of himself as proud, but it is
extraordinarily unlikely that he liked to think of himself as malicious and idiotic. Yet it is
9
Paradise Lost I, 104-109.
10
Hoffer, Eric. The True Believer: Thoughts On the Nature of Mass Movements. New York:
Harper and Row, 1951.
11
Coleman, P. Henry. Man in Devil's Guise:Satan's Exceptional Humanity in Milton's
Paradise Lost. University of Canterbury, 1998, p. 8.
5
those two qualities he attributes to Satan as a result of his energy of self-love."12 Similarly,
Lewis emphasizes Satan’s selfishness, folly and absurdity. Namely, he suggests that Satan’s
character lacks reason: "As a consequence the same rebellion which means misery for the
feelings and corruption for the will, means Nonsense for the intellect."13 Also, Satan in some
MacCaffrey in her book Paradise Lost as "Myth," when she writes, "Human pain, struggle,
confusion, and (one must add) energy and courage, are brought together in a creature who,
while not technically human, shares the relevant human condition: he is sinful and hedged
about with limitations."14 This can be seen through the characters of Adam and Eve. They as
consciousness and ours. Namely, before they have eaten from the tree of knowledge, Adam’s
and Eve’s primary concern is to serve God. Yet after the Fall, they become aware of
themselves and their primary concern is replaced by a predominant concern with themselves.
As Lewis notes: "Book II opens with his speech from the throne; before we have had eight
lines he is lecturing the assembly on his right to leadership. He meets Sin - and states his
position. He sees the Sun; it makes him think of his own position."15
In the same way, Williams discusses Satan and his "state of self-love"16 as something
so intense that he cannot remember his life in Heaven before the Fall in terms of actual
12
Williams, Charles. The English Poems of John Milton in Milton Criticism: Selections from
Four Centuries, ed. J. E. Thorpe. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1951, p. 258.
13
Lewis, S. C. A Preface to Paradise Lost. London: Oxford University Press, 1942, p. 97.
14
MacCaffrey, O. Isabel. Paradise Lost as "Myth". Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1967, p. 181.
15
Lewis, p. 102.
16
Williams, p. 258.
6
experience. In other words, he cannot perceive his experiences during his life in Heaven with
his unfallen consciousness, but sees them instead only through his present fallen
consciousness. This can be seen from his sun soliloquy: "o Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy
beams ̸ That bring to my remembrance from what state ̸ I fell, how glorious once above thy
Sphere."17 What Williams actually wants to show is that Satan does not feel answerable to
God and that he only responds to his personal interests and aims.
CONCLUSION
To sum up, even though many critics argue, including Percy Bysshe Shelley, William
Blake and William Hazlitt, that Satan possesses some heroic characteristics and qualities in
his defiance of what he sees as a God’s tyranny. In the first two books Satan is certainly
responsibilities of leadership. Moreover the traditional idea of the epic hero as a great
warrior and leader lends support to Satan as the hero of the poem. However, when the poem
is read in its entirety, it is obvious that Satan cannot be seen as the hero of the epic. His heroic
greatness is not seen so much in action as it is seen in his speeches. In that regard, critics like
as Charles Williams and C. S. Lewis suggest had a different idea of the heroic. Even though
Satan is portrayed as a character that can be seen in many ways human, Milton does imply
throughout the book that the Satan and his rebel angels can be defeated and evicted from
Heaven by God with thunder and lightning only. Therefore, one can agree that there is often a
problem between Milton’s intention and the result. After all, evil has to be attractive if it aims
17
Paradise Lost IV, 37-39.
7
Satan is not only a rebel but a tyrant. His words show how far he is from
But if he has heroic virtues, so has Macbeth; and Macbeth is a villain. The reason
why Milton has endowed Satan with these qualities is that an adversary to God had
to be of massive dramatic stature and that the power that was to seduce Eve must
have an impressive personality and character. The misinterpretation arises from the
tendency in human nature to romanticize the rebel and the fighter against odds.
Satan’s heroism is false heroism because it is based on false beliefs and unworthy
aims.18
18
Jamal Subhi Ismail Nafi’. Milton’s Portrayal of Satan in Paradise Lost and the Notion of
Heroism. International Journal of Literature and Arts. Vol. 3, No. 3, 2015, p. 27.
8
Works Cited:
Hoffer, Eric. The True Believer: Thoughts On the Nature of Mass Movements. New York:
Jamal Subhi Ismail Nafi’. Milton’s Portrayal of Satan in Paradise Lost and the Notion of
Heroism. International Journal of Literature and Arts. Vol. 3, No. 3, 2015, p. 22-23.
Lewis, S. C. A Preface to Paradise Lost. London: Oxford University Press, 1942, p. 97.
1967, p. 181.
Shelley, B. Percy. The Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, ed. R. Ingpen and W. E.
Williams, Charles. The English Poems of John Milton in Milton Criticism: Selections from
Four Centuries, ed. J. E. Thorpe. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1951, p.
258.
Yang, S. H. Body Narrative of the Image of Satan in Paradise Lost. Advances in Literary
9
10