Who Can Blame The Poor Little Demon?

“O Hell!” Satan’s opening exclamation of frustration immediately alerts readers to Satan’s state of mind. As Satan gazes on Adam and Eve, he is struck by their blissful state, which sends him into a spiral of confusion as he slightly reconsiders his plan to destroy them. To himself, Satan addresses the pair; he begins regretful and with pity for Adam and Eve. He later shifts in tone to vengeful, envious, and angry. Further exemplifying Satan’s contrasting attitudes, Milton uses antonymous words of emotion throughout the passage. By the end of passage, Milton solidifies Satan’s hardening of heart and ends the struggle that has been festering inside Satan since his first act of rebellion against God. Milton successfully uses both the shift in tone and the emotional diction to reveal Satan’s stormy internal conflict.

In comparison to Flamineo Milton presents Satan as an ambitious character, again for person gain. However, Satan’s personal goal is not to heighten his own position but to lower the position of God. However, unlike Flamineo, Satan fears the consequences of his actions from the start, knowing he has been expelled from Eden before so travels “cautious of day” so not to be seen by the angels and God as he looks for a way into Eden. Where Flamineo’s actions are planned and he acts practically, Satan is less calculated in his actions. He has to search for an animal in which to hide in. He eventually settles for “The serpent subtlest beast of all the field.” Satan’s actions are foolish as although not seen in Book IX he is highly punished for his actions and is condemned to life as a snake forever more. Milton uses epic similes within Book IX to show the actions of Satan, one from lines 510-150 shows Satan’s ambition is so strong he will go the long way around like a “skilful steersman” to achieve his final goal. This epic simile is particularly impressive as the beginning of the lines of the simile form an acrostic, the first letter of each line spelling out “SATAN”. However, as Chloe Batt highlights in her essay “The remaking of the Epic” Milton doesn’t “restrict himself solely to the epic mode” and instead “Milton defends his

Bernie Sanders has a thick political background, making him the most eligible candidate for the 2016 presidential election. In January of 1962, when Sanders was just twenty years old, he lead a multi week sit-in to oppose segregation as an officer of the Congress of Racial Equality (Bernie’s Story). Barely a year later in 1963, he took an overnight bus full of fellow advocates to hear Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous speech “I Have A Dream” firsthand (Bernie’s Story). Throughout the next ten years, Bernie ran for three statewide races including two U.S Senate seats and a place in Government. Defeating a six-term “local machine mayor,” Sanders ran independently

John Milton’s epic poem, Paradise Lost, has been the subject of criticism and interpretation through many years; these interpretations concur in that Adam and Eve are the sufferers of the poem, and it is their blight to lose Paradise because of their disobedience; however, their exile is merely a plight brought by Satan, and it is he who suffers exile before any others. Satan changes from Book I of the poem to Book XII; his introduction is heroic and grand, appearing as a hero rebelling against an unjust God. But by the finalization of Milton’s poem, Satan is a burnt shell of himself and, though ruler of Pandemonium, he sits in a throne in the lowest pit from God’s light. Satan’s exile brings forth the salvation of mankind and his own regressive transformation; tying in with the theme of disobedience, Satan’s exile gives

In Milton’s Paradise Lost, surely we have come to ponder upon the makeup of Satan’s attractable character—his rebellious, seductive, almost “bad-ass” attitude—a case of admirable evil. But let us not forget his ambition, his strive to weld the image of God. We have seen many moments throughout where we get Satan’s ground for imitating the image of God: “…In imitation of that Mount whereon / Messiah was declar’d…” (V 764-65). But why does Satan do this? What is it in Satan that causes him to “look up” to God? Is God a tyrant yet a role model to Satan? I propose that Satan’s drive is something more than just an act of pretending; maybe, it is rather a means of trying to grasp what he has been taken away from him. Or, we can say that Satan was more. Perhaps he came to existence not in the mold of angel, but as a divine tool. There must be a reason as to: why Satan was considered God’s “first and favorite angel”? This seems to suggest that Satan is, originally, at some level of divinity; an experiment of God’s that was put to the test (or is a test)—a divine prototype.

Eve’s hunger to become independent from Adam and all she is commanded to do is similar to Satan’s situation in that their yearn for power and singular identity lead them to revolt against their creator. Her desire to separate from Adam is first seen when she is introduced to the audience in her state of narcissism. She sees a reflection of herself in a pond and is in awe of her beauty “of sympathy and love,” (IV, 465) which shows the parallelism to Satan’s own arrogant vanity. He catches on to this similarity they share and decides she will be an easy target of persuasion. He quickly takes charge and plans how he will lead her to eat the apple from the “Tree of Knowledge,” which is the only tree that God prohibited to pick fruit from. Satan first catches her attention by being a serpent who speaks; something she had never encountered before. He smooth talks her into really listening to him by focusing his words around her and how much better life could be if she just took a bite

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

However in Paradise Lost we witness a fall into the underworld, but not from what one would call a hero because he is more of a villain, this villain is Satan. At the beginning of the first book which begins after Satan 's fall we get the background on why he had descended. God, Satan, and both of their armies were fighting and after God won, he punishes Satan 's followers and Satan by casting them down to hell. At first Satan thinks being cast out of heaven and into hell is bad, but then he has a change of heart and emphasizes that he believes that his mind can not be changed by place or time. He expresses this belief by stating, "A mind not to be chang 'd by Place or Time. The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heav 'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav 'n"(1. 253-255). As these lines reveal, not only is the mind independent, but it also has the power to transform circumstances into good or bad. With this Satan chooses to transform Hell into good. He explains that he does this because he is still motivated by an ambition to rule like God. He justifies this by saying, "Here at least we shall be free; th ' Almighty hath not built here for his envy, will not drive us hence: here we may reign secure, and in my choyce to reign is worth ambition through in Hell: better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav 'n"(1. 258-263). This portrays Milton 's goal of justifying God with his choice of casting Satan out of heaven into hell. The third and

Satan is so high in his own esteem; he cannot bear to be a servant and must be a leader, as he says in Book I, “Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n” (line 263).

Paradise Lost is a story of Genesis told as it normally would be, but with a protagonist focus on Satan. The story is told largely with Satan being favorably portrayed and God having little presence other than cursing things, which convinces the audience that Satan’s view of God as a tyrant may not be too far off. Still, Satan is portrayed as the villain of the story. However, he has characteristics of a classical hero; including flaws that make the audience relate to and feel sympathy for him. By using part of the black-and-white Genesis story which paints Satan as evil and juxtaposing a narrative which paints Satan as a sympathetic hero, Milton raises a question about morality that largely define the audience’s reaction to the story:

In addition, here, as throughout much the poem, Satan continues to hedge the other side of the argument, insisting that he isn't forced to do evil by opposing God, but that "to do ill our sole delight" (160). This belief that he has a choice in the matter is tied up in the misconception that he was, and continues to be, equal to God, as "reason hath equall'd" (248) them.  Quite to the contrary, Milton makes it clear that "the will And high permission of all-ruling Heaven Left him at large to his own dark designs" (211-3).  And it is only Satan's perverted sense of reason that convinces him that "The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n" (254-5).  He believes that his reason and contemplation will help him discover "How overcome this dire Calamity" (189), or failing that, change his will such that it fits his current circumstance.  This is the classic method of the delusional and disenfranchised, holding out hope for change, but at the same time putting forth the belief that the current situation can actually be beneficial.  The sophistry has shown through Satan's speech, as he declares that there is no way for God to beat him, in his mind, when we know he is already defeated.

Milton draws his inspiration from these verses in describing Satans pride and his attempt to wage war in heaven. However, in his attempt to make Paradise Lost both a conversation and a narration, Milton decides to describe Satans descend from heaven in closer detail, even with the risk of committing sacrilege.

In book I of “Paradise Lost” the speaker characterized Satan as a leader based on his ability to lead the falling angels. By “Paradise Lost” being a Christian poem some may wonder why Satan is considered a powerful leader. I believe Milton portrays Satan as a heroic figure in order to show God’s ultimate power.

One of the most intriguing characters in the epic Paradise Lost is Satan who rebels against God and chooses to live his life on his own terms. While Satan is commonly associated with evil, John Milton portrays him sympathetically and shows uses him as a tool to demonstrate the power of free will. In Paradise Lost, Satan can be considered to be the ultimate rebel. Not only does he defy God, but he also influences others to think for themselves and to blindly follow others.

John Milton's epic “Paradise Lost” is one that has brought about much debate since its writing. This epic tells the Biblical story of Adam and Eve, although from a different perspective than what most people usually see. Milton tells the story more through the eyes of Satan, whom most people usually consider the ultimate villain. The way in which Satan is portrayed in this story has caused speculation as to whether Satan is actually a hero in this situation. He certainly has heroic qualities throughout the story, yet still is ultimately responsible for Adam and Eve's sin. Satan can easily be classified as a hero in this story, as well as the main antagonist, depending on the viewpoint of the