Satan is viewed as a monstrous creature, a dark lord crippled by evil whims and a malicious being that is unable to comprehend love. The crafty sentient being is the arch enemy of the creator and remains as such to not only Christians but also Muslims and Jews. Satan is hated by the Almighty God, God’s mortal creatures as well as his angelic beings. Those who acknowledge the existence of the devil argue that he is the ultimate deceiver and the uncanny serpent that is responsible for the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. Satan possesses demonic powers that are used occasionally employed to the disadvantage of mortals. According to Christianity, Lucifer is presented as the prince of darkness that leads men out of the righteous path of God and the dragon that will eventually inflict humankind with unimaginable atrocities during the end of time. King Solomon asserted that Satan, the being responsible for the woes inflicted to job, as an exemplification of evil without any equivalent. ‘The Son of Dawn constrains the gift of freewill that God granted to human beings and directs them into choosing evil over good’(1:254-255). Such a being is unlikable according to Christians. Satan is presented as the malefactor and all those who portray Satan in a different light are viewed as enemies of righteousness.
John Milton adopts the Christian description of Satan. However, his depiction of the devil in the Paradise Lost veers off from the traditional conception of Satan. Milton’s Paradise Lost is written in the defense of God for his omnipotence in relation to the existence of evil. In the Paradise Lost, John Milton delves deep into the nature of God, the fall of man and the angelic war between Lucifer and Arch Angel Michael. The defense of God’s omnipotence is clouded by the vivid description of Satan as the anti-hero. Satan is depicted as a military figure with all the trappings and the characteristics of a hero. Milton casts the reader into a moral dilemma where he depicts Satan as a charismatic leader. He is the most eloquent of all the characters in the Paradise Lost at the same time, he is shown to care for his followers. Milton portrays a different image of Satan as opposed to picking the blood-thirsty monster image. The readers are cast into a moral dilemma where they begin to sympathize Satan.
John Milton captures the imagination of his audience by making the story of Satan comparable to the ancient tales of Greek mythology. ‘Satan’s fundamental weakness is the lack of self-knowledge’. Satan lacks the understanding of his limitations and weaknesses. He is unable to recognize the fact that a creature cannot overcome its creature in power and grandeur. Satan through his oratorical prowess convinces his fellow angels to rebel against God and seek to control heaven. ‘He is defeated single-handedly by the Son of God and cast into hell(1:648-649).’ Later towards the end of the book the ‘power of God reaches hell and transforms Satan into a monstrous serpent’ (2:880-884). Satan receives admiration both from the characters in the book and the readers as well. John Milton turns Satan into a metaphor to represent a human being who adamantly refuses forgiveness and trivializes the promise of eternal life in complete communion with God.
Woes of Satan begin with God’s assembly in heaven to announce the appointment of the Son of God to reign over all the angels. God states that ‘To Him shall bow / All knees in Heav’n’((V.607-608). Satan argues that the son of God and he are equal in rank and status and, as a result, ‘the appointment of the Son of God is unjust’(V.607-608). Satan adamantly refused to submit to what he termed as the illegitimate rule of the Son of God or surrender his personal freedom to him. Satan convinces a third of the angels to join him in the attack against heaven. Before they joined him, he had warned that he foresees a future that is disastrous and the rebel angels should refrain from joining him. The rebel angels and the loyal angels wage war for days before the ‘Son of God comes from his throne and singlehandedly defeats the rebel angels’. He casts the accursed angels to the abyss of hell. Once the rebel angels are in hell, he remains completely committed to the course. He urges the other angels never to submit or surrender. He represents his course as a rebellion against God’s tyranny in heaven.
Satan argues that together with this fellow demons they are free. ‘It is better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven’(1:263) becomes Satan clarion call for his fellow fallen angels to remain committed to the course. He portrays God as a fascist dictator who is in love with arbitrary power. In the end, Satan appears to be the ‘innocent victim of the arbitrary actions of an unjust ruler’(3:129-132). God had requested for a thank you from all the angels every morning for being allowed to live in heaven. ‘Satan compares such demands of those of a despotic ruler and beseeches his followers not to submit to slavery’(3:120). The ingenuity of Satan is exposed when he sees Adam and Eve living peacefully in paradise. He sheds a tear when he realizes that he has messed up and set out a plan to entangle humankind in the same mess.
One of the reason readers face a moral dilemma in an attempt to understand the nature of Satan in the Paradise Lost is the fact that Satan is an eloquent speaker. He is the most attractive of all the characters. A close analysis of the Paradise Lost reveals that John Milton recognized that Satan was becoming attractive in the text. He sought to reduce the role of Satan in the poem by associating him more with evil. He addresses the fallen angels in direct speech and unlike the rebellion in heaven; ‘Satan reigns supreme in hell’. He possesses both military power and persuasion power as seen when he is tempting Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. Milton focus of Satan portrays him as the anti-hero. He possesses power and grandeur that attracts both the admiration of the demons, as well as the readers. The Paradise Lost can only be termed as magnificent poetic success but a great theological failure. The theological failure can be attributed to the fact that John Milton inclined to speculation than to theology. The intention was to portray Satan as the malefactor but in the end Satan comes out as the anti-hero of the poem. The readers are forced to sympathize with Satan contrary to the expectation of Christian theology.
Works Cited
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. New Yok: The University of Oregon, 1667. Online. <https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/767/lost.pdf>.
