Satan as the hero Flashcards
ONE - theme
Satan as the hero – should our sympathy be with him
ONE - Satan as the hero - FOR
1) Burden “Satanic epic”
2) Milton lived shortly after the Renaissance when the classical myths of antiquity have been revived
3) Early in the poem Satan was endowed with certain attributes which are worthy of epic heroes, and which make him a sympathetic, almost tragic character.
4) “Better to rule in Hell then serve in Heaven” mirrors ideas of democracy and casts God as a tyrannical figure.
5) Shelly “Satan is morally superior to God”
ONE - Satan as the hero - AGAINST
1) Despite Satan’s claims of “liberty” and “democracy” he becomes the antithesis of this when he creates power constructs within hell
2) “Bent on man’s destruction”
-Only cares about man’s degradation and using his power for evil
-Wrath of Achilles not on wisdom/ reason (Harmatia)
3) “Into the thicket slunk” – Guilty and harsh –
“slunk” – knows his inner corruption yet still progresses towards evil
4) “Courage never to submit or yield – it is not true courage it is courage in a desperate perseverance of evil
5) Oliver Cromwell – asserts his son to take place as head of England as if he has created his own royal lineage even though the monarchy is what the Commonwealth in England fought against
TWO - theme
Satan as a character - Although Satan is depicted as heroic his heroism is depicted on false beliefs and unworthy aims and aspirations
TWO - Satan as a character - FOR
1) Landor “he is the greatest hero who gives the wildest sway to the worst passions”
2) “O foul descent” - Satan acknowledges that he is on a downwards trajectory – first he sat with “God’s highest” and now he is a serpent
3) “This essence to incarnate and imbrute” – perversion of Jesus being God incarnate to bring salvation
4) Places Satan as analogous to Jesus and the Christian is tempted away from God
The grotesque devil in Medieval literature (Tasso) cannot convey to the reader the nature of sin or temptation
TWO - Satan as a character -2
1) Satan cannot help the way that he is as he was created this way by God surly this would infer that there is a fault with the creator not the creation
2) “Hot hell that always in him burns” – uncontrollable rage that he does not understand nor can satisfy
3) “Only in destroying I find ease to my relentless thoughts”
-Satan created this way – tormented and suffering
TWO - Satan as a character - 3
Is it Satan’s fault or a flaw of the creator
1) However, it is the fact that Satan wants to “destroy” and not use his “reason” and words that make him unheroic
2) Uses his power and strength to manipulate others rather than create a better world – ironic as calls god the “Great threatener” yet this is what he himself becomes
3) Renaissance enlightenment – philosophy
THREE - theme
Satan’s grand diabolical manipulation
THREE - God as a faulty creator - 1
1) But did God know that Satan was in the garden
2) Ricks: PL is “an argument about Gods justice”
3)Passive “sun was sunk” suggests that man has already fallen/ predestined to fall
-Second time Satan has been able to penetrate Eden
4) God is perfect and so would have the power both to stop Satan and to know what Satan intends to do and what he will cause
4) And if God was omnipotent then he would have control over the natural order and would not let Satan be able to go against the GchainofBeing and speak with “reason” in “the tongue of brute”
THREE - Satan’s manipulation - 2
1) However, as Adam rightly argues God “left free the will”
2) Satan’s uses this free will for mans corruption hidden within the glorious diabolical metaphors associated with his character
3) “The serpent the subtlest beast”
Sibilance – underlying vehement tone
Hyperbole “subtlest” – wicked intent
4) Speaks to Eve with Machiavellian eloquence with exordiums “empress of this fair world”
5) Psychologically displaces Eve above Adam
- Control/ grotesque manipulation
