If Satan had been Prometheus, he would have stolen fire to warm himself, not to help Mankind. A true Promethean / Romantic hero has to rebel against an unjust tyranny in an attempt to right a wrong or help someone less fortunate. Unlike Adam, who discusses a multiplicity of subjects with Raphael, rarely mentioning his own desires, Satan sees everything in terms of what will happen to him. His interests always turn on his personal desires. Satan commits this act not because of the tyranny of God but because he wants what he wants rather than what God wants. Satan attempts to destroy the hierarchy of Heaven through his rebellion. For Milton, Satan is the enemy who chooses to commit an act that goes against the basic laws of God, that challenges the very nature of the universe. No matter how brilliantly Milton created the character of Satan, the chief demon cannot be the hero of the poem. Further, because all of the other characters in the poem - Adam, Eve, God, the Son, the angels - are essentially types rather than characters, Milton spends more artistic energy on the development of Satan so that throughout the poem, Satan's character maintains the reader's interest and, perhaps, sympathy - at least to an extent. The presentation of Satan makes him seem greater than he actually is and initially draws the reader to Satan's viewpoint. In essence then, Milton's grand poetic style sets Satan up as heroic in Books I and II. Moreover, the reader can easily overlook the fact that Milton states that, whatever powers and abilities the fallen angels have in Hell, those powers and abilities come from God, who could at any moment take them away. Because the reader hears Satan's version first, the reader is unaware of the exaggerations and outright lies that are parts of Satan's magnificent speeches. These facts certainly make Satan the most interesting character in the poem - but they do not make him the hero. Also, Milton's writing in these books, and his characterization of Satan, make the archfiend understandable and unforgettable. Milton, by beginning in medias res gives Satan the first scene in the poem, a fact that makes Satan the first empathetic character. The reader's introduction to the poem is through Satan's point of view. Without question, this picture of Satan makes him heroic in his initial introduction to the reader.īesides his actions, Satan also appears heroic because the first two books focus on Hell and the fallen angels. Finally, he goes forth on his own to cross Chaos and find Earth. Satan also calls for and leads the grand council. Satan tells the other rebels that they can make "a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n" (I, 255) and adds, "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heav'n" (I, 263). In those books, Satan rises off the lake of fire and delivers his heroic speech still challenging God. Most of these writers based their ideas on the picture of Satan in the first two books of Paradise Lost. Writers and critics of the Romantic era advanced the notion that Satan was a Promethean hero, pitting himself against an unjust God. However, the progression, or, more precisely, regression, of Satan's character from Book I through Book X gives a much different and much clearer picture of Milton's attitude toward Satan. Milton was eventually pardoned by the monarchy and lived the rest of his life peacefully, dying of kidney failure at 65.Probably the most famous quote about Paradise Lost is William Blake's statement that Milton was "of the Devil's party without knowing it." While Blake may have meant something other than what is generally understood from this quotation (see "Milton's Style" in the Critical Essays), the idea that Satan is the hero, or at least a type of hero, in Paradise Lost is widespread. He was completely blind by then, and dictated the poem to his daughter. After the monarchy was restored, Milton went into hiding and composed Paradise Lost, his most famous work. When the English Civil War broke out in 1642, Milton supported Oliver Cromwell and wrote in defense of the regicide of Charles I. Overall he had four children, all by Mary Powell. Mary Powell eventually died in childbirth, as did Milton’s second wife, Katherine Woodcock, and then Milton married Elizabeth Mynshull. He returned to England and married the sixteen-year-old Mary Powell, but the marriage was unhappy and Milton began developing radical ideas about divorce. He then travelled around Europe, where he studied and wrote poems, including the pastoral poem Lycidas. Milton became proficient in several languages and graduated from Cambridge in 1632. Milton was the son of a Protestant composer who provided him with an excellent education.
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