The Portrait of Satan

Introduction

Satan is the most important character in Paradise Lost. Though the action of the poem turns
round Man's first disobedience, yet the character that gives epic grandeur to Paradise Lost is that
of Satan. He is endowed with some of those qualities that make the hero of an epic. In fact,
Milton partly expressed himself through Satan.

He is the most heroic subject ever chosen for a poem and the execution is as perfect as the
design is lofty. In the words of Addison, he is "the most exalted and most depraved being." Why
then does Milton give the importance of a hero to Satan in the first book and in all the parts of
the epic where he makes his appearance? The reasons for opposing God Almighty himself is said
to be ambition, pride and the love of supreme leadership. Egoism is at the bottom of his life and
actions, and because he shows it under almost certain difficult circumstances we cannot but
sympathise with him. For he knows in due course that God cannot be overcome either by men
or by devils. Instead of resigning himself to the inevitable as most sensible people might think of
doing, he resolves on eternal warfare, hatred and opposition to God, just to vindicate his
unconquerable love of freedom, liberty, and independence. This strikes a responsive echo in our
hearts, and we are forced to admire him although we may also detest him at the same time.
Viewed in relation to God, whom he opposes, he is the weaker party and so doomed to failure.
Being immortal, he is incapable of destruction, But he can offer battle to God in all possible
ways, and thus stand out above all else. But viewed in relation to innocent man, whom he
resolves to seduce, corrupt and turn against God himself, he is a villain, for just as the fight
between him and God is one-sided and unequal, so also the struggle of man against Satan
proves one-sided and unequal. In thus representing Satan, he invests him with intensely human
traits, both virtues and vices or failings which bring him intimately to our understanding. God is
beyond our understanding, since we are finite and He is infinite Man in the state of innocence is
equally beyond our understanding. For we now live in a world very different from the conditions
in which he lived with Eve in Eden or Paradise. Between the two extremes, he therefore,
occupies the stage in its entire length and depth and engrosses our attention continuously at
high pressure whether he is present or absent.

Satan's Towering Personality

In Book I, we see him in the moment of his greatest disaster. There is no lower point to which he
could be pushed down by fate or fortune. We see him a fallen creature, his face and form
disfigured, stunned by his defeat and downfall and an object of terror and pity. Milton's first
description of him is intended to impress us with his superhuman appearance and powers. He is
of gigantic stature, yet without body, such as we possess. There is nothing grotesque or absurd
or comic in describing him as a huge giant sprawling over the burning lake and occupying many
occupying many leagues of space to keep his body. We are naturally impressed by such a figure.

Satan is known to have genius and all its charm great beauty, great intellect, great emotions,
great physical daring; in all things proudly eminent. This was the personality of Satan before his
degradation.

Satan's Courage

Milton's Satan is endowed with heroic qualities. The outstanding trait of his character is courage.
He may be wrong headed: but he has infinite courage in himself. As the poem, Paradise Lost
begins, we find Satan in a hopeless situation. He and his companions have been hurled down
into the bottomless pit of Hell. He lies dazed and stunned in the Lake of Liquid fire and so do his
companions, the rebel angels. Heaven is lost to Satan and his companions, and they are doomed
to live forever in the darkness of Hell. But this gloomy prospect of the future does not fill Satan
with despondency robbing him of his power of action. When Beelzebub, his lieutenant, tells him
that their situation is hopeless beyond redemption, he replies:

Fallen cherub, to be weak is miserable.

Doing or suffering.

Satan is determined not to be weak under any circumstances. If one retains his courage and
strength of mind, he "can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven." Even in Hell Satan discovers
an advantage:

Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.

Satan's Affection for his Followers

Satan has great anxiety for his followers. It is the trait of a great general of any army, to think of
the welfare of his followers even before he think of his own safety. All great warriors and
conquerors were able to inspire their followers with loyalty and devotion which make them
ready to suffer and die for their leader. In return, the chief guard cherishes them as if they were
all his own brothers or children. This feeling of chivalry overcomes Satan as he sees his
unconscious friends lying in profound slumber all round him. He cannot forget that they had met
this cruel fate because of their devotion to him. He sees their self-sacrifice as heroic in its
essence. So, he is represented as shedding tears of sympathy for them - Tears such as angels
weep. This is pathetic fallacy since angels cannot weep at all.

Satan as a Leader

A great leader should have great qualities of character. He should have courage, resourcefulness
and an indomitable will. Above all, the should be a man of action. Milton's Satan is endowed
with all these qualities. It needs mighty courage to revolt against the Almighty, and to hurl
defiance at Him even in captivity. Besides, Satan is not only courageous himself, he can inspire
courage in his followers. They lie dazed and stupefied in the Lake of liquid fire. But the
courageous words of their leader rouse them from their stupor and make them bold and active
once again.

Satan's greatest quality as a leader is his readiness to act under all circumstances. Even Hell
cannot rob him of his power to act. Having fallen down into the bottomless pit, he lies
unconscious for some time in the lake of liquid fire as the result of his great fall. But the moment
he regains consciousness, he decides not to lie any more in that abject position. Finding
Beelzebub, his lieutenant, lying close to him, he persuades him to leave the infernal lake and go
with him to the solid plain beyond its shore. Accordingly, leaders of the fallen angels go to the
solid plain, where Satan exhorts Beelzebub to overcome his despondency, and bravely face the
situation in which they are. He will live in Hell as its ruler rather than be a slave to God in
Heaven. It is man's mind which can turn Heaven into Hell and Hell into Heaven. If they
courageously face the situation, even Hell will not be too uncomfortable for them to live in.
These words of his leader infuse courage in Beelzebub and he regains his lost boldness and self-
confidence.

As a leader Satan is ready and eager to assume the difficulties, responsibilities and dangerous of
leadership as well as its rights; ready to accept "hazard" as well as "honour". He shows a noble
sense of duty, of self-sacrifice incumbent on him on account of his position as King of Hell, when,
"for the general safety he despised his own", and undertook alone the difficult enterprise which
daunted the courage of the mightiest of his followers.

Satan's Unconquerable and Indomitable Spirit

Satan was originally an Archangel in Heaven occupying a high place in the hierarchy of angels. He
was proud, defiant and of an independent temper of mind. He would not submit to the authority
of God. He rebelled against the Almighty and won over to his side a third part of the angelic
host. He fought against God, and was defeated and hurled down to Hell. The punishment
inflicted upon him was eternal damnation. The punishment was rigorous, indeed, but the rigour
of the punishment was matched by the extent of his pride and the strength of his spirit. It was
after his defeat that Satan's greatness manifested itself. Defeat did not curb the independence of
his spirit.

What thought the field be lost?

All is not lost; the unconquerable will,

******

And study of revenge; immortal hate,

And courage never to submit or yield:

And what is else not to be overcome.

Though he was banished from the bliss of Heaven, he kept up his strength of spirit and invincible
courage, which aroused the admiration of all. He inspired the fallen angels with new hope and
courage, and his leadership roused them from the depth of despair into which they had fallen.
He would undertake the most hazardous task in order to fight God against all odds. No amount
of torture could damp the brave spirit of Satan. Hell was a desolate place, very different indeed
from Heaven, but its dismal surroundings could not break his spirit. In fact he welcomes Hell,
where he may 'reign secure.'

....Farewell, happy fields,

Where joy for ever dwells, hail horrors, hail

Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell,

Receive thy new possessor one who brings

A mind not to be changed by place or time.

The mind is it sown place, and itself

Can make a Heaven, of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.

He may have been defeated by the superior arms of God, but 'all is not lost.' He would not under
any circumstances submit to the tyranny of the Almighty. This courage and this indomitable spirit
make Satan a unique figure in Paradise Lost.

Satan has many admirable qualities for example his power of endurance, his heroism and his
indomitable refusal to admit defeat. These virtues are expressed in peculiarly Miltonic words of
great eloquence and power. His first speech shows him defying his conqueror and "though in
pain" asserting his invincible resolution. He is undaunted by God's victory and retain his "fit
mind" and high disdain. He finds consolation even in Hell and maintains the morale of his
followers.

Satan's Pride

Satan is a study of obdurate pride. Self-exhaltation is the motive of all his conduct. Satan
suffered from a "sense of injured merit". "He thought himself impaired". Pride, out of intense
self-desire is the evil from which all other evils arise. "We are eclipsed" Satan says, "we are
ordained to govern, not to serve". Out of this arises his "high disdain from a sense of injured
merit" and from this follows "the study of revenue, immortal hate"; the scorn of repentance and
finally its impossibility. Even in defeat he will never dream of submission. The fierceness of the
punishment inflicted on him is mitigated by the greater fierceness of his pride.

Satan Should be the Villain of the Piece

Satan alone occupies a prominent position in the narrative. According to the strict rules of
dramatic art, Satan should be the villain of the piece. To a certain extent, Paradise Lost is
symbolic of the never-ending, conflict between good and evil in the life of man, and Satan is thus
the type of universal evil and wickedness. In one sense, Satan is the most important character of
the poem because it is from his agency that practically all the action of the narrative arises. The
revolt which Satan stirs up in Heaven leads to the fall of the angels in the first place; the decision
which he comes to, to tempt the newly created human pair, leads to further action in Paradise
Lost. Such being the case, Milton had to necessarily bring Satan prominently before the reader,
more prominently indeed than any other character. So we might say that the theme or narrative
which Milton selected for Paradise Lost depended for its action on the deeds of a wicked
character, rather than on a hero. The problem for Milton was the manner in which he was to
present such an evil character. The sight of pure, and undisguised evil is never pleasant, and the
acts of a wicked person cause feelings of disgust and repulsion to right-minded readers. So
Milton would have risked losing the sympathy and interest of his readers had he presented Satan
as an unattractive study in wickedness. It seems then, that Milton realized this danger, and
refrained from blackening the characters of Satan unduly. Not only so, but he depicts Satan as
possessing many qualities which are good, noble and wholly admirable. It is this point which has
made the character of Satan unique and has aroused so much discussion among critics.

There can be no doubt that Satan is meant to be the villain. He is throughout called names like
"arch-fiend", "arch-enemy", "apostate angel", "the adversary of God and man", "the author of all
ill", "the spirit malign", "the fraudulent imposter foul", etc. His rebellion against God was due to
Pride and his desire to continue the war of Envy, Revenge and love of Evil. He is crafty, - "the
warie fiend"- and his plan to corrupt mankind is one of "covert guile". He is cunning in his appeal
to his followers which has only a "semblance of worth". Satan embodies Evil because he is the
embodiment of disobedience to God. God allows him to work his "dark design" in order to give
further scope, for divine goodness and to bring worse punishment on him.

Milton Expresses himself Through Satan

Milton's inner soul vibrated to those powerful expressions of republican fervour that he puts on
the lips of Satan. In the character of Satan, Milton has expressed his own pride, invisible temper,
love for liberty, defiance of authority and heroic energy.

The strength of the portraiture of Satan is due to the fact that the poet is expressing himself
through Satan. While portraying this character Milton projects himself into Satan and expresses
his own indomitable personality through him. Milton himself was proud, and had stood against
the tyranny of the king, and though his party had been defeated, he remained as courageous
and defiant in the teeth of adversity as Satan. It is because Milton expressed his own feelings
through Satan, that the portraiture of Satan's character is so intense and powerful. Though
Milton set out to justify the ways of God to man, yet, in spite of himself, he endowed Satan with
great qualities, simply because Satan like himself, had opposed the 'tyranny' of the King of
Heaven. Hence Blake remarked: "Milton was of the Devil's party without knowing it." Milton
became conscious of what he was doing as the poem proceeded. The character of Satan, with its
greatness and grandeur, was militating against his avowed theme. Hence Milton restrained
himself and showed the real character of Satan, the Arch devil. In the later books Satan
degenerates into a cunning spy, imposter, and villain.

Character of Satan

There is the epic necessity that the important epic character should be sublime and that we
should be interested in them but absolute evil is mean, and evokes no pleasure. Satan is,
therefore, made a mixed character, with evil passions in which good still lingers. In the beginning
Satan is selfish but with abrupt touches of unselfishness. He is proud, but his pride is for others
as well as for himself. Though he is full of envy and malice, often he hates these passions in
himself. He destroys but it is with difficulty he overcomes his pity for those he destroys. He
brings war into Heaven, and despises Heaven, yet he loves its beauty. He is God's enemy. Yet he
allows God's justice. He avenges himself, yet revenge is bitter. He ruins beauty but he regrets its
loss in himself and admires it in others. Thus, we find that Satan is a mixed character in which
there is good but evil pre-dominates and eventually the evil master the good.

Exhalation of Satan's Qualities in the Romantic Age

In the Romantic age, Satan has been admired immensely. According to William Blake, "the
reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels and God, and at liberty when of devils
and Hell is because he was a true poet and of the devil's party without knowing it." William
Hazlitt narrated the magnificence of Milton's portrayal of Satan. According to him, "the Achilles
of Homer is not more distinct, the Titans were not more vast, Prometheus chained to his rock
was not a more terrific example of suffering and of crime. Whenever the figure of Satan is
introduced, whether he walks or flies, "rising aloft incumbent of the dusty air," it is illustrated
with the most striking and appropriate images: so that we see it always before us, gigantic,
irregular, portentous, uneasy and disturbed but dazzling in its faded splendour, the clouded ruins
of a God." Finally Shelley expressed his great admiration for Milton's portraiture of Satan. As
Shelley said: "Milton's Devil as a moral being is as far superior to his God, as one who persevere
in some purpose which he has conceived to be excellent inspite of adversity and torture, to God
who in the cold security of undoubted triumph inflicts the most horrible revenge upon his
enemy, not from any mistaken notion of inducing him to repent of a perseverance in enmity, but
with the alleged design of exasperating him to new torments."

Satan's Greatness in the Twentieth Century

Even in the twentieth century some critics are influenced by this romantic figure. They continue
to consider Satan as the chief figure of Paradise Lost. Abercrombie remarks: "Paradise Lost exists
for one figure, that is Satan, just as the Iliad exists for Achilles, and the Odyssey for Odysseys. It is
in the figure of Satan that the imperishable significance of Paradise Lost is centred. His vast,
unyielding agony symbolises the profound antimony of modern consciousness". Bagehot says
that Milton's "Satan was to him, as to us, the hero of his poem." In fact, many more critics have
suggested that the republican Milton's unconscious sympathy went to the creation of Satan.
Legouis says that Milton has put most of himself, his pride, and his temperament into Satan.
"Devoutly, but mechanically, he paid lip-service to the duty of obedience, but in his heart he was
chanting a hymn to freedom and rebellion." Many other critics think that Milton has created the
very figure of Puritanism in his Satan, thus unconsciously identifying his consecrated cause with
the foul revolt of the devil.

Gradual Degradation of Satan's Character

But as the poem proceeds, the character of Satan degenerates. Reaching the Earth, he enters
into a Serpent, and is completely degraded. Pride was the cause of his fall from Heaven-Pride
that had 'raised' him to 'contend with the Mightiest.' Where is that pride, when the Archangel
enters "in at the mouth of a sleeping Serpent" and hides himself in its "mazy folds". He is himself
conscious of his degradation:

Of foul descent that I, who erst contended

With Gods to sit the highest, am now constrained.

Into a beast, and, mixed with bestial slime,

This essence to incarnate and imbrute.

That to the height of deity aspired." (Book IX)

From the grand figure that he is in the beginning, he degenerates into a mean and cunning
fellow, trying to tempt Eve by guile. So Satan degenerates from the role of a brave hero to that of
a cunning villain.

The aforesaid view has been formulated by the twentieth century critics who feels that the
character of Satan shows a gradual decline. As C.S. Lewis remarks: "From hero to general, from
general to politician, from politician to secret service agent and thence to a thing that peers in at
the bedroom or bathroom windows, and thence toad, and finally to a snake—such is the
progress of Satan." John Peter is of the opinion that the degradation of Satan is due to the fact
that Milton lost poetic fervour after the two books. As Peter remarks: "These play a very
important part in determining the reader's impressions during the opening books where they
are consistently good and are often used powerfully, but the similes of the succeeding books,
though they recover their potency are usually far less effective."

Conclusion

"Though Satan represents evil, he has a greatness of his own. He is magnificent in his crime. He
is a born leader, and would not shrink from tasks that the perilous voyage through Chaos to
Earth implies. To him weakness is a crime:

Fallen cherub, to be weak is miserable.

Doing or suffering.

The first two books of Paradise Lost depict the greatness and grandeur of Satan. He fills the
whole space with the grandeur of his stature. In fact, it appears that he is the real hero of
Paradise Lost. Like Macbeth, he, too, seems to be tragic character.

In spite of his final degradation, it is Satan's character that gives real epic quality to Paradise Lost.
Without Satan, Paradise Lost would be no more than a theological thesis composed in verse.
Satan's courage and unconquerable spirit, his vaulting ambition, his fortitude and contempt for
suffering, the fierceness of his indomitable passions give to Paradise Lost its permanent value as
a work of poetic art.

--------------------------

The Hero of "Paradise Lost" Book-I

Introduction

Much controversy has clustered round the question as to who is the hero of Paradise Lost. There
are very sensible persons, who advocate the claim of Satan, and others, that of Adam. One critic
suggests God, and another the Messiah (Christ). A French critic (Denis Saurat) puts forward the
strange thesis that Milton himself is he hero of Paradise Lost.

(A) SATAN: THE HERO OF “PARADISE LOST“

Satan as A most Powerfully Drawn Character

Let us see some of the points of his character which are definitely indicated. In the beginning, it
is Satan who, first of all the angels, arouses himself up from the lake of fire. He has the power of
recovery in the face of defeat. Not one word, which he utters, expresses despair, when he
discovers the terrible nature of the place to which God has banished them. Immediately his
active mind begins to scheme, and he proceeds to reassemble his shattered forces. We are often
told that adversity reveals the best qualities in a man; adversity certainly reveals the vigorous
intellect and driving personality of Satan. He shows the highest degree of fortitude and “courage
never to submit or yield.” His personal example soon communicates itself to the other angels,
and they gather round their great leader. In the plays of Shakespeare, we have often seen that
the great dramatist contrives to create his finest characters by letting us hear what other people
think of them, and say about them, so it is with Milton. All the angels welcome with joy their
mighty leader. It matters not that they have been defeated and expelled from Heaven, because
of their share in his rebellion. They gather round him with absolute confidence such as earthly
men feel instinctively at times when they realize the worth of a great leader. The mighty qualities
of Satan’s mind, and the indomitable resolution which animates him, are displayed when he
exclaims:
… and thou, profoundest Hell

Receive thy new possessor, one who brings

A mind not to be changed by place or time

The mind is its own place, and in itself

Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.

There are sentiments which might well be uttered by the most spiritual of characters. The spirit
of self-reliance, of mental courage, which rises independent of environment, is a quality
possessed only by the greatest characters. This might well have been spoken by some saint in
exile, or languishing in dungeons of a cruel tyrant. A few lines later, there blazes a burst of
strong, over-mastering ambition, the expression of a nature the must, be first in all things:

To reign is worth ambition though in Hell;

Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.

It is no ordinary ambition which we see here; there is something colossal in this bold challenge
to the Almighty for supreme power. We have seen instances in the history of the human race
where two great natures clashed, and neither would give way: Caesar and Hannibal, Wellington
and Napoleon, and we have been impressed by the greatness on either side. It may be a wicked
things to defy God, but, in this case, God is far-removed and unreal, and it is the greatness of the
challenge, rather than the wickedness, which is the prominent impression.

Beelzebub bears witness to the great worth of Satan as a leader:

If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge

Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft

…. they will soon resume

New courage and revive, though now they lie

Grovelling and prostrate on yon lake of fire.

If this was said of the noblest general who ever led mortal armies, he would be acclaimed by all
as a leader of men. The effect here is similar; we must judge Satan according to earthly and
human standards since we have no other. We respect him because of the confidence with which
he inspire the forces. When the downfallen angels reach the shore, their dejected spirits are
cheered, and their look show:

Obscure some glimpse of joy, to have found their chief

Not in despair…
Million then makes Satan console them, raise their sinking courage, and dispel their fears. The
poet seems to feel here that he is ennobling the Archfiend unduly, for he reminds the reader
that Satan achieves this by:

high words that bore

Semblance of worth, not substance.

A Great Figure of Epic Dimension

But Milton has endowed Satan with all those qualities which make a hero. In fact, it is the
grandeur of Satan’s character that makes Paradise Lost an epic. Milton has imparted something
of himself to Satan, and so Satan arouses our admiration by the strength of his character and
individuality. He assets himself against the autocracy of God, and is able to win over to his side
the third part of the angelic host in Heaven. He is no doubt defeated by the Messaih (Christ) but
his defeat and his expulsion from Heaven cannot curb his indomitable spirit. He would urge
eternal war against God; he remains as bold in spirit and as defiant as he was before his defeat;
and the change of his surroundings cannot in any way dampen his unconquerable spirit. He will
make Heaven of Hell, and undertakes all kind of risks and dangers in order to take revenge on
God. This figure is heroic in every way. He is a perfect leader, and all the fallen angels submit
unquestioningly to his authority. “It is surely the simple fact” says Abercrombie, “that Paradise
Lost exists for one figure that is Satan, just as the Iliad exists for Achilles and the Odyssey for
Odysseus. It is in the figure of Satan that the imperishable significance of Paradise Lost is
centered; his vast unyielding agony symbolises the profound antimony of modern
consciousness.” Satan is indeed a great figure of epic dimension. He is a true hero, but he is so
only in Books I and II of Paradise Lost.

Robert Burns strongly upheld Satan as the hero of Paradise Lost, in these words: “give me a spirit
like my favourite hero, Milton’s Satan”, W. Hazlitt was of the same view, “the interest of the
poem arises from the daring ambition and fierce passions of Satan, and from the account of the
paradisical happiness and the loss of it by our first parents, Satan is the indubitable hero – in
fact, the most heroic subject that ever was chosen for a poem”.

Arguments against Satan being the Hero of the Poem

As the poem proceeds, this heroic figure gradually loses its splendour, though he retains his
original greatness even when he comes to the earth and sees the joy; but pride prevails over
him, for he must have his revenge on God who is his eternal enemy.

Ah gentle pair, ye little think how nigh

Your change approaches, when all these delights

Will vanish, and deliver ye to woe-

****

Yet no purposed foe

to you, whom I could pity thus forlorn,

Though I unpitied

From now onward, the deterioration of Satan starts. In fact when he enters into a serpent to
tempt Eve, he has turned from a great hero into a despicable spy and cunning trickster. So when
we take the whole of Paradise Lost into consideration, we cannot agree with the view that Satan
is the hero of Paradise Lost.

Admiration and Sympathy of Satan Misunderstood

According to some critics, Satan is the hero of the poem. In the preceding chapter, we have
expressed the view of these critics of the Romantic age and the twentieth century. Now let us
interpret the views of these critics. In fact, Satan is not the hero of the poem. Even Dryden was
misled by the epic current in his day. The Romantics misunderstood Blake. It is a pity that even a
great critic like Tillyard misunderstood him. As Rudrum Alan remarks in his book Milton: Modern
judgements: “It is only in the context of his own highly complex system of thought that Blake’s
remarks on Milton’s Satan can be properly understood. But of course they have been abstracted
from that context…” Blake never means that Milton identifies himself with Satan. According to
him, poetry is emotional rather than rational. In other words, evil inspires a poet more than the
good; a poet finds it easier to depict evil than good, as stated by Blake. It is in this sense that
Milton is of the Devil’s party. So, the Romantics misunderstood Blake. A poet has ‘as much
delight in depicting an Iago as an Imogen’ (an evil and good character). Milton took pleasure in
the exercise of his power.

Secondly, those who think that Satan is the hero of the poem, confine their criticism to the first
two books. As A. Stopford Brooke remarks: “The interest of the story collect at first round the
character of Satan, but he grows meaner as the poem develops, and his second degradation
after he has destroyed innocence is one of the finest and most consistent motives in the poem.
This at once disposes the view that Milton meant Satan to be the hero of his epic.” Thus in the
first two books he is made a heroic figure. Subsequently, his character degenerates.

Thirdly, Milton’s identification with Satan is misunderstood. Tillyard says that the character of
Satan expresses something in which Milton believed very strongly. But Tillyard forgets that the
identification of Milton with Satan, is only partial. Milton is also Adam. Milton thought himself a
sincere Christian. Milton has Satan in him and wants to drive him out. “He was of the devil’s
party without knowing it; but he was also of God’s party, and what is more important, he knew
it.” (Denis Saurat Milton: Man, and Thinker). Further Denis Saurat remarks: “And yet Satan is not
the hero of the poem: he is intellectually condemned, in spite of all the poet’s and the reader’s
sympathy.”
We should not be taken in by Satan’s impressive speeches. For what indeed does his fine
sounding phrase sense of “injured merit” mean but simply “not fair” which is far from being a
heroic cry. Stylistic reasons enforce superficially the heroism of Satan-his utterances are always
couched in language of unrivalled poetic splendour. But this should not mislead us, for in the end
Satan himself realized his impotence and inner helplessness.

Finally, the splendour of Satan is misunderstood. The magnificence and splendour of Satan must
be exalted in order to indicate the epic greatness of the coming conflict. In other words, in order
to rouse the reader’s fears for himself, human sympathy with his first parents and gratitude for
his redemption, Milton has shown the magnificence of Satan’s character. George Sampson
remarks: “Those who maintain that Satan the rebel is the real hero of the poem fail to
understand that the adversary of God and Man must be presented in majesty and magnitude if
he is to be worthy of his place in the story that he must have, in fact all the fascination of evil.
“We should not be swept away by the sheer grandeur of Satan’s speeches, or by the splendour
of his personality. Heroism exerted in the bad cause, ceases to be virtue. And, therefore, it is not
enough to say that Satan is the hero of the poem because he is brave and bold.

Many of the twentieth century critics do not hold the view of the Romantics i.e. Satan is the hero
of Paradise Lost. John Peter is of the opinion that “the loss of poetic energy or resonance in the
heroic similes applied to Satan shows an important aspect of the deterioration in Milton’s
treatment of the Devil”. According to David Daiches, the whole poem is the story of Satan’s
inevitable degeneration.

(B) MILTON: THE HERO OF “PARADISE LOST”

This theory has been formulated by Denis Saurat, a French critic. He says in his book Milton: Man
and Thinker that Adam is not the fitting counterpart for Satan. According to him, the hero of the
poem is Milton himself. As stated by him: “Though Satan is Milton’s own creation, and he has
displayed a greater force of poetry in him than in any other character in Paradise Lost as he
represents a part of his own mind and character, yet it seems that Milton throws himself
personally into the struggle against Satan”. Further Saurat feels that Milton has exalted Satan
because he himself wanted to drive out malignant and militant Satan from his own heart. In this
connection, he says: “Milton had Satan in him and wanted to drive him out. He had felt passion,
pride and sensuality. The displeasure he takes in the creation of Satan is the joy of liberating,
purging himself of the evil in himself by concentrating it outside himself into a work of art. A joy
peculiar to the artist……a joy that, perhaps was God’s ultimate aim in creating the world, as we
have seen.

The argument is not plausible that Milton himself is the hero. No doubt, Milton’s personality is
revealed in Paradise Lost: and he never conceals where his sympathy lies. There is again some
similarity between the position of Satan and that of Milton. Satan had defied the authority of
God the autocrat, just as Milton had defied the autocracy of the King. Hence, Satan is endowed
with all the force and fire of Milton’s own spirit. But Milton’s object was to justify the ways of
God to man. He therefore, expresses himself here and there to execute his avowed aim. The
epic, it must be remembered, is a piece of objective art. He calls Satan’s “infernal serpent” ‘Arch-
fiend’ and uses abusive epithets to expose Satan’s real character. But Milton himself cannot and
does not take part in the action of the poem. The lyrical qualities of Milton’s genius inevitably
enter into Paradise Lost. But to say that he is the hero of Paradise Lost, is nothing short of
preposterous.

(C) ADAM: THE HERO OF “PARADISE LOST”

To put forward the claim either of God or of the Messiah (Christ) is absurd, for they do not take
part in the central action of Paradise Lost. However, the whole epic, turns rounds what Milton
indicates even in the first line of the poem ‘Man’s first disobedience.’ Adam disobeyed God, and
by this act of disobedience, he not only lost Paradise but brought about the fall of the whole
human race. No action can be more tremendous in its import and significance than that which
brought the fall of the whole of humanity. And Adam, being responsible for it, is obviously meant
by the poet to fill the role of the hero of the great poem.

Difficulty arises because Adam does not act. He is merely a passive figure, who is acted upon by
others. But it is his fate that engages the attention of God and the Angels in Heaven, and of Satan
and the devils in Hell. His fate again causes a terrible upheaval on the Earth. When Eve plucks the
fruit, “Nature sighs that all is lost.” Adam may not be a heroic figure in the same sense as Achilles
is. But Paradise Lost is a different kind of epic from Homer’s Iliad. Milton himself says,

… Yet argument

Not less but more heroic than the wrath of stern Achilles.

In creating Adam, Milton attempted a very peculiar task. Adam, the father of mankind is almost
without human experience and so cannot have much personality. Milton has to present a figure
who appeals imaginatively and poetically and this he does. Adam has a natural magnificence
that fits him to be the hero of an epic. However, Adam is not a hero like Achilles and Ullyses, etc.
capable of incredibly heroic deeds. Adam is a hero of a nobler kind.

Adam’s role is not that of a warrior but that of a God-fearing man, faced with a temptation and
defeated in the conflict between himself and Satan. In studying the question of the hero of
Paradise Lost, we need not be obsessed with the classical conception of the epic here. Adam is
defeated no doubt but through the Messiah (Christ) he regains the Paradise ‘happier far’. Thus
the ultimate victory which is of a spiritual nature goes to Adam. Adam is the real hero of
Paradise Lost.

Conclusion

“One supposed defect in the story of Paradise Lost has been frequently dwelt on, and the fact is
that Satan, and not Adam, is the hero of the epic. We think that only those, who reading of
Milton has been confined to the first two books, can be misled by this nonsensical paradox. In
the first two books Satan is naturally made a heroic figure; he is still an Arch-angel (though
fallen) one of the chief Arch-angels and king over his fellows. “His character has power. His
capacity for evil must be exalted in order to show the epic greatness of the coming conflict and
in order to arouse the reader’s fears for himself, human sympathy with his first parents and
gratitude for his redemption. But we have not to wait for Paradise Regained to see the steady
deterioration in Satan’s character. Surely, to take one instance alone there is little of the heroic in
Satan when he takes the form of a toad to whisper in Eve’s ear and is stirred up by the spear of
Ithuriel. At the close of the poem Satan’s degradation is complete.” (Wyatt and Low).

“Satan is, of course, a character in an epic, but he is in no sense the hero of the epic as a whole;
he is only a figure of heroic magnitude and heroic energy, and he is developed by Milton with
dramatic emphasis and dramatic intensity” Helen Grander.

Although Adam is a passive and not an active agent in the poem and although he suffers more
than he acts, his claim to the title of the hero seems to be better than anybody else’s. As Landor
points out, and as everybody at once notices, Adam is the central figure in the poem, round
whom the others act. It is his fall that is the subject matter of the poem. Our interest centres
round him; our sympathy goes to him. He may reasonably be called the hero of ‘Paradise Lost’.
Adam does not have a romantic character and obvious bravery of a noble; he is Every man as he
recognizes his own weakness: accepts his responsibility, and faces life with true courage. His
battles are within him, as is fitting for the hero of a great religious epic.

-----------------------------

"Paradise Lost": A Classical Epic

Characteristics of an Epic

An epic is the highest type of narrative poetry. It is a long narrative poem in which the characters
and the action are of heroic proportions. From the works of Homer and Virgil, certain
characteristics have become established in the West as standard attributes of the epic. The main
attributes are given below.

(i) The hero is a figure of great national or international importance. Moreover, the characters
must belong to the highest class in a society, raised above the common man by birth, position,
manners and appearance. They must be kings and princes descended from heroes, and even
from the gods, compelling in their deportment and arresting in their personal appearance. In
Paradise Lost the hero is Adam, who incorporates in himself the entire race of man.

(ii) The setting is ample in scale, sometimes world-wide, or even larger in the classical epic. The
scope of Paradise Lost is cosmic, for it includes Heaven, Earth and Hell.

(iii) The action involves heroic deeds: Paradise Lost includes the war in Heaven, the journey of
Satan to discover the newly created world, and his audacious attempt to outwit God by
corrupting mankind.

(iv) The action should be an entire action, complete in itself. By this is meant that it should have
a beginning, a middle, and an end.

(v) The next characteristic of the epic poem according to Aristotle is that it must have greatness,
by which is meant that it must produce far-reaching consequences in which the destinies of
great men and nations are involved.

(vi) God are also used in the epic as a tragedy, as deux ex machina; the intervention of
supernatural machinery advances the plot and solves its complications. It not only gives ample
scope for the exercise of the poet’s imagination, it also provides a proper spiritual support for
the heroic deeds.

(vii) An epic poem is a ceremonial composition and deliberately given a ceremonial style
proportionate to its great subject and architecture. Hence, Milton’s Latinised diction and stylized
syntax, his resounding lists of strange and sonorous names, and his epic similes, that is,
sustained similes in which the comparison is developed far beyond the specific points are
appropriate.

(viii) The poet begins by stating his theme, then invokes a Muse in his great undertaking and
addresses the Muse.

MAIN ATTRIBUTES OF MILTON’S EPIC:

“PARADISE LOST“

(i) Universality of the Subject-matter in “Paradise Lost“

Milton’s Paradise Lost is not a national epic like the Iliad or the Aeneid; nor is it an epic after any
of the known types. It is an epic of the whole human species-an epic of our entire planet or
indeed of the entire astronomical universe. The vast compass of the story, its space, time,
characters and purpose make it unique among the world epics and fully entitle its author to
speak of it as involving:

“Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.”

It is a poetical representation of the historical connection between the created World and the
immeasurable and inconceivable Universe of Prehuman Existence. The newly created Earth with
all the starry depths about it has as yet but two human beings upon it, and these are the persons
of the epic. The grand purpose of an epic is to connect, by stupendous imagination certain
events of this pre-supposed Infinite Eternity with the first fortunes of this favoured planet and its
two human inhabitants. Now the person through the narration of whose acts this connection is
established is Satan, a central character of the epic.

Milton’s Paradise Lost has a wider scope and larger signifi-cance than either the llliad or the
Aeneid, because it deals with the whole human race and indicates the destiny of all humanity
through the sin of the first man created by God. Thus Milton promotes a universal view of man’s
life on this earth and shows how he has a past, a present and a future devised for him by the
might of God and as a result of his own exertions. This is the didactic or philosophical view of an
epic. Milton says that he has undertaken to write of the Fall of Man and to justify the ways of
God to men. Man is born endowed with free will and great powers, but he is subject to the
decrees of the Almighty who is filled with love for his own creations. We can make or mar our
destiny since we are given freedom to work out the will of God or suffer from the consequences
of disobeying Him. This is a cosmic or eternal view which is bound to inspire all of us with hope
for the future. Coleridge commented on the universal appeal of Paradise Lost saying “it
represents the origin of evil and the combat of evil and good, it contains a matter of deep
interest to all mankind, as forming the basis of all religion and the true occasions of all
philosophy whatsoever.”

(ii) Unity of Action in “Paradise Lost“

There is a perfect unity of action in Paradise Lost as in the great classical epics of Homer and
Virgil. The theme of Paradise Lost is ‘Fall of man’; everything in the poem either leads up to it or
follows from it. The plucking of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge by Eve is the apex of the whole
architecture of Paradise Lost. The lines,

So saying, her rash hand in evil hour

Forth-reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she eat.

Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat

Sighing through her all works, gave signs of woe

That all was lost:

are the central lines round which everything else in the poem turns. The war between God and
Satan, followed by Satan’s fall, is only a prelude to the main action. Satan defeated and
punished, sought to take revenge on God by bring about the fall of man. Hence the fall of Satan
does not constitute a separate action, as contended by some critics. The whole action of
Paradise Lost is single and compact. There are some episodes, as that of Sin and Death, which
are the necessary appurtenance of the classical epic. Since Milton’s characters are mostly
supernatural-God, Angels, Devils – with but two human beings who are also more like angels
than men, this makes the action of Paradise Lost also different from other epics. In Paradise Lost
it concerns the whole creation: “everything is done under the immediate the visible direction of
Heaven”.

(iii) Beginning, Middle and end of “Paradise Lost“

Paradise Lost begins not at the beginning, but in the middle, then retraces the earlier history bit
by bit and finally takes the story forward to complete the narration in a striking end. The fall of
man is a long story, and its beginnings are to be traced back to Creation itself by the Almighty.
But Milton chooses to deal with the Fall of Satan or Lucifer in the first book. This is a striking
episode which arrests our attention, for we are introduced to Satan lying stunned in the
sulphurous lake of endless fires after having been hurled down from high heaven by God. This is
according to the classical convention that the action of an epic should plunge abruptly into the
middle of the action. Who was Satan, why he fell, are the questions that engage our attention,
and the poet then proceeds to tell us all about these in the later book of the poem.

(iv) Invocation of “Paradise Lost“

There is an introductory invocation or prayer to God to inspire and bless the poet to complete
his task properly. This is a common feature of all ancient epics. But the ancient epics appealed to
gods and goddesses in whom the moderns no more believe. Instead, Milton prays to God to give
him the necessary inspiration to complete his task. Here he brings out his faith in the concept of
God according to the tenets of the Christian religion.

In the invocation to the Muse, Milton follows a poetic tradition adopted from antiquity-but in
such a way so as to fill it with significance. The Heavenly Muse is in reality the divine inspiration
which revealed the truths of religion of Moses and also the spirit of God which dwells in the
heart of every believer.

(v) Hero and other associates in “Paradise Lost“

The characters introduced into an epic poem are all endowed with powers and capacities of
heroic proportions. For only then are our imagination and sympathies roused to their fullest
extent, and we are thrilled by their exploits. Not only is the hero of outstanding personality, but
his associates are also of heroic mould and stuff. This we find in the description and sketch of
Satan, Beelzebub and the other fallen angels.

In one respect ‘Paradise Lost’ differs from the classical epics and that is in the number of the
characters portrayed. The earlier epics were rich in characterization with many mortals and gods
taking part in the action. Their personality and the motivations of all the participants in the
different phases of the story, capture the interest of the readers; and there is also constant
suspense about their fates. The subjects-matter of the fall of Adam and Eve obviously precluded
any such generosity of characterization, especially of human beings.

(vi) Speeches of Elaborate Length in “Paradise Lost“

Speeches of elaborate length are another feature of epics. A part from the poet’s explanations
and descriptions of the background and scenery, the characters themselves speak fully
explaining their thoughts, feelings and motives for our understanding. There is often a good deal
of repetition, but this very repetition adds to a sense of the magnitude the fullness of the action.
Besides direct reporting adds to the vividness of the narrative, and we feel as if we are
spectators or participants in the scene or action.

(vii) Similes and metaphors and allusions in

“Paradise Lost“

Another feature of epics is the frequency with which figures of speech are employed. Similies
and metaphors are most common. Book I abounds in a peculiar type of smiles which is called the
Homeric Similes. They offer scope for the poet to exhibit his varied knowledge of nature, books
and men in all aspects of life. Their appropriateness, picture sequences and beauty add to our
enjoyment of the poem as a whole.

Next to similes, we have allusions, references to different aspects of older tradition, folklore,
mythology, art and related activities of human beings in different parts of the world. Milton was
one of the most learned of the world’s poets. All that was known to the ancient world and to his
own contemporaries in all branches of human endeavour is found referred to in one context or
the other in Paradise Lost. This is another source of pleasure and profit to the reader.

(viii) Grand Style of “Paradise Lost“

The next essential characteristic of an epic is its grand style. A great action needs a worthy style
for its adequate presentation, and Milton’s poetic style in Paradise Lost is the last word of
sublimity in English poetry. Paradise Lost excels as a poetic work both for the loftiness of its
theme and for the grandeur of its style. Truly, Tennyson called Milton “mighty mouthed inventor
of harmonies” and “God gifted organ-voice of England.” The language of Paradise Lost bristles
with Latinisms and to some extent this fact lifts the style above the common place. Anything
common or trivial would have spoilt the effect of the great epic.

(ix) Human Interest in “Paradise Lost“

Above all, the human interest in the poem centres round the figure of Adam, who is the central
character of Paradise Lost. The Epic, like the Tragedy, is according to Aristotle, a story of human
action. Paradise Lost is essentially a story of human action; though there are only two human
characters in the epic – and they make their appearance as late as the fourth book of the poem –
yet their act of disobedience is the central theme of the epic; and this act of eating “the fruit of
that forbidden tree” is of tremendous significance, for on it depends the fate of the whole
human race. The last two lines of the poem describing the departure of Adam and Eve from the
Garden of Eden are pregnant with deep pathos, and appeal to every human heart:

They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow

 Through Eden took their solitary way.

(x) Sublimity in “Paradise Lost“

An epic is a serious poem embodying sublime and noble thoughts. There is no room for
pleasantry and fun and light-hearted gaiety in a classical epic. Milton’s Paradise Lost is a sublime
and noble poem characterised for the imagination of man to distend itself with greater ideas
than those which Milton has presented in the first, second and sixth books. The seventh book.
The seventh book, which describes the creation of the world, is equally wonderful and sublime.

(xi) Moral Tone of “Paradise Lost“

An epic is not without a moral. Besides giving a general representation to passions and
affections, virtues and vices, the epic poet does not leave out a moral which he expects his
readers to imbibe. The moral forms an integral and intrinsic part of Milton’s poem. It seeks to
“vindicate the ways of God to men, to show the reasonableness of religion and the necessity of
obedience to the Divine Law.”

DRYDEN’S OBJECTION AGAINST “PARADISE LOST“

AS A CLASSICAL EPIC

Dryden, however, doubted its claim to be called an epic, because, (1) it is not heroic enough; its
main theme is not a war but the tale of man’s loss of his happiness; (2) unlike other epics it ends
unhappily; (3) again, unlike other epics, it contains only two human characters, the other being
“heavenly machines”.

The objections are either superficial or conventional. It is a needless restriction on epic poetry to
say that it must always have a war as its main theme. Similarly, the fact that epics generally end
happily does not mean that all epics must end so. Besides, as Johnson points out, Paradise Lost
does not end unhappily. “If success be necessary,” he says, “then Adam’s deceiver was at last
crushed; Adam was restored to his Maker’s favour, and therefore may securely resume his
human rank.” If Adam loses the eternal Paradise, he gains “a Paradise within him happier far.”
Dryden’s third objection is sufficiently refuted by Addison. He says that though the number of
characters in Milton‘s epic are not many, yet each of the characters is represented in more than
one aspect. Thus we have Adam and Eve as they are before their fall and as they are after it. God
is revealed as the Creator, the avenger of man’s wrongs and as man’s redeemer. Satan has three
different aspects of his character. He is God’s enemy, man’s tempter and a great leader to his
followers. Besides, abstract characters such as Sin and Death, are introduced. And surely, God
and the angels, good and bad, are also characters. They are not merely “heavenly machines.”

To sum up: Paradise Lost is an epic. And it possesses all the essential characteristics that Aristotle
demanded of an epic poem. (1) Its action or plot has unity, entirety and sublimity. The subject-
matter, viz., the fall of man, forms the centre of the poem. Everything else moves round it, leads
towards it or follows from it. Milton secures the unity of action by starting at the middle of the
story and by opening the poem with the infernal council debate in Hell where man’s fall is
plotted. The story is also told in its entirety. We are told, all that went before to cause man’s fall
and all that followed as its result. The action is also sublime; there cannot be any more sublime
theme than the fall of our first parents and the war in Heaven. (2) The Characters of Paradise
Lost are also true epic characters. They are majestic and they are as many and as various as the
peculiar nature of the poem allowed. (3) Its language is also sublime and appropriate to the
characters. It is a perfect model of epic diction.

There are other incidental characteristics of epic poetry also in it. Like other epics, Paradise Lost
treats a war; it employes “long-tailed” similes: it obeys the convention of invoking the Muse.

---------------------------------

Milton’s Style: Its Grandeur and Loftiness

Abundance of Allusions and References: Difficulty

The first characteristic of Milton’s poetry that meets the eye, is its extremely difficult nature, and
this difficulty largely lies in his style. An appreciation of Milton, said Mark Pattison, “is the last
reward of consummate scholarship”. He is a poet not for the masses, but for the learned few.

A whole treasury of allusions and references to classical myth, history and literature, to Biblical
mythology, and contemporary literatures, lies scattered all over his poetry, even his early poetry.
For example, in order to describe the vastness of Satan’s troops, he brings in the names of the
mightiest armies known to history and legend. As Hanford points out, “The whole treasury of
poetry and the whole storehouse of learning are at his command. He assumes that they are also
at the command of his reader and accordingly he loads every rift of his verse with the ore of
myth and legend, and with historical, literary, and scientific fact. Of no other English style is
erudition so integral a part. Classical and Biblical allusion is, of course, the most abundant,
constituting a kind of current coin of expression wherewith to convey a meaning rich in poetic
and cultural suggestion.”

Extreme Terseness and Condensation

This difficulty of Milton’s poetry is further heightened by the extreme condensation and
terseness of his style. Raleigh calls Milton’s lines “packed lines” and writes, “The packed line
introduced by Milton is of a greater density and conciseness than anything to be found in English
literature before it. It is our nearest native counterpart to the force and reserve of the high
Virgilian diction.” He packs his meaning into the fewest possible words and studies economy in
every trifle. A reader of Milton must be always upon duty; he is surrounded with sense; it rises in
every line, every word is to the purpose. There are no lazy intervals; all has been considered, and
demands and merits observation. Even in the best writers you sometimes find words and
sentences which hang on so loosely, you may blow them off. Milton’s are all substance and
weight; fewer would not have served his turn, and more would have been superfluous. He
expresses himself so concisely, employs words so sparingly, that whoever will possess his ideas
must dig for them, and often-times pretty far below the surface.” Connectives and conjunctives
are often missing, and all superfluous graces are usually discarded and the poet continues to
move forward giving the reader no rest. Each word is of value; there is no mortar between the
stones, each is held in place by the weight of the others, and helps to uphold the building. He
can enclose vast concepts within little space. Thus in the following from Book II, the whole
dreariness of the fallen angel’s march to their retreats after the conference is expressed in the
last line which is just a catalogue without any cement :

Through many a dark and dreary vale

They passed, and many a region dolorous,

O’er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp.

Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death.

And in Book I the mightiest army one can imagine is rendered in less than six lines:

All in a moment through the gloom were seen

Ten thousand banners rise into the air,

With orient colours waving; with them rose

A forest huge of spears; and thronging helms

Appeared, and serried shields in thick array of depth immeasurable.

Latinisms; Loftiness and Sublimity

Milton’s genius for terseness and condensation accounts for many of the peculiarities of his
diction. His use of words in their original Latin sense, Latin constructions, and inversions is not
pedantry or vulgar show of knowledge. Through his Latinisms the poet achieves conciseness as
well as that elevation and remoteness, that distancing from the speech of everyday life, that
grandeur and sublimity, which are the key-notes of an epic. He was writing an epic in which the
characters are God, His Son, the angels, both good and bad. Naturally, he had to use words
which would be suitable for such super-human characters, and the order in which these words
are used must also be different from their order in the speech of ordinary mortals. That is why
he uses old English words in their original Latin sense. Thus the quaint expression ‘sounding
alchemy” is used for ‘trumpets of brass’, ‘Landskip’ for ‘landscape’, ‘highth’ for ‘height’, and
‘strucken’ for ‘striken’, ‘sublime’ is constantly used by him in the Latin sense of ‘aloft’ or ‘in the
air’, ‘sovran’ is used instead of ‘sovereignty’, and ‘author’ is used in the Latin sense of
‘informant’. Many of his Elisions and contractions also result from his passion for conciseness.
Inverted Constructions:

(a) Impart Brevity

Similarly the construction of his sentences is not the normal familiar construction of ordinary
speech. His construction aims at maximum of condensation and loftiness. In his sentences, says
Raleigh, “You cannot guess the adjective from the substantive, nor the end of the phrase from its
beginning. He is much given to inverting the natural English order of epithet and noun, that he
may gain a greater emphasis for the epithet.” For instance he places a noun between its two
qualifying adjectives, though the English idiom requires both to be placed before the noun: ‘the
upright heart and pure’, ‘the dismal situation waste and wild’, ‘ever burning sulphur
unconsumed’. Sometimes he prefers the Latin idiom to English, as in never, since created Man
Met such embodied force,

Here, as in Latin, the past participle ‘created’ and the noun ‘Man’, both combined, mean an
event—the creation of man, and the preposition ‘since’ governs the event.

(b) Impart Force and Effectiveness

Inversion often forces our attention on a specific point which the poet wishes to stress. Take for
example the following opening lines of Book I:

Of man’s first disobedience, and the Fruit

Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste

Brought Death, into the world, and all our woe

With loss of Eden, till one greater man

Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,

Sing Heavenly Muse

Normally the words “sing Heavenly Muse” should open the poem. But Milton brings the object
just in the forefront, and stresses in one breath “man’s first disobedience”, “the Fruit”, the
“Forbidden Tree”, ‘‘mortal taste”, and these are central to the poem. Thus by inverting the
normal order, he is able to focus our attention on the theme, and raise before our imagination
the dramatic and historical dimensions of his cosmic stage.

He inverts the normal word-order to make his communication snore effective and to focus our
attention exactly where he wishes. “The violation of the normal English, which have upset some
purists” says Daiches, “are carefully and systematically employed in order to achieve different
kind of emotional pitch, to effect continuity and integration in the weaving of epic design, and
above all to sustain the poem as a poem and to keep it from disintegrating into isolated
fragments of high rhetoric.”
Catalogues of Proper Names

The long catalogues of proper names which we come across so frequently in Paradise Lost also
enable him to achieve terseness, to dilate the imagination of his readers by opening out large
vistas before their mind’s eyes, as well as to surprise and delight them by their music and
melody. Milton was a conscious artist who chases his words both with reference to their sense
and their sound. Indeed, many of the proper names are chosen for their sonorous music. On a
small scale we have “Busiris and his Memphian chivalry”, “Vallombrosa where the Etrurian
shades”. On a bigger scale we have those famous lines in Book I:

Begirt with British and Armoric Knights,

And all who since, baptized or infidel,

Jousted in Aspramont, or Montalban, Damasco, or Morocco, or Trebisond.

and so on, till the catalogue of musical names ends with Fortarabbia. By all these means, “he
attained to a finished style of perhaps a more consistent and unflagging elevation than is to be
found elsewhere in literature”—(Raleigh). This cataloguing is not a cheap ‘rhetorical device, or
display of erudition as has been objected, to by some critics, it is integral to Milton’s epic-
purpose.

Suggestiveness

Closely allied to condensation, is suggestiveness, another important characteristic of Milton’s

style. Milton suggests much more than he actually states or describes. His poetry must be read
imaginatively. The poet was dealing with events and situations prior to known history, even prior
to creation itself. He was dealing with characters supernatural who lie beyond the pale of human
experience, and so can only be comprehended imaginatively. Even the human characters, Adam
and Eve, are quite different from any known human being. Thus the very subject of Milton made
it unavoidable that he should suggest much more than he actually states, that he should
constantly evoke and bring into play the imagination of his readers. Thus the vastness of Satan’s
figure, the immensity of his shield and spear, is conveyed through a few deft strokes. For
example, the very fact that a “horrid vale” is formed in the Lake of Fire when Satan comes out of
it, is sufficient to give us an idea of his huge bulk. Writes Rose Macaulay in this connection, “the
most unimaginative man must understand Homer. Homer gives him no choice, and requires
from him no exertion ; but takes the whole upon himself, and sets the images in so clear a light,
that it is impossible to be blind to them. The works of Milton cannot be comprehended or
enjoyed, unless the mind of the reader co-operate, with that of the writer. He does not paint a
finished picture, or play for a mere passive listener. He sketches and leaves others to fill up the
outline. He strikes the keynote and expects his hearers to make out the melody.”

Epic-Similes

The use of Homeric or epic-similes helps the poet a great deal to secure the co-operation of his
readers. Richard-Garnett considers Milton’s epic-similes more arresting, more grand and more
numerous, at least in Book I, than they are even in Homer. Such similes impart variety, grandeur
and expressiveness to the poet’s style. They serve to introduce that human interest into his epic
in which a number of critics, following Dr. Johnson, have found it lacking. Milton’s similes are
elaborate and learned. The army of the fallen angels lying dazed in a stupor in Book I is
illustrated by three or four different similes drawn from natural history, and from the scriptures.
The re-assembled forces of these spirits are again illustrated with five similes drawn from
scripture and history. As Professor Raleigh writes: “From Herodotus to Olaus Magnus and
onward to the latest discoveries in geography, and astronomy, the researches of Galileo and the
description given by contemporary travellers of China and the Chinese, or of the North American
Indians, Milton compels the authors he had read, both ancient and modern, to contribute to the
gracing of his work.”

Verbal Music

A word may now be said about Milton’s verbal-music. As already pointed out above, he chooses
words both with reference to their sound and their sense. Many of the proper nouns used by
him have a grand sonorous music. Many of his Latinisms as, “resounding alchemy”, are also
accounted for by his fondness for sound affects. The music both of polysyllabic Latin words and
of monosyllables is fully exploited. The music in the following lines arises from skilful balancing
of vowel sounds:

…… chance the radiant sun, with farewell sweet,

Extend his evening beam, the fields revive,

The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds,

Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings.

use of alliteration, assonance (correspondence in sound) onometopoea (sound-echoing sense),

repetition, etc., are some other devices used by Milton to impart music and, melody to his
diction.

Some Faults

Milton’s style has been criticised on a number of counts, and some of his faults may now be
noted. First, his style is heavily overloaded with his learning and is far beyond the reach of the
average reader. Secondly, he avoids the commonplace and often uses a roundabout way of
expression or circumlocution. Dr. Johnson, therefore, criticised his style as, “perverse and
pedantic”. Thirdly, his frequent Latinisms and inverted constructions have exposed him to the
charge of corrupting the English language, and writing, “as if he were writing a foreign language.”
Fourthly, his use of high sounding words and phrases and his long cataloguing of proper names
have been condemned as theoretical by no less a critic than T.S. Eliot. Fifthly, often he is guilty of
using mixed metaphors which result in obscurity, and needless perplexity and confusion for the
readers. And lastly, there is his fondness for ‘puns’ and word-play. Thus we have, “At one slight
bound high overkapt all bound”, and “Beseeching or besieging”, etc.

Conclusion: Milton’s Grand Style

However, such faults are only minor flaws in the chastity, the sonority and girded majesty of
Milton’s diction. Milton remains in the final analysis the great master of the great or grand style
which arises when a noble nature poetically gifted treats with severity or simplicity a noble
subject. In the noblest tradition of the epic, big thoughts are uttered by him in a big way. As Dr.
Johnson rightly pointed out, “His natural port is gigantic loftiness”. For want of a better word his
style has been called ‘Miltonic’, a thing apart in English literature. Loftiness of thought and
majesty of expression combine to make Milton’s style ‘sublime’ in the real sense of the word.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Introduction

“The name of Milton”, says Raleigh, “is become the mark, not of a biography nor of a theme, but
of a style – the most distinguished in our poetry.” In all that he has written he has impressed his
indomitable personality and irrepressible originality. John Milton is not only in every line of
Paradise Lost but in every line of poetry that he has written. As Macaulay has said: “There is not
a square inch of his poetry from first to last of which one could not confidently say.” “This is
Milton and no one else.” His accent and speech alike in Ode to Nativity and in Paradise Lost are
his own and in marked contrast to any other English poet.

Essentials of Miltonic Style

Since style is the expression of personality, we have to find the peculiar quality of Milton’s style
in his personality and character. In the first place, Milton’s mind was “nourished upon the best
thoughts and finest words of all ages”, and that is the language, says Pattison, of one “who lives
in the companionship of the great and the wise of the past.” Secondly, Milton was a man of lofty
character, whose “soul was like a star that dwelt apart, and who in all that is known about him,
his life, his character, and his power of poetry, shows something for which the only fit words is
Sublime.” Thirdly, Milton was a supreme artist. “Poetry”, says Bailey, “has been by far our
greatest artistic achievement, and he (Milton) is by far our greatest poetic artist. Tennyson truly
called him “God gifted organ-voice of England.” “To live with Milton,” says Bailey, “is necessarily
to learn that the art of poetry is no triviality, no mere amusement, but a high and grave thing, a
thing of the choicest discipline of phrase, the finest craftsmanship of structure, the most nobly
ordered music of sound. So, in Milton’s poetic style we inevitably find the imprint of a cultured
mind, a lofty soul and an artistic conscience. “In the sure and flawless perfection of his rhythm
and diction, he (Milton) is as admirable as Virgil or Dante, and in this respect, he is unique
amongst us. No one else in English literature possess the like distinction…. Shakespeare is
divinely strong, rich and attractive; but sureness, of perfect style Shakespeare himself does not
possess. Milton from one end of Paradise Lost to the other is in his diction and rhythm
constantly a great artist in the great style.” (Mathew Arnold). “The study of his verse is one that
never exhausts itself, so that the appreciation of it has been called the last reward of
consummate scholarship.” Above all, there is a certain loftiness about the style of Milton, which
is found alike in his Ode to Nativity and in Paradise Lost, and so Bailey says that it is precisely
‘majesty’ which is the unique and essential Miltonic quality.” Milton achieves this loftiness as
much by words as by the sonority, dignity and weight of the words themselves.

Artistic Perfection

In reply to the observation that Shakespeare never blotted a line, Ben Jonson said, ‘would he had
blotted a thousand’: No one has ever uttered such a wish with regard to Milton‘s poetry. Milton
as a poetic artist is never careless or slipshod. There is hardly a line in his poetic work which is
unpoetical – hardly a word which is superfluous. All the words used by him are deliberately
chosen for fulfilling these functions: the exact expression of thought, their power for suggestion,
and the musical effects for the verse. And this artistic perfection characterises his poetry from
his first important poem Ode to Nativity to his last one, Samson Agonistes. Milton has written all
types of poetry – lyric, epic and dramatic – and his style in each reaches the high water-mark of
poetic art.

According to Dr. Pearce, Milton’s grand style originates from the formalities of classical prose.
“Prosaic virtues of clarity, order, strict definition, working from line to line, adjusting clause to
clause, word to word, are the real source of that classic “finish” a clear hardness of texture which
everywhere distinguishes the Miltonic line from any other.”

Grand style of “Paradise Lost”

The greatest work of Milton is Paradise Lost, and when we speak of the style of Milton, we
usually think of the majestic style of this great epic. When Wordsworth wrote: “Thou hadst a
voice whose sound was like the sea, “he had in his mind the grand style of Paradise Lost. When
Tennyson spoke of Milton as being the “God-gifted organ-voice of England,” he was no doubt
referring to the majestic blank verse of Paradise Lost.

Miltonic style of “Paradise Lost”

The style of the epic is always great. On the whole, it is greatest in the whole range of English
poetry. Fullness of sound, weight of march, compactness of finish, fitness of words to things,
fitness of pauses to thought, a strong grasp of the main idea while other ideas play around it,
equality of power over vast spaces of imagination, sustained splendour when he soars.

With plume so strong, so equal and so soft, majesty in the conduct of thought, and a music in
the majesty which fills it with solemn beauty belong one and all to the style; and it gains its
highest influence on us, and fulfills the ultimate need of a grand style in being the easy and
necessary expression of the very character and nature of man. It reveals Milton, as much,
sometimes more than his thought.” (Stopford A. Brooke).

Milton’s style Paradise Lost is rich and full of splendour; it is replete with numerous deliberate
devices that heighten dignity and govern imaginative and emotional response. Milton’s style is
not totally artificial. Inspite of the numerous passages that are thickly inlaid with allusions and
references, inspite of the elevated and heightened character of its style, the basic structure has
an element of plainness. “Plain familiar words, in their natural order, form the bedrock of his
style.”

Style in Conformity with Theme

The theme of Paradise Lost is stupendous, “The horizon of Paradise Lost is not narrower than all
space; its chronology not shorter than eternity; the globe of our earth becomes a mere spot in
the physical universe, and that universe itself a drop suspended in the infinite empyrean”
(Pattison). Its characters are God and His creatures, and it concerns itself with the fortunes of the
whole human race. Such a great theme required a great style for adequate presentation.

The style of Paradise Lost fully sees to the height of the theme. It is the solitary instance of
sustained grandeur in English poetry (though Professor Saintsbury has instances of grand style in
Shakespeare). It rises to a lofty place by virtue of the poet’s imaginative power, passionate
emotion and moral earnestness. Everything in Paradise Lost is conceived in a mighty way. When
the poet describes Satan, he calls up the picture of the huge Leviathan, whom, “the pilot of
some night-foundered skiff” deemed “some island”. The shield of Satan is

Like the moon, whose orb,

Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views

At evening from the top Fesole

The fallen angels floating on the lake of Hell

Lay entranced

Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks:

In Vallombrosa

When they spring upon the wing, they look like a cloud of locusts:

As when the potent rod

Of Amram’s son, in Egypt‘s evil day

Waved round the coast, up-called a pitchy cloud

Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind.

………………………………

So numberless were those bad angels seen

Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell.

The solemn and sonorous quality of the verse-music brings out in an abundant measure the
grandeur of the style in Paradise Lost. There is a cunning variety in the rhythm of his verses,
secured by a skilful variation of his pauses, a freedom of movement and an apt use of allusion
with the right type of long and short syllables.

The Poet’s Imagination

The poet’s imagination does not submit to any limitation of space and time; the whole history of
the human race and the geography of the entire globe are brought within its compass. When the
poet seeks to convey the idea of the vastness of the multitude of the fallen angels his
imagination goes back to the past, and passes over the entire continent of Europe:

A multitude like which the populous North

Poured never from her frozen loins to pass

Rhene or the Danaw when her barbarous sons

Came like a deluge on the South and spread

Beneath Gibraltor the Lybian sands.

Satan’s throne in Pandemonium calls up the vision of the whole of “gorgeous East.”

High on a throne of royal state, which far

Outshone the wealth of Onnus and of Ind,

Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand

Showers on her kings barbatic pearl and gold

Satan exalted sat.

“No one,” says Raleigh, “has known so well how to portray in a few strokes effects of multitude
and vastness.” The warrior host of Hell is thus described:

He spoke; and to confirm his words, outflow

Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs

Of mighty Cherubim; the sudden blaze

Far round illumined Hell.

The ruin and prostration of the rebel angels is made vivid in two lines:

Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood

with scattered arms and ensigns.

In his descriptions, Milton studies “large decorum and majesty.” He is never tempted into detail,
and never loses the whole in the part. This is the description of chaos, and as the king of Glory,
from the verge of his heavenly domain beholds it:

On Heavenly ground they stood, and from the shore

They viewed the vast immeasurable Abyss,

Outrageous as a sea, dark wasteful wild

Up from the bottom turned by furious winds

And surging waves, as mountains to assault

Heaven’s height, and with the centre mix the pole.

There is no minute detail to interfere with the view of the whole.

Milton often uses abstract terms for concrete realities, and by so doing he achieves a wonderful
majesty. He “describes the concrete, the specific, the individual, using general and abstract
terms for the sake of the dignity and scope that they lend.” The wind instrument blown by the
heralds in Hell is called “the sounding alchemy.” Death is called “the grisly terror.”

Milton’s avoidance of familiar realistic details was necessitated by his lofty theme, which
precluded everything having a mean or vulgar association. He deliberately creates an effect of
vagueness where concrete details would be out of place. This vagueness is created by such
phrases as “the vast abrupt”, “the palpable obscure”, “the void immense”, the “wasteful deep”,
“where by the use of an adjective in place of a noun, the danger of a definite and inadequate
conception is avoided.” (This practice of Milton, necessary in his great epic, was abused by the
poets in the eighteenth century, and led to artificial poetic diction).

A minor device which Milton again uses effectively is to add the second adjective to an already
modified noun. He speaks of the “upright heart and pure”, “a sad task and hard,” Here Milton is
following the common usage in the Italian poetry of Dante and Petrarch.

Suggestive and Compact

“Of all English styles,” says Raleigh, “Milton’s is best entitled to the name of classic.” In Milton’s
style we have the compactness, force and reserve and the unity of emotional impression, which
are the distinctive characteristics of the true classical style. Milton was a conscientious artist; he
weighed every word he used for its meaning, weight and sound. “He taxes every line to its fullest
capacity, and wring the last drop of value from each word. ” “His poetry,” says Macaulay, “acts
like an incantation”. Its merit lies less in its obvious meaning than in its occult power. There
would seem at first sight to be no more in his words than in other words. But they are words of
enchantment. No sooner are they pronounced than the past is present and the distant near.
Change the structure of the sentence, substitute a synonym for another and the whole effect is
destroyed. “Milton is often not satisfied with one meaning from a word, but will make it do
double duty. Words derived from Latin served this double purpose. To the ordinary reader they
convey one meaning and to the scholar they suggest another. This gives a suggestive power to
Milton’s language. “The most striking characteristic of the poetry of Milton is the extreme
remoteness of the associations by which it acts on the reader. It effect is produced, not so much
by what it expresses, as by what it suggests, not so much by the ideas which it directly conveys
by other ideas which are connected with them. He electrifies the mind through conductors… The
works of Milton cannot be comprehend or enjoyed unless the mind of the reader cooperates
with that of the writer. He does not paint a finished picture, or play for a mere passive listener.
He sketches and leaves other to fill up the outline. He strikes the key-note and expects his
hearers to make out the melody.” (Macaulay).

Allusiveness

An essential quality of Milton’s poetic style is its allusiveness. He, no doubt pressed to the
service of his poetry all that he observed in life and nature; but his vision was often coloured by
his knowledge. The whole treasury of poetry, ancient and modern, and the whole storehouse of
learning were at his command; and he seemed to assume that they were also at the command
of his readers and so he loaded every rift of his verse with myth and legend, historical, literary,
and scientific fact. Classical and Biblical allusions are most abundant, and are woven into the
very texture of his language. Hence Pattison remarks: “The appreciation of Milton is the last
reward of consummate scholarship. “His scholarly habit of mind is illustrated in the comparison
of the army of Satan to various military assemblage mentioned, in legend and history at the
close of Book I of Paradise Lost

…………for never since created man

Met such embodied force, as named with these

Epic Similes

A striking feature of Milton’s style in Paradise Lost is his use of epic similes. These go far beyond
the limits of comparison, and are expanded to draw complete pictures. Satan’s huge bulk is
compared to the huge Leviathan, who may be mistaken for an island:

Him, haply slumbering on the Norway foam

The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff.

Milton uses these expanded similes to ennoble his narrative rather than merely to illustrate it.

By all these devices and many more, “he attained to a finished style of perhaps a more
consistent and unflagging elevation than is to be found elsewhere in literature… No poet, since
Milton’s day has recaptured the solemnity and beauty of the large utterance of Gabriel or Belial
or Satan” (Raleigh). In the epic similes the use of alliteration produces strange musical effects.

Did Milton “Corrupt our Language”?

Dr. Johnson called attention to the peculiarity of Miltonic diction saying that it is so far removed
from common use that an unlearned reader when he first opens the book, finds himself
surprised by a new language “Our language”. Addison had said before, “sunk under him.”
Milton’s is a personal style, which T.S. Eliot points out, is “not based upon common speech or
common prose, or direct communication of meaning. It violates the accepted rules of English
grammar and syntax, so much so that Dr. Johnson said that he “wrote no language”. Milton had a
preference for the unusual and recondite in vocabulary and construction, which led him to
archaism, on the one hand, and to the substitution of foreign idiom particularly Latin, for English
idiom, on the other. We have frequent uses of ablative absolute with preposition, irregular
pronouns, ellipses, constructions changed by changes of thought, interchange of parts of speech,
transposition and inventions and unusual compound epithets similar to those in Homer. We also
find sentences with gnarled and involved structure, inversions of the natural order of words and
phrases and grammatical superfluities. These devices impart a classical tone of Milton’s style but
at the same time they are out-landish and inconsistent with the normal use of English language.

In general, Milton’s style may be described as almost uniquely literary and intellectual. But,
fraught as it is with learning and bookish phrase, and elaborate as it is in construction and alien
in vocabulary, it achieves uniform effect of dignity and becomes a means for expressing the
elevated and intensely passionate personality of its author.

Modern literary critics like Ezra Pound, Herbert Read, Middleton Murry, F.R. Leavis and above all
T.S. Eliot have condemned Milton’s style for the following reasons:

(i) Apart from its intrinsic difficulties, it is harmful in its extrinsic effects.

(ii) Modern critics point out the artificiality of the inflated and Latinised diction, idiom and
syntactical structure of Milton’s style.

(iii) The fabrication of heavy, inflexible and unnantural speech rhythms.

(iv) The reliance on pompous and meaningless sound.

(v) The baneful influence of his verse, strangled the metaphysical style.

However, there are many critics who defend Milton against these charges. C.S. Lewis maintains
that the essential requirement of an epic style is continuity. Milton produces this stylistic
continuity and in order to do this the idiom and rhythm of normal speech have to be altered.
Also that a ritualistic and incantatory effect is inevitable in the best of epic verse. Moreover,
Milton chose blank verse as the medium of his expression, one hitherto unused in the epic field.

According to Prof. Bush, Milton’s style is ideally suited to the sustained narrative of the epic
action. An epic style is narrative, didactic, rhetorical and continuously elevated and directly
exemplary. It cannot become colloquial, witty or intimate without ceasing to be epic. It cannot
have flexible rhythms nor can it modulate the tones without causing disharmony.

All the characteristics of Milton’s style may be found in English literature before Milton, but in
Milton they become habitual features of style. Spenser, for instance, uses archaisms much more
persistently than Milton. The use of the Latinisms was common enough in English prose in the
seventeenth century. But no other poet before Milton has resorted to Latinised diction as a
means of removing his speech from the sphere of daily life, and he, therefore, employed style,
corresponding to the dignity of his subject. And this style, which has been called ‘grand style’,
was something personal to Milton, with his classical training and vast intellectual equipment.
This style was quite suitable for Milton, dealing with a subject ‘unattempted in prose and rhyme’,
but when the pseudo-classical poets of the eighteenth century employed the devices of Miltonic
style, the result was the artificial poetic diction, which was vehemently condemned by
Wordsworth.

Mathew Arnold remarked: “Milton, of all our English race, is by his diction and rhythm the one
artist of the highest rank in the great style whom we have; this I take as requiring no discussion
this I take as certain.”

------------------------------------------------------

Milton's Paradise Lost- A Justification of God

John Milton’s Paradise Lost has long been heralded by literary critics as one of the most
influential works written in the early modern era. The poem brings out the story of the Fall of
Man by injecting a sample of what Satan’s role truly entailed, and also by expanding on life in the
Garden, both before and after the fall. Milton writes this not only as a story, but as a theodicy,
trying to justify God’s ways to man. Two articles in The Cambridge Companion to Miltonexamine
the methods which he uses to do so; John Carey’s article “Milton’s Satan” examines Satan’s role,
while Dennis Danielson’s article “The Fall of Man and Milton’s Theodicy” discusses the actual
nature of the Fall of Man.

Milton’s portrayal of Satan has been examined by many scholars and literary critics alike as one
of the most vivid and deep characters in literature. Many of these find the complexity of his very
nature astounding, from his attitude towards his fall from heaven to his awe at his first
encounter with man. John Carey, in his article “Milton’s Satan,” shows how he agrees with this.
“The power to entangle and excite readers is an observable feature of Satan’s figure” (Carey
133). Carey also expresses other views on Milton’s portrayal of Satan, although some seem to be
in error. He views Satan, at least as he is portrayed in Paradise Lost, as the direct embodiment of
evil. He asserts that the true Satan that Milton is trying to portray is purely evil, with no
redeeming quality and an irrevocably skewed sense of reality. “Milton’s effort to encapsulate evil
in Satan was not successful” (132). If Satan were in fact pure evil, would the blame then rest on
God for creating evil itself? Milton addresses this question in two ways—first by pointing out
that Satan was not a fallen being in the beginning but in fact a powerful, beautiful archangel, and
secondly by asserting that, even though God did allow evil to enter the world, he did so to give
man, and indeed angels as well, free will through a choice.

Another point that Carey makes is that Satan is an unrealistic portrayal; he asserts that he does
not act with the rationality of a being of his stature. “The most obvious sense in which Satan is
trapped within an alien fiction is that the fiction requires him, though an archangelically rational
creature, to take up arms against a God who is axiomatically omnipotent” (135). He makes the
claim that Milton’s portrayal of Satan could not be accurate. If this is so, then Satan’s role in
justifying God loses its credibility, and therefore so does God. Satan knows that God is totally
omnipotent, and therefore it is impossible to win against Him. Because of this, Carey suggests
that his acts of rebellion are not in character with the being that Satan is portrayed as. However,
when one examines the text closely, he can see that, prior to his fall, Satan had no true
knowledge of God’s power, and therefore guessed wrongly that he could defeat Him. “… And till
then who knew / The force of those dire arms?” (Milton I.93-94). Further, Milton later asserts
that there is no redemption for Satan or his angels. “The first sort [Satan and his angels] by their
own suggestion fell, / Self-tempted, self-depraved: Man falls deceived / By the other first. Man
therefore shall find grace, / the other none” (III.129-132). Satan has nothing to lose. Therefore
his actions have no negative consequences for him, since his punishment cannot be worsened,
seeing as he will be eternally separated from God. Because of this, his actions are perfectly
logical, seeing as there is nothing to lose, and nothing to gain except the feeding of his own
depravity, which he plans to do by opposing God in any way that he can. This is the reason why
Satan targets man, God’s newest and most beloved creation—to spite God and oppose Him in
any way that he can.

Another scholar of Paradise Lost, Dennis Danielson, in his article “The Fall of Man and Milton’s
Theodicy,” recognizes the poem as just that—an apologetic representation of God’s inherent
goodness. One problem which Milton addresses, the existence of evil itself, Danielson believes is
the most critical argument that is brought up. “The so-called theological problem of evil—the
problem that a theodicy in some degree sets out to solve—can itself be seen as a problem
concerning how to balance three fundamental propositions to which virtually all Christians, and
perhaps others, assent” (Danielson 113). This goes back to the basic question which asks, “Why
do bad things happen?” Bad things happen because the world is fallen and they are
consequences for evil. How then can God be justified by having allowed evil into the world in the
first place, and thus allowing all of our suffering? This is why Milton chooses to focus his
theodicy on the narrative of the Fall of Man, essentially the first human transgression of divine
command.

Milton goes back to the beginning to search for the answers to the existence of evil, back to its
very introduction into our world. The scene is set up: Man living in paradise, in perfect harmony
with the world and nature, and a choice is laid before him—to obey God or to disobey. It was
truly that simple. “A vital component of Milton’s theodicy is the ‘Free Will Defense’, the model or
argument according to which God, for reasons consistent with his wisdom and goodness,
created angels and human beings with freedom either to obey or disobey his commands” (117).
The availability to choose God is what made man’s relationship with God real, what made it
worthwhile in the first place. “I formed them free, and free they must remain” (Milton III.124).
The only way for God to create man truly free was to give him a choice, which by definition
forced man to choose between God and his own selfish nature. Evil is a direct product of God’s
allowing us free will.

Was then the Fall of Man inevitable? If this choice was always there and would have remained
for eternity, then how could man hope to perpetually choose God, especially if there was no
knowledge of evil? In Paradise Lost, Milton shows God warning Adam and Eve several times of
the danger that Satan posed to them. Adam tells Eve at one point, “…For thou know’st / what
hath been warned us, what malicious foe / Envying our happiness, and of his own / Despairing,
seeks to work us woe and shame / by sly assault” (IX.152-156). They knew exactly what danger
there was with Satan, and of the consequences of their choice.

God is omniscient; He knows everything that has happened and will ever happen. Some argue
that, because He knew what would happen, that there is no possibility that it would not happen,
and so it was in fact, inevitable, but they forget to factor in the fact that God is not limited by
time as we are. Think of it this way: When we look at a timeline, we look at it and follow it along
the line, so that events can only come in order that they appear on that line—our time
limitation. God sees time as if the timeline were rotated 90 degrees, so that when He passes it
left to right, all of the events are seen at the same time. In other words, He sees everything as it
happens as though they were happening at the same time. Just because He knows something is
going to happen does not mean that He has taken away our free will. He simply sees what we
choose today as we choose it at the same time that He saw Adam and Eve take that first bite. We
still make the choice—God just knows what that choice will be.
Paradise Lost digs deep into the episode of the Fall of Man to justify our current state with God,
and Milton does a wonderful job of tackling some of the most difficult questions that hinder that
vindication. He uses even characters like Satan to show credibility to his claims about God and
His nature, so that we can be sure that the God we serve is supremely just. The most amazing
part about the whole narrative, however, is not that he shows that God is justified, but where
Milton emphasizes that He will also extend grace, by alluding to the sacrifice that Jesus made on
the cross 2000 years ago. The Fall of Man is followed up by a raising-up of sorts; man is
redeemed through the love of his Creator. This is the true beauty of God which Milton was
extremely purposeful about showing the light at the end of this tunnel. “…what in me is dark /
Illuminate, what is low raise and support; / That to the height of this great argument / I may
assert eternal providence, / And justify the ways of God to men” (I.31-35).

--------------------------------------------

Adam and Eve

BY BETH SIMS

Before the Fall, Adam and Eve coexist harmoniously in Eden, almost as one flesh and spirit, but
they become more distinct from each other throughout the course of Paradise Lost. Eve is
alienated from Adam and also defined by experiences she has on her own. She has a dream
which she can only share with Adam by telling him about it, and then, alone, she encounters
Satan and tastes the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. Eve shares the fruit with Adam, but the
whole experience is different; the seduction by Satan is not felt, but related second-hand. Adam
and Eve are created by the same God and have nature in common, but in some ways nurture
separates them. After the fall, their love turns to blame. However, in realizing and repenting of
their sin, they learn of forgiveness, and are reunited in a relationship of mutual support in the
face of hardship, wending their solitary way out of Eden hand in hand.

Adam

Adam is the first man and the father of mankind. He prefigures the human race, representing the
perfect male form. Adam is all fathers, sons and brothers rolled into one. Formed in the image of
God, he is God-like, but not a God. Neither is he flawless as he is a kind of replica, inferior to his
maker. Adam is created with free will and so has to make a choice whether to be obedient to
God and refuse the apple, or to follow Eve. His fond (which also means foolish) love for Eve is his
downfall. Adam is superior to Eve - he was created in the image of God, she in the image of man,
and Adam is even called her 'author' - but he does not initially assert his authority. Adam is too
trusting of Eve, taking the fruit she offers to him, and too devoted, choosing to share her fate
against the command of God.

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Eve

Eve embodies every mother, daughter and sister. Other women are compared to her, like Mary,
mother of Jesus, who is described as a 'second Eve' (X.183). She is beautiful and slender, a fair
creature with golden hair.

Milton's Eve is Adam's counterpart and other half but she is crucially not Adam's equal. This
imbalance between the couple, with Eve as the more submissive and subordinate of the two, is
evident in Paradise Lost both before and after the Fall, before Eve does anything wrong. This is in
contrast to the story in Genesis in which it is only after the Fall that Eve seems second-rate in
relation to Adam.

Eve is blamed for the Fall because she is tempted by Satan to taste the fruit from the Tree of
Knowledge. She is tricked, but it is, at least in part, her own fault; she wanted to be tested, to
prove herself, and so put herself in harms way, and, once the idea is suggested by the serpent,
she persuades herself and then Adam to eat the fruit. She is portrayed as innocent, making a
childish mistake in her inexperience in dealing with falsehood, but at the same time she is
characterized as foolish in more adult ways, as both sexualized and vain. When she is first
introduced to Adam she is narcissistically distracted by the sight of her own reflection in a pool
of water. This is a symptom of Eve's susceptibility to be lead astray and demonstrates that some
of her main failings, being inclined to distraction and following her desires, are present in Eve
before as well as after the Fall. It is her combination of naivety, greed and self-importance which
make Satan's suggestion so successful.

This negative view could be explained by the fact that Milton was writing from a post-lapsarian
(i.e. post-Fall) perspective. The view of women and their sexuality was tainted by the Fall, and
centuries of blame traditionally placed at Eve's feet. It is impossible to imagine Milton treating
Eve in a way that is not partly misogynistic because he is writing a story which is fundamentally
anti-female. However, Raphael calls Eve, 'mother of mankind' (V.388), alluding to the idea of felix
culpa or 'Fortunate Fall'. Eve may bring about the Fall of Man, but this in turn brings about the
coming of Christ.

----------------------------------

Adam

Adam is a strong, intelligent, and rational character possessed of a remarkable relationship with
God. In fact, before the fall, he is as perfect as a human being can be. He has an enormous
capacity for reason, and can understand the most sophisticated ideas instantly. He can converse
with Raphael as a near-equal, and understand Raphael’s stories readily. But after the fall, his
conversation with Michael during his visions is significantly one-sided. Also, his self-doubt and
anger after the fall demonstrate his new ability to indulge in rash and irrational attitudes. As a
result of the fall, he loses his pure reason and intellect.

Adam’s greatest weakness is his love for Eve. He falls in love with her immediately upon seeing
her, and confides to Raphael that his attraction to her is almost overwhelming. Though Raphael
warns him to keep his affections in check, Adam is powerless to prevent his love from
overwhelming his reason. After Eve eats from the Tree of Knowledge, he quickly does the same,
realizing that if she is doomed, he must follow her into doom as well if he wants to avoid losing
her. Eve has become his companion for life, and he is unwilling to part with her even if that
means disobeying God.

Adam’s curiosity and hunger for knowledge is another weakness. The questions he asks of
Raphael about creation and the universe may suggest a growing temptation to eat from the Tree
of Knowledge. But like his physical attraction to Eve, Adam is able to partly avoid this temptation.
It is only through Eve that his temptations become unavoidable.

Eve

Created to be Adam’s mate, Eve is inferior to Adam, but only slightly. She surpasses Adam only in
her beauty. She falls in love with her own image when she sees her reflection in a body of water.
Ironically, her greatest asset produces her most serious weakness, vanity. After Satan
compliments her on her beauty and godliness, he easily persuades her to eat from the Tree of
Knowledge.

Aside from her beauty, Eve’s intelligence and spiritual purity are constantly tested. She is not
unintelligent, but she is not ambitious to learn, content to be guided by Adam as God intended.
As a result, she does not become more intelligent or learned as the story progresses, though she
does attain the beginning of wisdom by the end of the poem. Her lack of learning is partly due to
her absence for most of Raphael’s discussions with Adam in Books V, VI, and VII, and she also
does not see the visions Michael shows Adam in Books XI and XII. Her absence from these
important exchanges shows that she feels it is not her place to seek knowledge independently;
she wants to hear Raphael’s stories through Adam later. The one instance in which she deviates
from her passive role, telling Adam to trust her on her own and then seizing the fruit of the Tree
of Knowledge, is disastrous.

Eve’s strengths are her capacity for love, emotion, and forebearance. She persuades Adam to
stay with her after the fall, and Adam in turn dissuades her from committing suicide, as they
begin to work together as a powerful unit. Eve complements Adam’s strengths and corrects his
weaknesses. Thus, Milton does not denigrate all women through his depiction of Eve. Rather he
explores the role of women in his society and the positive and important role he felt they could
offer in the divine union of marriage.

The two were treated exactly as God had told them they'd be treated "in the begining." They
were his children, they'd been given one rule..... they broke his rule, and he exacted punishment.

Milton opens Paradise Lost by formally declaring his poem’s subject: humankind’s first act of
disobedience toward God, and the consequences that followed from it. The act is Adam and
Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, as told in Genesis, the first book of
the Bible. In the first line, Milton refers to the outcome of Adam and Eve’s sin as the “fruit” of
the forbidden tree, punning on the actual apple and the figurative fruits of their actions. Milton
asserts that this original sin brought death to human beings for the first time, causing us to lose
our home in paradise until Jesus comes to restore humankind to its former position of purity.

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Milton's Satan in Paradise Lost—Hero or Anti-Hero

One of the most enigmatic and elusive figure in English Literature is Milton’s Satan in Paradise
Lost. Milton has magnified arch-enemy of God and Man to heroic proportions. Though he is evil
incarnate, he is shown to be embodiment of obdurate pride and unconquerable will. Milton’s
Satan is an unsurpassable leader albeit a defeated military figure, whom his legions would follow
even unto the gates of hell. He is readily comparable to the heroes of classical epics—he is a
variant of Achilles, who equates honour with own status and who has ability to rally his troops
by the magic of his eloquent speeches.

Milton’s Satan is such an emotionally complex character that we can never completely
understand him. He is, by common consent, one of the greatest artistic creations ever portrayed
in literature. There has been great controversy on the ambiguity of this character. Yet it is true
that his character engages reader’s attention and excites his admiration too. Though the action
of poem turns round Man’s first disobedience, but the character that gives epic qualities to the
poem is that of Satan. In the words of Addison:

“He is the most heroic subject ever chosen for a poem, and the execution is perfect as the design
is lofty.”

In fact the most appropriate observation about Milton’s Satan was put forward by William Blake:
“The reason, Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels and God and at liberty when of
Devils and Hell, is because he was a true poet and of the Devil’s party without knowing it.”

In fact, all the poetic powers of Milton are shown in delineation the arch-enemy of God and
humanity. Milton has endowed him the tragic grandeur of classical heroes. Some of the classical
heroic qualities of Milton’s Satan are his physical might, his injured pride; his indomitable will, his
leadership, and his appeal to human nature.

Hazlitt remarks:

“Whatever the figure of Satan is introduced, whatever he walks or flies rising aloft incumbent on
the dusky air, it is illustrated with the most appropriate image,”

Milton’s first description of Satan is intended to impress us with his super-human dimensions. He
is of gigantic appearance as in the words of Milton, “In bulk as huge/As whom the fables name of
monstrous size.” He is compared to the monstrous size of mythical Titans, or Briareos or
Typhoon or that sea-beast Leviathan, “…which God of all his works/Created hugest that swim
the ocean-stream.” Then, Satan’s shield is compared to the moon as seen by Galileo through his
telescope and his spear is compared to the tallest tree on the hills of Norway.

One the towering aspect of Satan’s character is his “obdurate pride” and “study of revenge”. Self
exaltation is the motive of his conduct. He suffers from a sense of “injured merit”. He vaunts
aloud his tragic hubris; overweening self-confidence and his superior foresight. Even when he
sees destructive gloom all around him, his pride accompanies him:

“Round he throws his baleful eyes

That witnessed huge affliction and dismay

Mixed with obdurate pride and steadfast hate.”

He reveals his intellectual pride in his address to Hell:

“And thou profoundest Hell,

Receive thy new possessor, one who brings

A mind not be changed by place or time.”

S.T. Coleridge very aptly remarks:

“The character of Satan is pride and sensual in indulgence, finding in self sole of motive action…
But around this character (Milton) has thrown a singularity of daring, a grandeur of sufferance
and a ruined splendor.”

Another key aspect of Satan’s personality is his outstanding courage and indomitable will. He,
though, may be wrong-headed but has extraordinary courageous personality. Heaven is lost to
him and his legions forever but he does not lose heart and inspires his comrades with new zeal:

“What though the field be lost?

All is not lost—the unconquerable will

And study of revenge and immortal hate.”

Milton’s Satan is endowed with the unique qualities of a great leader. He has courage,
resourcefulness and unyielding spirit. He knows how to command and inspire his followers in the
times of distress. As a leader Satan has great anxiety for his followers, feels sorry for their
miserable condition, appreciates their loyalty and sheds tears of sympathy for them. He stirs his
followers by bombastic and rhetorical language:

“Peace is despaired

For who can think submission.”

...

“Princes, Potentates

Warriors, the flower of Heaven, once yours now lost.”

“Awake, Arise or be forever fallen.”

His dictum is, “Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven.” As a result of his fiery speeches,
millions of rebel angels drew their swords and “Highly they raged/Against the Highest.”

Regardless of the fact that millions of rebel angels Satan has at his command, however, such
faithfulness does not diminish his resentment over his defeat in Heaven, “For the thought/Both
of lost happiness and lasting pain/Torments him.” He makes conscious attempts to preserve his
calm demeanour for the sake of his followers. While he plots his revenge against God, Satan
struggles from an inner turmoil that he hides from his legions. He cannot allow his feelings of
regret to show to his followers because this kind of uncertainty would be interpreted as
weakness. To him weakness is a crime:

“Fallen Cherub, to be weak is miserable

Doing or suffering.”

Finally, Milton plays to human nature in his description of Satan and rebel angels. The angels are
represented as rebels because of their strong allegiance to dark prince. Both Satan and angels
exhibit very human traits and succumb to the common temptations and sins. That is why
audience often catch a glimpse of themselves in portrayal of these ethereal figures.
From the above discussion, it becomes clear that the character of Satan is a blend of noble and
ignoble, the exalted and the mean, the high or the low; and therefore it becomes extremely
difficult to declare him a hero or a villain.

The 19th century Romantics considered Satan as the chief figure of Paradise Lost as Romanticism
envisages that a hero should have a towering personality and capable of exercising his influence
over others. He should be eloquent speaker and advocate of freedom. Shelley, for example,
considered, “Milton’s Devil as a moral being far superior to his God.”

According to classical school of thought a hero should be a noble person. He should neither be
perfectly virtuous nor consummate villain. Hence we cannot treat Satan as hero of Paradise Lost
as he is essentially a wicked character and a personification of evil. He may have some heroic
qualities but he cannot be a hero but an anti-hero; for in the end he himself realizes his
impotence. As the poem proceeds, the towering figure of Satan degenerates; he loses his
foothold and reclaims his common reputation—of deceitfulness.

We can Sum up above discussion in the words of C.S. Lewis: “From hero to general, from general
to politician, from politician to secret-service agent and thence to a…toad, and finally to a snake
—such is the progress of Satan.”