In his speech in John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Satan motivates and rallies the other fallen angels against God, not once wavering in his hatred for all that is good. Though he consistently acknowledges his minions - and himself - as “fall’n” and “evil,” his grandeur, eloquence, and word choice causes us to question whether or not he truly is an antagonist in Book One. From what (and how) he recounts the past, perhaps he was justified in his actions, and it was God who was irrational and “impetuous.”
True, even the thought of questioning whether the devil is really evil seems radical and perverted; however, it is Milton who portrays Satan as a charismatic and persuasive leader as opposed to a manic villain. Much like Hitler (and excuse the obvious reference), Satan thoroughly believes that he is justified and that he must do everything in his power to fight to undermine the enemy, who in this case, is God. Satan eloquently recounts the aftermath of the fallen angels’ banishment: “the sulp’rous hail shot after us in storm o’erblown . . . and the thunder, winged with red lightning and impetuous rage” (Book 1, 171-175). At this point, the distinction between God’s and Satan’s powers start to blur. It seems natural that Satan could be the furious, raging perpetrator, shooting thunder and red lightning and promoting “the glimmering of livid flames” (Book 1, 182). However, through prior knowledge, we know that though God is supposed to be an all-powerful, supernatural being and is usually seen as “good,” He also has the ability to instill fear in humans and to punish the bad (ex. the Angel of Death, Sodom and Gomorrah). From this perspective, God could have easily been the main target of Satan’s reference. This, in turn, could develop within us growing senses of pity for the fallen angels.
Satan’s strategy to manipulate us into pitying the fallen angels is effective. He gives all these examples of the “bad” things God has done to them, especially during their banishment, so it would be natural to side with the “victim” aspect of the story. Many of his phrases (ie. “seat of desolation,” “void of light”) also exude a sense of hopelessness and desperation, furthering our attachment to his words. However, we must still be careful. Satan is, after all, the devil. He is the best at manipulation and deceit, the superior of any Edmund or Iago Shakespeare could have created. Because of this, he becomes much more dangerous and unpredictable, continuing the question of whether Satan is or isn’t the conventional antagonist at this point of the book.
Epic's traditionally begin with accounts of the protagonist, so the fact that Milton begins with his focus on Satan presents, as you pointed out, a question as to whether Satan is truly the antagonist or the protagonist in this story. I agree that, like Hitler, Satan truly believes that he is justified in all that he does - but does that make him any less evil? His accounts do tempt the reader to feel pity for the devil and the fallen angels, but I saw it as a deceitful attempt - at the end of the day, Satan is bad, whether or not we feel bad for him.
ReplyDeleteReally interesting how you point of that it seems that Satan is the protagonist and he is persuasive enough to make us pity him. You give a really complete analysis when you remind us at the end that he is still the devil, who is the most supreme source of manipulation in the world. This makes me think, if evil is so widespread and inherent within all humans, does it deserve to be pitied and forgiven? Can we really live in a society in which we banish evil and refuse to acknowledge its existence?
ReplyDeleteI think that this is interesting, but I wonder how you'd argue against all of Satan's overt statements in which he admits that he himself is evil and god his good, like, "to do aught good never will be our task, but ever to do ill our sole delight" and "if then his providence out of our evil seek to bring forth good, our labor must be to pervert that end and out of good still to find means of evil." I don't think Hitler would have admitted outright that he was "evil" and the Jews were "good."
ReplyDelete