Portrayals of Satan-Hero or Villain
Zwetsloot 1.
Bennett Zwetsloot
British lit.
Anne Bryan
10/31
Portrayals of Satan - Hero or Villain?
In “Paradise Lost” one of the main characters, who is normally portrayed in biblical, mythical and in popular culture to be a evil and antagonistic figure; in this book is portrayed as a identifiable character and God as wrathful and distant. This makes Satan even more appealing and heroic. Why is this? Well, in the book Satan is portrayed as a rebel against a tyrant by the name of God. Everything is fine in heaven until prideful Satan challenges God and is thrown out of heaven. From that point on, Satan and his demons make several plans to regain entry into heaven, but fail. So, they decide to turn to the world, knowing that man is weak and will be much easier to conquer than God and his angels. Satan is the only character with a definable goal: to harm God by making man rebellious and sinful. He is also made out to be the only angel that would stand up to God and rebel; and led other angels into the rebellion and consequently cast into hell. There he easily took control over it and declares:
“Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n...”
As apparent as this statement is, so is the pride of Satan. He has some regretful thoughts about what he did, but his pride is too great to apologize to God. He has feelings like us, a level of pride that is over the top but is still similar to ours, remorse, anger, frustration with leaders; all of this is very relate-able and makes him a hero or at least a character worth pity. Throw in a God that is boring, distant and merciless and it magnifies my case that Satan is the hero quite a bit. Why Milton did this I think was to remind himself and people of what we can all be if we lost God and pushed him away. I perceive that Milton uses Satan in this book to remind him of this.
Bennett Zwetsloot
British lit.
Anne Bryan
10/31
Portrayals of Satan - Hero or Villain?
In “Paradise Lost” one of the main characters, who is normally portrayed in biblical, mythical and in popular culture to be a evil and antagonistic figure; in this book is portrayed as a identifiable character and God as wrathful and distant. This makes Satan even more appealing and heroic. Why is this? Well, in the book Satan is portrayed as a rebel against a tyrant by the name of God. Everything is fine in heaven until prideful Satan challenges God and is thrown out of heaven. From that point on, Satan and his demons make several plans to regain entry into heaven, but fail. So, they decide to turn to the world, knowing that man is weak and will be much easier to conquer than God and his angels. Satan is the only character with a definable goal: to harm God by making man rebellious and sinful. He is also made out to be the only angel that would stand up to God and rebel; and led other angels into the rebellion and consequently cast into hell. There he easily took control over it and declares:
“Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n...”
As apparent as this statement is, so is the pride of Satan. He has some regretful thoughts about what he did, but his pride is too great to apologize to God. He has feelings like us, a level of pride that is over the top but is still similar to ours, remorse, anger, frustration with leaders; all of this is very relate-able and makes him a hero or at least a character worth pity. Throw in a God that is boring, distant and merciless and it magnifies my case that Satan is the hero quite a bit. Why Milton did this I think was to remind himself and people of what we can all be if we lost God and pushed him away. I perceive that Milton uses Satan in this book to remind him of this.