ipl-logo

A Heroic Satan In Milton's Paradise Lost

1091 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Satan's character in paradise lost a brief description of

A Heroic Satan (An Analysis of Satan’s Behavior and Heroic Elements in Milton’s, Paradise Lost) If Milton’s, Paradise Lost is an epic, then who is the epic hero? This is a question addressed by manys scholars throughout their engagement of study in this piece of literature. In all of life, it is most often taught that Satan is an evil figure, leading numerous beings astray from the path they should be taking. Religious priests and leaders preach of his terrible deeds and attempts to tempt humans throughout their lives. How then, could he possibly be considered a hero in this book if he is clearly mischievous and villainous in his evil doings? This is an ongoing debate still today. Many argue that Satan is not the hero of this great literary …show more content…

Feeney describes these basics by saying, “The Epic Hero...guarantees the unity of an epic poem and directs our scrutiny when we search for theme” (Feeney 137). It is described here that the hero of an epic contributes to the overall structure of the epic, and without this character, the epic would lack elements contributing to theme and many other literary devices. Satan is central to the overall development of Milton’s Paradise Lost as he is the driving force of action that is happening. He is the character who commits to go on an epic journey and, knowing that it will be difficult states, “Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light” (Milton 432-433). He commits himself to the long journey that it will take to travel back to Heaven and hopefully gain revenge against God, who outcast him down to the depths of Hell. Many critics downplay the simple fact that Satan decided to set out on this epic journey, and discussions often arise about “when readers are so conscious of Satan’s absurdities that they forget his cunning and his power” (Steadman 253). Readers are so caught up in their past teaching and beliefs that Satan is inherently evil that they forget all of the basic traits of an epic hero that he legitimately

Show More
Related
714 Words | 3 Pages

Epic Hero A deceased, decorated mythologist, author, and lecturer named Joseph John Campbell once said, "A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself." A hero doesn't always have special powers or magical capabilities like you may think. You could walk by a hero every day of your life and could never know. In the film, A Princess Bride, directed by Rob Reiner, an example of an epic hero is the protagonist, Westly because he put others before himself, went through the hell-like journey of a hero, and went through events that changed him forever. First, Westly is a hero because he put others before himself.

Read More
232 Words | 1 Pages

The passage opens up with a sentence in latin  “Vexilla regis prodeunt inferni” to put in evidence  that Dante is near to meet the prince of demons, Satan.   In the beginning,as the first verse discloses, Dante saw nothing in the darkness, except for the silhouette of what he thinks is a huge windmill from which a cold air blows. The wind produced by Lucifer is a parody of the breath of the Holy Spirit, which proceeds from the Father and the Son, who is ardent of charity while this air freezes the lake in which the lost souls are trapped. The vision of the monster is prepared with a wise expectation, coming only after Dante described the traitors immersed in the Cocito area, the Giudecca.

Read More
479 Words | 2 Pages

An epic hero is someone who achieves great things and is admired for bravery and humility. In the epic poem The Odyssey written by Homer, the main character, Odysseus, is an epic hero. The characteristics the Odysseus posses to make him an epic her includes bravery, cleverness and determination. Bravery is having courage through tough times.

Read More
841 Words | 4 Pages

OVERARCHING THEMES Though The Odyssey and Paradise Lost are penned during completely separate time periods–with a span of roughly nine centuries between the writing of each–the two works still share many similar themes and subject matters. Some are more vital components for the genre in general, necessary for a piece of literature to be considered an epic; others remain less conspicuous, though with just as great an impact on the overall story. Heroism and the Hero’s Journey: One of the most defining elements of an epic work is the presence of the Hero’s Journey, also known as the monomyth. Introduced by Joseph Campbell, the Hero’s Journey describes the typical narrative pattern that accompanies many forms of storytelling, most commonly and most easily seen in classical literature.

Read More
910 Words | 4 Pages

An epic hero is defined as “a brave and noble character in an epic poem, admired for great achievements or affected by grand events”. One well known epic hero is Odysseus from Homer’s epic poem, the Odyssey. Although he is well known and often used as an example of an epic hero, Odysseus is far from a perfect epic hero. He often fails to protect his crew from harm and returns home without them. Odysseus’ behavior and lack of control over himself and the crew result in the crew being put into difficult situations that could have been avoided had Odysseus controlled them better. In The Odyssey, Homer uses characters who must face various difficult challenges to expose Odysseus’ poor leadership skills, arrogance and inquisitiveness.

Read More
618 Words | 3 Pages

In Dante’s Inferno, Dante Alighieri's depiction of Satan at the bottom of hell reveals the theme that in Hell the punishment is always befitting of the due to the fact that the lower you go, the farther that person is from god. The picture of Satan satisfies the reader because he shows that he is the opposite of god and that he is full of evil. Lucifer is the demon in the circles of hell which he has three faces, and bat like wings in which he creates the cold wind where the sinners suffer. “The face in the middle was red, the color of anger. The face on the right was white blended with yellow, the color of impotence.

Read More
1847 Words | 8 Pages

Brandon McCormick Ms. Headley English 2013 8 December 2014 Allusions to Paradise Lost in Frankenstein In the nineteenth century gothic novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley uses numerous allusions within her novel that can easily be interpreted by the reader. These allusions make it easier for readers to understand the characters and compare their circumstances throughout the story. The most significant and most used was from John Milton’s epic Paradise Lost. It is known that, “…Paradise Lost stands alone in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries atop the literary hierarchy, and Milton’s epic is clearly rooted in the history of Puritanism and in the bourgeois ideal of the individual, the ‘concept of the person as a relatively autonomous self-contained

Read More
609 Words | 3 Pages

The devil is the supreme being of all evil. The villain, once called Lucifer and was the greatest of all angels l, rebelled against God over his jealousy of man. Turning evil and fighting the Almighty, he was destined to lose and thrown out of heaven, along with his army. In Dante’s Inferno, he resides in the deepest bowels of hell, where he tortures the three worst traitors in human history: Judas Iscariot, betrayer of Jesus of Nazareth, Cassius and Brutus, slayers Julius Caesar. In hell, contrapasso rules, and the appearances of the fallen angel Lucifer agrees with it.

Read More
463 Words | 2 Pages

His response to sin at this point is contrary to the Christian view; however, his responses evolve throughout the journey. In conclusion, Dante’s Inferno implicitly communicates to mankind through an allegorical presentation about an individual’s detour off a righteous path leading him into the depths of Hell. He gradually learns that God’s justice prevails, no one can escape eternal damnation unless they

Read More
1362 Words | 6 Pages

A hero was a figure in a literature who went beyond the human’s limitation. Among countless heroic literature that were published, The Epic of Gilgamesh was the first Western Literature that portrayed an epic hero. Since the epic was written between 2150 and 1400 BCE, Gilgamesh was the Western Literature’s first known hero. Although each hero had similar characteristics, each hero had different situations and personalities, which led to different heroic archetypes. Depending on each situation and journey, the hero had different roles in literature such as either an epic hero or a tragic hero.

Read More
1786 Words | 8 Pages

truly underline the entire novel and not only remain unanswered but become increasingly blurry for both the creature and his creator. Indeed, Baldick notes that as the two “refer themselves back to Paradise Lost – a guiding text with apparently fixed moral roles – they can no longer be sure whether they correspond to Adam, to God, or to Satan, or to

Read More
667 Words | 3 Pages

In Dante’s Inferno, he writes about his journey through hell for the purpose of recognizing his sins. He goes through this journey with Virgil, a voice of reason for Dante. Dante meets people through his journey of the many circles in the Inferno that lead him down into the center of hell, where Satan is. Satan is seen as being monster-like with three heads, representing a mocking of the Trinity and blowing his wings around the cocytus river. The final thing seen here is the fact that Dante’s description of Satan is a bit disappointing compared to the other descriptions he has written about the inferno.

Read More
1370 Words | 6 Pages

Within John Milton’s books “Paradise Lost” he creates Satan as the greater character over God. One who works through the individuals to create havoc. Satan is able to skew the minds of man to do what he wants with that individual and to counteract the word of God. A well known example was then Satan manipulated Eve to eat from the fruit of knowledge of Good and Evil. Though some critics may say that within Eve was Satan’s ultimate defeat others may say Satan’s evil soul is embedded in Adam and Eve, soon enough they are kicked from the palace of lush gardens, and everlasting life.

Read More
656 Words | 3 Pages

Stories contain many characters with some that stand out more than the others. A person is considered the protagonist depending on who is telling the story and what story is being told. The protagonist is the main character in a literary work. Whether good or evil, the audience sympathize with the protagonist and understands the motif of the character. Beowulf is a protagonist whose encounters with evil proves him to be a strong heroic warrior.

Read More
562 Words | 3 Pages

Beowulf is one of the oldest and most well-known epic stories throughout the world. The main character in this story is Beowulf himself. Beowulf is a true and epic hero, who ultimately loses his life while trying to protect the he cared for. Beowulf was a man of great strength, which allowed him to defeat monster and make him the hero that he was. He did not have this strength on his own accord, but was assisted with some divine intervention.

Read More

More about A Heroic Satan In Milton's Paradise Lost

Related Topics

Open Document