Paradise Lost Research Paper

Within John Milton’s Paradise Lost various attitudes of Satan were explicitly on display. These alarming attitudes of Satan as seen in Paradise Lost are pride, envy, and rebellion. The attitudes of Christ as seen in the Bible, are humility, contentment, and submission. These attitudes of Christ are specifically from the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Just as these attitudes are complete opposites, the results of their attitudes are also opposite. Jesus was sent to reign in heaven, while Satan was sent to suffer in hell.

First, in Paradise Lost, Satan is portrayed as having “obdurate pride.” Satan “[had] courage to never submit or yield.” He also believed that “to be weak is to be miserable.” Reaching an even crazier extreme, he believed that “it is better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven. These are just three of the many ridiculous examples of Satan’s prideful attitude which were described in Paradise Lost.

In contrast, Jesus was full of humility no matter where he went or who he was with. Jesus was so humble that in Matthew 20:28 he stated, “the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve.” From the beginning of Jesus’ life he was so incredibly humble, that he was born where animals live and eat. In Luke 2:7, it states that Jesus, “was born in a manger.” One of the most humble things

One of Jesus’ first demonstrations of submission was in Matthew 26:42, where Jesus told God, “May your will be done.” Throughout the Gospels, Jesus was constantly submitting to God’s will, of dying for the sins of man. In Matthew 26:39, Jesus fell to his face, asking for a release from the cup. Near the end of the Gospels in Luke 22:42, Jesus told God, “let your will be done instead of mine.” This was a great demonstration of how submissive Jesus was with his Father, because he was willing to follow God’s plan and sacrifice his own life for man’s