Satan’s speech rousing his followers is profoundly ironical. As an effective leader, he inspires his fallen followers to rise from their state of stupor. Satan’s leadership comes out here, revealing his authority and position among the fallen angels. He does not stoop low to think himself inferior to God or to submit to His authority. He is no timid or cowardly personality, but one who bears a titanic energy and a gigantic will-power. Milton’s Satan, as already noted, is a villain-hero, and as such, he derives pity and admiration even in his failing and never appears totally despicable, like Edmund, Goneril, or Regan (in King Lear). This is truly befitting to a grand tragic hero. He does not approve Beelzebub’s despondent views and give out a clarion call of inspiration: He stands, even after his tragic defeat and fall in hell, like a tower, with a firm determination to retaliate, and not to yield to any pressure or to surrender helplessly to despair. Something sublime and spirited still shines in him and he exhibits this in his heroic words and resolute spirit. Satan is one of the highest angles in Heaven and the nobility of his station remains even after his humiliating fall among the fallen angels. Satan is definitely an evil force, yet, in Milton’s representation, he is invested with the grandeur of a tragic hero, of course, like a villain-hero, like Macbeth, or a villain-heroine like Medea. Of course, Milton’s intention in Paradise Lost is not to idealize Satan but his sole project is to disturb and annoy God in whatever way he can. Valour, spirit, determination and the power to inspirit and persuade are all the virtues of Satan, and these are all the qualities of a grand tragic hero. In fact, in his conception of the tragic character, Milton is found to have invested the arch-fiend with a heroic grandeur, which exclusively belongs to a typical hero of a classical tragedy. Had he actually written such a drama, he might have made Satan his tragic hero. It is to be noted in this connection that Milton‘s original plan was to write a tragedy on the theme of Paradise Lost. His powerful speeches, five in number, form the assets of the opening Book, and they serve to bear out some typical traits of his character- his iron determination, efficient leadership, heroic spirit and commanding personality. His fall, humiliation and resolve to wage an uncompromising war against God are presented in the Book. The opening Book presents Satan as the central figure. He is like the villain-heroes Marlowe and Shakespeare, ambitious, revengeful, boastful, deceitful cunning and melancholic. He is a plotter (the etymological meaning of ‘Satan’). □ Paradise Lost Paradise Lost Review, Short Summaryįrom the beginning, Satan is presented as a villain-hero.
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