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Matthew Conde

HONR 2110-01

5 June 2020

A Devilishly Epic Hero: Satan’s Role Beyond Corruption

Defying traditional Renaissance literature and reconstructing the epic genre, John Milton

traces the foundations of evil to Satan’s wicked temptation of Adam and Eve in Paradise Lost. In

Milton’s universe Satan, a fallen angel, seeks revenge against God and plans to spread evil on

Earth, God’s newest creation. Furious that God has all the power in the universe, Satan becomes

a serpent and entices Eve to eat from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. Despite his mission to

inflict harm, Satan attempts to illustrate himself as a tragic hero who lost everything. His

succinct rhetoric and character convince demons but baffle literary scholars. This essay will

argue that Satan, an unorthodox epic hero who bestows evil upon God’s works, is painted that

way so that his actions prepare Earth for Jesus, who restores God’s compassion and defeats sin

and Satan himself. By connecting Hell, death, and sin to Earth, Satan establishes the global stage

for God’s love and reveals that in order to understand good, one must recognize evil first.

Milton presents Satan as an epic hero by illustrating his military background through his

ornate uniform and weaponry. Book I starts in media res, as Milton narrates how Satan awakens

in Hell and breaks loose from his chains. On Satan was “his spear, to equal which the tallest pine

/ Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast / Of some great admiral” (Milton 1.292-94). Satan’s

lethal spear is with his massive shield, and his diverse weaponry illustrates his high military

status. Satan’s arms and body protection emphasize his esteemed ranks in the military like “some

great admiral.” In fact, Satan is so gloriously suited and armed that Beelzebub initially addresses

him as the “leader of those armies bright” (Milton 1.272). Despite telling Beelzebub about his
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defeat in Heaven, Satan is still seen as a valiant leader. Even without fighting, Satan’s strong

presence and appearance shows how powerful he is. Satan arises as an epic hero through not

only his physical presentation, but also his convincing and compelling speech.

In traditional epics, fantastic leaders are not only physically resilient, but also motivating

orators. Despite being a villain and a fallen angel, Satan experiences internal doubt about

overcoming God, but he reinvigorates his troops when he proclaims, “The flower of Heaven

once yours, now lost, / If such astonishment as this can seize. Eternal spirits; . . . / . . . / Awake,

arise, or be for ever fallen” (Milton 1.316-330). Satan recognizes that everyone in Hell lost the

fortunes of Heaven; however, they must persist. Satan urges his men to rise and fight, or to “be

for ever fallen.” After he speaks, wounded warriors arise in their stupendous military uniform

and weapons and unite to scheme against God. David Lowenstein addresses Satan’s rhetoric with

respect to his reputation when he argues, “We see [Satan] as an experienced and inspired military

leader majestically rousing his stunned and weary troops” (57). Claiming that Satan is depicted

with the attributes of a motivating leader, Lowenstein highlights how Satan has the voice and the

prowess of an epic hero, similar to Aeneas who, in the Aeneid, delivers an inspiring speech to his

men after fleeing Troy. While Satan has the mind and body of an epic hero, his maleficence

separates him from traditional protagonists and cautions the readers to question Satan’s motif.

Adding onto his status as a leader of Hell, Satan attempts to show that, like many epic

heroes, he was wrongfully expelled from his home. Relating to the demons and building trust,

Satan appears as a tragic hero, someone who was wronged but could not control it. Like Aeneas,

who is deprived of his wife and home, Satan says that he lost his rightful place in Heaven. Noam

Resiner advances this argument claiming, “Much of the tragic sympathy Milton’s Satan stirs in

readers results from the tension in the poem between Satan’s relatable physicality and tormented,
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almost Shakespearean interiority on the one hand, and his conceptual mythological role as the

arch devil and a figure of primordial evil on the other” (32). Satan delivers a soliloquy where he

expresses his displeasure of living in Hell and blames God for their downfall because his

“strength [was concealed], / Which tempted our attempt and wrought our fall” (Milton 1.641-42).

Declaring his hatred towards God, Satan accuses God for tempting his forces to retaliate, and

that they resisted God because of his centralized power. Satan believes that God’s monarchical

authority forced him and his troops to fall from Heaven into Hell. As a result, his face has “deep

scars of thunder,” as he is “condemned / Forever now to have their lot in pain” (Milton 1.601-

08). Before his soliloquy, Satan fails to maintain his composure, lamenting, “Thrice he assayed,

and thrice, in spite of scorn / Tears such as angels weep burst forth” (Milton 1.619-20). Crying in

front of his troops and stammering in his speech, Milton paints Satan as a pitiful figure. Although

Satan appears to cry out of genuine despair, the reader is warned and cautioned by Milton about

the logical fallacies and deceitfulness layered within Satan’s reasoning.

While Satan presents himself as a hero, he is truly manipulating the demons and readers

with his emotions so that he could gain support to corrupt Earth and to fight God. Despite Satan

appearing more relatable than Adam and Eve, Milton shows that unlike human nature, Satan is

oriented towards evil. Hopkins amplifies this idea claiming that, “Milton also carefully controls

the degree to which we can sympathize with Satan—in the strict sense of ‘feel as he feels’” (26).

Milton depicts Satan as an emotional character to reveal how Satan’s reasoning is rooted in his

feelings. Satan feels that God was evil to him, so he should be evil to God. Satan is truly taking

advantage of his army’s defeat in Heaven through his authority, rhetoric, and emotional appeal to

bolster his reputation, so that he can better stand against and fight God to gain personal power.
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Because Satan portrays himself as an epic hero, his reputation more easily positions him

to partake and influence Milton’s retelling of the fall of humanity. At Pandemonium, Beelzebub

recognizes that the army in Hell cannot conquer God, so the best method of attacking God is by

corrupting his works of goodness. However, offering himself as a traveler to Earth, Satan blurs

the boundaries which separate his personal, political, and nationalistic goals:

But I should ill become this throne, O peers, / And this imperial sovereignty, adorned /

With splendor, armed with power, if aught proposed / And judged of public moment in

the shape / Of difficulty or danger could deter / Me from attempting (Milton 2.445-60).

Satan expresses that he would leave his throne in Hell, if the public demands a figure to venture

out to Earth and bestow evil upon God’s works. More importantly, Satan describes Hell as an

“imperial sovereignty” because he sees the land as an empire free of authority. This meaning

reveals that Hell, unlike in Heaven, has more freedom. However, the demons are not skeptical

after Satan confesses that he “should ill become this throne.” Prefacing his statement to volunteer

with that phrase, Satan hints that he plans to leave his throne in Hell to gain authority on Earth.

What started as a quest to tamper with God’s works shifts to Satan using Earth as a platform to

gain power. Although Satan criticizes God for his absolute control of Heaven, Satan alone leads

Hell, which reveals that Satan is also the sole monarch as well. Despite this similarity, Resiner

argues that only God can hold that governance successfully: “God’s monarchy is universal, a

priori and unassailable, and he can only ever be a tyrant if he is no longer in any meaningful

sense God” (59). God’s monarchy is so successful because God uses His powers for goodwill.

Even if Satan obtains power over Earth, he would still live under God’s monarchy, for it is

universal. Satan hopes to establish his power on Earth, but no matter how heroic he is painted, he

would never defeat God because God knew that Satan had an important role in His creation.
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Unlike in the evils of Hell, where Satan could be seen as heroic, the good of Earth unveils

Satan’s pure maliciousness. When Angel Uriel suspects that Satan is not an angel, for all angels

have permanent expressions of joy, he asks Angel Gabriel to find Satan. Once they apprehend

Satan, they interrogate him. Despite Satan’s claim that he comes in peace, Gabriel sees through

his lies and bursts, “Army of fiends; fit body to fit head! / Was this your discipline and faith

engaged, / Your military obedience, to dissolve / Allegiance to the acknowledged power

supreme” (Milton 4.953-956). Gabriel addresses Satan’s militant position as a leader of an “army

of fiends.” He understands that Satan wants to corrupt Earth and to bring evil onto God’s

goodness. As guards of Earth, the angels protect the planet and its people from Satan, for he

plans “to dissolve allegiance” to God. More importantly, the angels fear that if Satan corrupts

Earth, he will establish his lack of empathy and compassion upon God’s perfect people:

Satan, that is, lacks many of the qualities that, on virtually any definition, are among the

most fundamental characteristics of humanity—the capacity for hope, love, and joy; the

ability to master hatred and transcend despair; the limitations imposed by the constraints

of time, space, and shape. (Hopkins 27)

Although Satan is seen as a recognized military leader, rhetorician, and ruler, he will never

defeat God because he is deprived of basic, human qualities. Satan cannot feel “hope, love, and

joy,” for he also understands evil. Unlike angels, Satan experiences opposite emotions—while

angels only know of pride, he can feel shame; and while angels are only joyous, Satan knows of

sadness. The angels view Satan as a potential threat because humans are easily malleable. In fact,

Adam says, “Man hath his daily work of body or mind / . . . / And the regard of Heaven on all his

ways” (Milton 4.618-20). Adam’s dialogue to Eve reveals how naïve humans are. Like the

angels, humans only know “of Heaven on all [God’s] ways.” However, humans lack knowledge.
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Humans were originally focused on obeying God and tending to His creation, so when Satan

corrupts Earth by bringing evil and sin, the need for a restoration of God’s love grows.

Satan grows more maleficent the further he observes the beauties of Paradise in Eden,

and Milton helps the reader arrive to this conclusion by giving his audience an insight into

Satan’s mentality. Milton no longer shows Satan as an epic hero from earlier books—Satan does

not lose his importance in the story of the fall of humanity, but rather, his role is shifted from an

avenger to a necessary villain. Hopkins elaborates on Milton’s narrative of Satan’s mind and

comments, “It is certainly true that Milton allows us a fuller access to the inner workings of

Satan’s mind than to those of any other character in the poem” (26). Rooted in Satan’s hatred

towards Earth is a strong disposition against humans because they have access to Eden, a land

that is more glorious than Heaven to Satan. Satan’s mindset reveals how inherently evil he is,

and God acknowledges Satan’s wickedness by sending Jesus, who is only loving and caring.

Indeed, Milton perceives Satan as one of the most significant figures in the Bible. Milton

expresses that thought by describing Satan’s internal torture: “The more I see / Pleasures about

me so much more I feel / Torment within me, as from the hateful sieve / Of contraries” (Milton

9.119-22). When he initially sees Eden, he is overcome with awe and admiration because he

cannot fathom the beauty of God’s works. The longer he remains in Paradise, the further he

experiences “torment within [himself],” and his inner turmoil, caused by his exclusion from

Heaven, motivates him to corrupt Earth. Moreover, when he sees Eden, Satan concludes that

Earth is superior and better than Heaven itself. Therefore, he envies Adam and Eve, for they

have access to this glory he cannot receive. Milton gives more information on Satan’s mind to

illuminate how Satan has the ability to choose and that his freedom of choice does not fade away

at all. Despite his questioning if he should persist, Satan continues to corrupt Adam and Eve.
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Satan’s rationalization about God’s works shows that God is so mighty that even Satan himself

considered to neglect his mission, and God later gains more power by sending His son Jesus.

Satan’s corruption of humans reveals that his evilness is not horrible, but important in

God’s greater plan. If successful in corrupting Earth, Satan believes that he would turn humans

to sin and evil and gain support for Hell. While Satan knows that he must bring sin to Earth, he

recognizes that he could change his mind. However, “Satan becomes more and more hardened

and more and more set upon his original course of revenge to sooth his ‘wounds of deadly hate,’

asserting that any reconciliation with God, . . . is impossible and hopeless” (Lowenstein 62-63).

Satan understands that he will never be on the same terms with God, and, this fuels his revenge

against and hatred of God. Satan wants Adam and Eve to experience the same pain and regret he

feels. After Adam and Eve eat the apple, they awaken with knowledge of Paradise they once had.

Adam chides, “We had then / Remained still happy, not as now despoiled / Of all our good,

shamed, naked, miserable” (Milton 9.1137-39). Similar to Satan, Adam and Eve lament on the

fortunes and comfort they once had, and now, they must deal with the consequences of their

actions. Noticing how they are “shamed, naked, miserable” and angry, Adam and Eve quarrel for

a long amount of time. Also, like Satan, they do not take responsibility for their actions. What

once started as a peaceful, luxurious Paradise devolved into an evil, shameful world in need of a

source of hope and love. God knew that Satan would fly to Earth and corrupt Adam and Eve.

When he sees Satan travelling through Chaos, God knows that, like the demons of Hell, he must

send someone to Earth to fight the injustice—Jesus is dispatched by God to combat Satan.

Jesus represents similar qualities of Satan, but unlike the devil, Jesus uses his attributes

for good. Milton strongly parallels Jesus and Satan, as shown through his details about Satan’s

fallen angels arising: “as when men wont to watch / On duty, sleeping found by whom they
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dread, / Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake” (Milton 1.332-34). Milton paints the fallen

angels like Jesus’s apostles when the Roman guards seized Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The phrase, “on duty, sleeping found by whom they dread” implies that, like Jesus’s apostles,

Satan’s followers defend and listen to his ideas. While both have loyal friends, Satan uses his

power for evil, whereas Jesus utilizes his power for good, and these qualities are exposed in the

mirroring debates of Hell and Heaven. In Hell, Satan presides over the trial and only provides

two, possible outcomes: “open war or covert guile” (Milton 2.41). Satan proclaims that combat

and secret scheming are the only options for dealing with their defeat and God’s power, and his

assumption and statement, moreover, implies that conflict must persist. While the court in Hell

concentrates on violence, God’s dialogue with Jesus reveals that the Heavenly powers only focus

on compassion and forgiveness. Answering Jesus’s question about punishment as love, God

responds, “What may suffice, and soften stony hearts / To pray, repent, and bring obedience due”

(Milton 3.189-90). Whereas the forces in Hell only considered violence and retaliation as

options, God proclaims that the way to face evil is through love. Milton’s Satan is an unordinary

epic hero because he must mirror Jesus’s magnificence. If Jesus is the savior of the world, who

restores love and compassion, then Satan must a villain of that same magnitude by bringing evil.

Satan, in his very act of corrupting the world, prepares the world for Jesus’s coming.

Milton’s comparison between Satan and Jesus are similar. If his readers have deep knowledge of

the Bible, they will discover that Milton is exploring the Book of John. Thomas Corns unveils

that, “The gospel accounts—except for John’s—do not declare Jesus to be the only begotten

son” (523). Although the other gospel writers assert that Jesus is the only son of God, John’s

gospel leaves that aspect of Jesus unaddressed. This ambiguity is important, as there remains a

possibility that Jesus and Satan were created by God and have the same characteristics but use
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their attributes for different motives. While Satan’s bravery and rhetoric results in evil, Jesus’s

ability to preach and muster courage leads to forgiveness. Corn writes that John’s gospel does

not \call Jesus “the only begotten son,” and this should be noted heavily, as John wrote the Book

of Revelation. In this book John details the fight between good and evil: “[Jesus] will wipe away

every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor

crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4). According

to Milton, Satan carries sin, death, and pain when he corrupts Earth, and Revelation writes that

Jesus conquers death and pain. Jesus’s work on Earth would hold no significance, if Satan did

not first venture to Earth to disrupt it. This idea is highlighted when God declares, “Heavenly

love shall outdo hellish hate” (Milton 3.297). Jesus is sent by God to combat the despair and pain

that Satan unleashed. While the corruption of humans is written as a tragedy, it is one that must

occur. God admits to His angels that He allowed Satan to enter Earth and Eve, and his foresight

with his lack of action reveals that God had a plan and that Satan was a prominent figure in it.

God’s humans need to learn about the power of His love, and God demonstrates His compassion

by sending his only son to fight Satan and death—but, first, they need to obtain knowledge.

Milton’s depiction of Satan as an epic hero goes beyond a mere parallel to Jesus and a

battle between good and evil, for good and evil cannot exist without knowledge. When Adam

and Eve resided in Paradise, they only knew how to garden and to obey God. As Satan lures Eve

to consume the Fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, he says, “It gives you life / To knowledge”

(Milton 9.686-87). Satan’s persuasion connects knowledge and free-will to life; this statement

implies that to not know is to not live. Through that reasoning, Adam and Eve were initially

immortal, for they possessed no knowledge. Milton underscores that in order to live, one must

have freedom to choose and to think freely. More importantly, if one is deprived of these gifts,
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then, like Adam and Eve, they are merely existing. Free-will is a primary component of Milton’s

epic, and he argues that humans can live freely and coexist with God’s providence: “That to the

height of this great argument / I may assert eternal providence / And justify the ways of God to

men” (Milton 1.24-26). By retelling this story, Milton emphasizes that humans have the ability to

choose freely. However, that freedom comes at a price—evil must exist. Unlike Adam and Eve,

Satan can think and act more freely because he is exposed to misery and pain. When Adam and

Eve awaken from their promiscuous night, the land around them did not change—only their

perception of their surroundings did. Before Satan, humans only knew of God and his rules.

Disrupting Paradise with sin and evil, Satan simultaneously provides humans with the potential

gift of understanding God’s compassion and love, which is shown through the sacrifice of Jesus.

Marked with a fantastic military background; succinct, compelling speech; and a tragic

backstory; Satan arises as an unconventional epic hero. Upon learning about the promises of

Earth as a stage for power and corruption, Satan seizes the opportunity to travel to the planet and

to establish himself in the face of God. His act of bringing evil, death, and sin to Earth prepares

the world for the coming of Jesus, who is the direct opposite of Satan. Unlike Jesus, Satan uses

his attributes for wickedness, but without carrying that maleficence to Earth, humans would

never obtain the gift of knowledge. Ultimately, Milton wants his audience to understand that,

while God has divine providence, they must trust in God and know that they have the ability to

think and choose freely. To live, one must not and only acknowledge the good in the world, but

also realize that good would not exist without evil. Good may be important as evil, and in order

for people to live and learn, both forces must fight one another. Like Adam and Eve, people must

recognize the good and evil in this world, for if they do not do so, they are merely existing and

not living. In every aspect of the world, there lies a bad in the good—and a good in the bad.
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Works Cited

Corns, Thomas N. A New Companion to Milton. John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2016. Wiley Online

Library, https://onlinelibrary-wiley-

com.proxy.seattleu.edu/doi/book/10.1002/9781118827833

Hopkins, David. Reading Paradise Lost, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2013. ProQuest

Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/seattleu/detail.action?

docID=1120283.

Loewenstein, David. Milton: Paradise Lost, Cambridge University Press, 2003. ProQuest Ebook

Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/seattleu/detail.action?docID=255213.

Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Edited by David Scott. Kastan, Hackett, 2007.

Reisner, Noam. John Milton's 'Paradise Lost' : A Reading Guide, Edinburgh University Press,

2011. ProQuest Ebook Central,

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/seattleu/detail.action?docID=714144.

Revelation. “BibleGateway.” Revelation—Bible Gateway, www.biblegateway.com/passage/?

search=Revelation%2B1&version=NIV.