Similarities between God and Satan in Milton’s Paradise Lost Book One
Paradise Lost is a poem which can be interpreted in many contradictory ways (Bell 863). Book One focusses specifically on the fall of Satan and other devils, and many critics believe his fall determines his status; many believe he is a ‘bad’ person, someone who does not want any fortune for others, and only performs mischievous actions: ‘in Satan we meet the prototype of all incorrigible sinners’ (Swiss 57). However, Satan can be looked at from another point of view, one which does not make him look like a bad character, but a ‘good’ one, actually. Satan shares several characteristics with God, who is, as believed by many Christians and Catholics, the epitome of a good character. If God and Satan share so many valuable characteristics, why should Satan be identified as bad? This essay will discuss the possibility that Satan is actually good by providing several characteristics that are identified as ‘good’ that God and Satan share, ultimately making Satan a good character as well.
One of the characteristics Satan and God share is their need to hold a position of power: they both want to reign in their own universe. God reigns in Heaven; if someone disagrees with God, or if anyone misbehaves in Heaven, they are thrown out. This is also what happened to Satan and is described at the beginning of Book One: ‘[God] punishes Satan by assuring his ultimate doom (…) the enraged Satan rebels, is defeated, and is cast into Hell by an equally enraged God’ (Paris 1):
Th’ infernal [Satan]; he it was, whose guile
Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived
The mother of mankind, what time his pride
Had cast him out from Heav’n, with all his host
Of rebel angels (Milton, 1.34-1.38).
As a result, Satan decides that if he is no longer accepted in Heaven, he wants to reign in Hell instead: ‘Here we may reign secure, and in my choice / To reign is worth ambition though in Hell / Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n’ (Milton, 1.261-263). To achieve the position of emperor, he decides to create an army of other fallen angels that he can lead:
But wherefore let we then our faithful friends
(…) lie thus astonished on th’ oblivious pool
And call them not to share with us their part
In this unhappy mansion, or once more
With rallied arms to try what may be yet
Regained in Heav’n, or what more lost in Hell? (Milton, 1.264-1.270).
Beelzebub, another fallen angel who soon becomes Satan’s ally, agrees with Satan’s plan of becoming the emperor and addresses Satan as ‘leader’ to enhance his being superior to the others: ‘Leader of those armies bright / which but th’ omnipotent none could have foiled’ (1.272 – 1.273). After Satan addresses the other fallen angels and tells them to either get up or give up altogether, they start to see him as their leader as well: ‘to their general’s voice they soon obeyed innumerable’ (1.337). Moreover, Satan is called ‘Chief’ (1.128), ‘Prince’ (1.128) and ‘Superior Fiend’ (1.283); terms such as these help establish his position as emperor, a position which he keeps throughout Book One. He is also not afraid to publicly announce that he is the new leader. Excerpts like the following illustrate his preeminence and superiority:
Hail horrors, hail
Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell
Receive thy new possessor: one who brings
A mind not to be changed by place or time
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n (1.250-1.255).
Thus, after falling from Heaven, Satan does not mourn and instead becomes the leader of his new living situation, which shows his loyalty in leadership and unflinching courage (Werblowsky 3), which are both considered qualities of a good character.
Besides wanting to reign over a group of people, Satan and God share another characteristic: being a hero. Many Christian and Catholic people believe God is a hero; He is a hero in their lives, because He helps them through hard times, and He guides them on their way to a better life when situations become too difficult to handle alone. In addition to being a hero in people’s lives, God is a biblical hero. He has created the world and He has created humankind; without him, we would not be here. Moreover, according to the Bible, He has heroically rescued many people – for example, when He split the Red Sea in order for the children of Israel to cross it safely (Exodus 14). In Paradise Lost Book One, Satan is the hero. Of all characters, Satan has the greatest effect on the plot, for he is the one that shapes the entire story. The reader follows his journey from being one of the many fallen angels to becoming the leader of Hell and there are only a few excerpts that describe the other devils’ feelings; the majority of the story is about Satan. Moreover, the reader gets to experience Satan’s journey towards becoming the leader with him because his thoughts and feelings are shared. The following passage describes Satan’s first appearance in Hell. His emotions are very intense, which subsequently makes the reader understand that his character is powerful and that he should be respected by other characters: ‘Round he throws his baleful eyes / That witnessed huge affliction and dismay / Mixed with obdurate pride and steadfast hate’ (Milton 1.56-1.58). Moreover, the narrator describes Satan’s state of well-being more often than any other character’s and uses figurative language to describe his grand physical structure. This creates a sense of authority and power, which consequently alerts the reader of his importance to the poem:
Their dread commander: he above the rest
In shape and gesture proudly eminent
Stood like a tow’r; his form had yet not lost
All her original brightness, nor appeared
Less than Archangel ruined (Milton, 1.589-1.594).
Satan is also the only character that experiences a personal development. He is a round character; all the other characters in Book One are flat characters. When Satan first arrives in Hell, he is stunned and does not exactly know what to do about this new situation. However, as discussed before, he quickly realises that what he should do is become the leader and make something good of his new situation. In other words, Satan is the hero of the story, just like God is a biblical hero, and Satan is a hero to the other fallen angels, just like God is to many religious people; this characteristic of being a hero makes Satan come across as a good person as well.
Lastly, God and Satan share the characteristic of sympathy. Many Christians and Catolics feel a sense of sympathy towards God; it is ‘through sympathy, [that] man corresponds to the pathos of God’ (Moltmann 12). In Paradise Lost Book One, there is one specific moment which evokes sympathy for Satan. It is a moment of internal conflict. All the other fallen angels have been introduced and it is time for Satan to address his new army. Satan begins to speak, but every time he tries, he starts to cry:
He now prepared
To speak; whereat their doubled ranks they bend
From wing to wing, and half enclose him round
With all his peers: attention held them mute
Thrice he essayed, and thrice, in spite of scorn,
Tears such as angels weep bust forth: at last
Words interwove with sighs found out their way (Milton, 1.615 – 1.621).
Satan has never been known to be someone who cries. However, Book One does present him as someone who cries, multiple times even, which makes him seem humane, which is also typically seen as a good character trait.
In conclusion, Satan has many noble qualities: he is a leader no matter the circumstances, he is a hero, and he is a sensitive figure; these are all qualities that add up to him being a ‘good’ character. Thus, in Book One of Paradise Lost, Satan can be defined as a good character on account of his many good characteristics which he shares with God.
Works Cited
Bell, Millicent. The Fallacy of the Fall in Paradise Lost. Pmla, vol. 68, no. 4, 1953.
Milton, John. Stephen Greenblatt et al., ed. Paradise Lost. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 2018.
Paris, Bernard J. Heaven and Its Discontents. New York: Transaction Publishers, 2010.
Swiss, Margo. Satan’s obduracy in ‘Paradise Lost’. Wiley, 1994.
The Holy Bible: King James Version. Dallas, TX: Brown Book Publishing, 2004.
Werbloswky, Raphael Jehudah Zwi. Lucifer and Prometheus: A study of Milton’s Satan. Routledge & K. Paul, 2013.
Iris Elske 