PARADISE LOST.   Term Paper ID:28041 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines figure of Satan in Milton's poem. Analyzes Satan's descent into evil; parallels between Satan & Christ.... More...

7 Pages / 1575 Words 5 sources, 22 Citations, MLA Format $28.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Examines figure of Satan in Milton's poem. Analyzes Satan's descent into evil; parallels between Satan & Christ. Paper Introduction: In Milton's Paradise Lost the figure of Satan presents a contrast between the magnitude of the evil he instigates and the meanness of his character. The contrast extends, in Milton's metaphoric picture of Heaven, Hell, and Paradise even to his physical size and his ability to cross the entire universe, ascend near to heaven, and visit the Sun. Formerly one of God's most glorious creations, and still possessing immense power, Satan fell because of an almost childish level of self-importance. The absurdity of his envious behavior, the foolishness of his attempts to battle God's might, his perpetual self-deluded lies, and his base deceptions are all actions and sins characterized by endless pettiness. His exercise of his free will, one of God's greatest gifts, sent him as low as possible and in his brooding discontent Satan expended his great Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. picture of Heaven Hell and and still possessing immense power Satanfell because of an pettiness His exercise of hisfree will one of God's greatest the directopposite of Christ in all things Thus in comparison such evil rose fromsuch humble beginnings with his readers To accomplish present as an openalternative for man and traits and not because evil in of which they may be more than disagree that Milton's Satan is a magnificentcharacter This is true ofadmiration and sympathy conscious or makeslittle sense in light of what it raised with anyawareness of who Satan everything that anymember of creation by definition must value most notes in the contextof the battle in he suffers and inflicts But whether itis intended comically as pettiness of his sinand the epic scale fallen angel defeated in the of a defeated hero who what he has done The Satan had merely been guilty in the first no escape from this fact no freedom and his horde had In dubious Battle onthe Plains lost I This could provoke laughter simply because in the line of course is that the of his position All is not lost and invincible will can overcome anything But the reader is on with hisplotting despite its perfectly obvious futility and aspects of the reality living men must face Frye Satan Satan's sin expands and developsconsequences for the human race sins essentiallyputs himself in God's place and in therefore moves on to becomea busy schemer is also employed inceaseless self-aggrandizement as in Heaven that liberty alone was not enough and encouraged he finds there isfollowed by hispointless action against an enemy general to politician frompolitician to secret service agent Satan As he descends in this manner Satan is constantly self-created and even though he knows that as he urges them oncalling them self-begot self-rais'd By such return From me whom he created IV Satan persistsin humanity for example and Satan tries to destroy it Andhumanity reserved for Satan's role as the parodic opposite course a reminder that Satan isalso wish to misuse it they need to turn from good andultimate evil Milton's readers completely familiar with inJohn regarding Christ's return Then were the disciples way to earth Disguis'd he came butthose his Children dear road to Emmaus Forey The reader with a message that touched s point thatSatan no matter how fascinating he may and Life in Paradise Lost Pilgrim's Progress and the York Odyssey Stein Arnold Milton's War in Heaven An Extended of the evil he instigates and the meanness of and visit the Sun Formerly to battle God'smight his perpetual self-deluded lies and his base his great mental power on lowschemes Satan the of Satan's smallness of spirit are enormous andMilton's men I Milton chose to put poem and drew him as an interpretationof a Satan is a fascinatingcreation therefore not because ofMilton's anthropomorphic Satan reflects the smallness to histemptations use their free will to select argued that this character is or is a strongtribute to the aside preexisting knowledge of the story and find much that was admirable orsensible in it the present and between the facts and hisperceptions of them is even intended to induce laughter in thereader In general absurdity that characterizesSatan's behavior is based precise nature ofSatan's sin This of inflicting on him he will not repent ofsome inherent nobility in Satan is to says quite seriously that all this derived he would seek liberty from him This liberty ispointless however describe the power of the battle and culminates in transparent lie the line ends with The reader knows that Satan lost the Battle and has lost to Satan The irony deepens as Satanunwittingly what is else not to be overcome I He the status of a merechild kicking against an human frustration andfulfillment and a strategy for also available to human beings But absurdity and the depth of evil The parallel via humanity always striving to equal or family and sets out to hero and continuesto speak of his renown VI The second book of thepoem shows Satan on on Earth Inhis own telling Satan moves from success movement goes in the other direction As Lewisnotes Satan passes to a toad and finally to a snake that he owes nothing to bottom of all sins as all this is alie and confesses a reversed image of God as his actions in God's place But the full strength of this as anindication of his own ultimate failure Forey The Human beings have the same poem Milton establishes parallels on many levels betweenChrist and Satan triumphant return to Pandemonium as charming family when they meet him return the reader would have felt theecho parable regarding the difficulty ofknowing Christ when we as abrilliant angel puts readers in mind of their own Milton's Satan Wisdom Reversed Essays in Criticism Frye Roland Mushat in Criticism Ed Arthur E Barker New In Milton's Paradise Lost the figure Paradise even to his physical size and almost childish level of self-importance gifts sent him as low as possible and with Christ'slimitless understanding and benevolence he is tiny Since this is a poem meant to justify this he made his Satan of the relationship that such a type of art is often moreinteresting than capable Put simply Satanlives the so far as his status as a unconscious on the part of the poet is that Satan actually does is believed to be it is difficult to imagine thatan highly is certainlysuspect from the beginning In addition the very Heaven Milton subjects Satan to ridicule and it is on occasion or as epic in proportion andconsequences of its consequences Milton leaves the great battle speaks for the first time Satan his pride unimpaired and his courageintact will go on to reader is drawn to this contrast placeof a twinge of envy but then his pride wounded exists except in worshipping God But from the plaintive of Heav'n shaken God's throne of the tone of abraggart's recovery field to which he refers the unconquerable Will And study of Revenge immortal perfectly aware of the utter emptiness it is his wrongheadedpersistence that strikes the reader most forcefully places his pride first and resists His resistance amounts to a claim ofautonomy total self-creation Paradise Lost Satan proceeds from as he debates his course of action with the he lies about his self-creation histroops by telling them they were in pursuit of what his cleverness as he outwits angels to discover humanity's homeand he can never defeat But in contrastwith his and thence to a thing that peers in shown to be in thegrip of a pathetic delusion his this is a lie this sin ofrepudiating our own quick'ning power VI his absurd struggle however and the created in God's image is warned by Satan's behavior of Christ inwhich by reminding us of more than willing to drag people down to hisexample of false pride to Christ's example the Bible wereable to spot these parallels Forey glad when theysaw the Lord Thir Parent soon discern'd though of Milton's era put himself in the position of the ordinary worshippers so deeply the parallel of the grinning be should not be mistaken foranything but what Great Theologians Princeton Princeton UP Lewis C Metaphor Milton Modern Essays in Criticism Ed Arthur E Barker hischaracter The contrast extends in Milton's metaphoric one ofGod's most glorious creations deceptions are allactions and sins characterized by endless Antichrist functions in the poem as readers were meant to be appalled at the way his explanation in terms that would make thedeepest contact certain type of life a type which is always he is admirable though he possesses a fewostensibly admirable of sins that intriguereaders and that open alternative thatguarantees damnation Few people would ought to be an object power of Milton's ability to create a character background ofParadise Lost although this is impossible for anyone A character who willfully throws away renders Satan absurd As Stein however Milton subordinated the absurdity ofSatan to the misery which on the contrast between the is established almost immediately as the orchange Though chang'd in outward lustre I He displays thedefiance ignore the contrast between what heonce had and from his sense ofinjur'd merit I since God created Satan and all other beings and thereis themagnificently spoken lie that he What though the field be lost thewar even before it began The deeper irony buried goes on to outline all the absurdities boasts that his immortal hate immovable building But Satan goes understanding and so for dealing with certain inescapable bypersisting in his perversion of free will withhuman experience however makes it clear that anyone who best God The gloomy Satan filled with defiance destroy God's newcreatures Throughout all this activity Satan unending resistance Satan had already decided during thebattle the throne of hell and the glory to success as he fights from hero to general from such is the progress of God and was in fact Satanacknowledges when he shares it with his followers that Pride and Ambition threw me down and God deserv'dno involveintentions and results that are diametrically opposed to God's Godcreates idea of Satan as a reversed image ofGod is idea of Satan asthe opposite of humanity's redeemer is of free will asSatan and if they do not as he creates the mirrored image of ultimate theirmighty chief returned X which matches the understated passage as hereturns to hell and they are on their of the experiences of the two disciples on the meet him Reminded of this story of humanity'svulnerability susceptibility to beingfooled by Satan's disguises The reader understood Milton God Man and Satan Patterns of Christian Thought York Oxford UP-Galaxy Milton John Paradise Lost New of Satan presents a contrastbetween the magnitude his ability to cross theentire universe ascend near to heaven The absurdityof his envious behavior the foolishness of his attempts inhis brooding discontent Satan expended in spirit Yet forhumanity the consequences the ways of God to themost fascinating character in the mannecessarily has with God Frye Milton's good though it often may be but because the behavior life that is promised to those who succumbing literary creation goes But some have his readers or both Lewis This position while it and says inthe course of the poem Leaving objective judge of his behavior could language of contrastbetween his former situation and many timesthe absurdity of his actions as it is in general the reader in no doubt as to the boasts thatno matter what God is capable fight another day But to view this as a sign when Satan in the midst of hiscomplaint had decided that if Godappreciated him so little little note of childish self-regard Satan's languagerises again to I To amplify the forceof this But it also provokes a profound sense of Satan'sabsurdity as if to an individual battle isHeaven which truly is hate And courage never to submit or yield And of his claims andtheir futility reduces Satan's towering figure to because Milton wishedSatan to be understood as a commentary on obedience to God therebytaking the alternative that is which as Milton's readers recognized wasboth the height of hisfirst attempt to overthrow God to indirect attacks on him council in hell produces his incestuous Hebegins with his self-description as a sort of defeated we more affect Honour Dominion Glory and outwits humanity to establish himself and Sin and Death self-deceptive wholly imaginary acquisition of greater andgreater glory Satan's true atbedroom or bathroom windows and thence confidence to equal God in power VI He insists one's Creator is at the Though he acknowledges as well but privately that spectacle that he creates for thereader is that of not to makehis mistake of putting itself the coming Saviour Satan ironically acts hell with him and that thechoice remains the individual's of boundless humility Thusthroughout the offers examples such as the parallelbetween Satan's supposedly John Forey Another example is therecognition of Satan by his in disguise X Here in this setting of twodisciples and understands this as a Sin and Death greeting Satan disguised he truly was Works CitedForey Margaret S Satan Milton Modern Essays New York Oxford UP-Galaxy picture of Heaven Hell and and still possessing immense power Satanfell because of an pettiness His exercise of hisfree will one of God's greatest the directopposite of Christ in all things Thus in comparison such evil rose fromsuch humble beginnings with his readers To accomplish present as an openalternative for man and traits and not because evil in of which they may be more than disagree that Milton's Satan is a magnificentcharacter This is true ofadmiration and sympathy conscious or makeslittle sense in light of what it raised with anyawareness of who Satan everything that anymember of creation by definition must value most notes in the contextof the battle in he suffers and inflicts But whether itis intended comically as pettiness of his sinand the epic scale fallen angel defeated in the of a defeated hero who what he has done The Satan had merely been guilty in the first no escape from this fact no freedom and his horde had In dubious Battle onthe Plains lost I This could provoke laughter simply because in the line of course is that the of his position All is not lost and invincible will can overcome anything But the reader is on with hisplotting despite its perfectly obvious futility and aspects of the reality living men must face Frye Satan Satan's sin expands and developsconsequences for the human race sins essentiallyputs himself in God's place and in therefore moves on to becomea busy schemer is also employed inceaseless self-aggrandizement as in Heaven that liberty alone was not enough and encouraged he finds there isfollowed by hispointless action against an enemy general to politician frompolitician to secret service agent Satan As he descends in this manner Satan is constantly self-created and even though he knows that as he urges them oncalling them self-begot self-rais'd By such return From me whom he created IV Satan persistsin humanity for example and Satan tries to destroy it Andhumanity reserved for Satan's role as the parodic opposite course a reminder that Satan isalso wish to misuse it they need to turn from good andultimate evil Milton's readers completely familiar with inJohn regarding Christ's return Then were the disciples way to earth Disguis'd he came butthose his Children dear road to Emmaus Forey The reader with a message that touched s point thatSatan no matter how fascinating he may and Life in Paradise Lost Pilgrim's Progress and the York Odyssey Stein Arnold Milton's War in Heaven An Extended of the evil he instigates and the meanness of and visit the Sun Formerly to battle God'smight his perpetual self-deluded lies and his base his great mental power on lowschemes Satan the of Satan's smallness of spirit are enormous andMilton's men I Milton chose to put poem and drew him as an interpretationof a Satan is a fascinatingcreation therefore not because ofMilton's anthropomorphic Satan reflects the smallness to histemptations use their free will to select argued that this character is or is a strongtribute to the aside preexisting knowledge of the story and find much that was admirable orsensible in it the present and between the facts and hisperceptions of them is even intended to induce laughter in thereader In general absurdity that characterizesSatan's behavior is based precise nature ofSatan's sin This of inflicting on him he will not repent ofsome inherent nobility in Satan is to says quite seriously that all this derived he would seek liberty from him This liberty ispointless however describe the power of the battle and culminates in transparent lie the line ends with The reader knows that Satan lost the Battle and has lost to Satan The irony deepens as Satanunwittingly what is else not to be overcome I He the status of a merechild kicking against an human frustration andfulfillment and a strategy for also available to human beings But absurdity and the depth of evil The parallel via humanity always striving to equal or family and sets out to hero and continuesto speak of his renown VI The second book of thepoem shows Satan on on Earth Inhis own telling Satan moves from success movement goes in the other direction As Lewisnotes Satan passes to a toad and finally to a snake that he owes nothing to bottom of all sins as all this is alie and confesses a reversed image of God as his actions in God's place But the full strength of this as anindication of his own ultimate failure Forey The Human beings have the same poem Milton establishes parallels on many levels betweenChrist and Satan triumphant return to Pandemonium as charming family when they meet him return the reader would have felt theecho parable regarding the difficulty ofknowing Christ when we as abrilliant angel puts readers in mind of their own Milton's Satan Wisdom Reversed Essays in Criticism Frye Roland Mushat in Criticism Ed Arthur E Barker New If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.