Charismatic and sympathetic, Milton's Satan leads a rebellion against God and rails against what he perceives as the tyranny of heaven — little wonder, then, that he has often been interpreted as a revolutionary figure. The columnist tells readers to remember that Satan's rebellion against the father was unsuccessful — that Adam and Eve, by overreaching, had fatal consequences, and that Milton's anti-monarchical stance ended up in disaster," Issa added.
But by the time he wrote Paradise Lost , the monarchy had been restored and Milton was under house arrest. He had also lost his sight, and had to dictate the poem to his daughters. Issa describes Paradise Lost as a poem about "questioning unshakable authority and unshakable hierarchy, questioning the unquestionable.
He questions why the fallen angels are killed in their numbers. He questions why God can test people in these almost nonsensical ways," he said. I grant, I am not yet painting Satan out to be a hero, unsung or otherwise, but bear with me!
Satan is clearly dealing with some quite heavy issues. He resents God for passing over him for a promotion in Heaven, and he is suffering from an extreme case of alienation and self-doubt. Now, this does not absolve Satan of all his evil deeds and desires — but it certainly humanises him and makes us wonder whether he does have a genuine impetus to cause the destruction he does.
Clearly, Satan has some nuances to his character. He is able to question authority, notice the beauty of Earth claiming it is more beautiful than Heaven , realise the beauty of Eve, and he has the introspective ability to comprehend his internal angst.
This is where the unsung hero aspect comes in: Satan, although his methods and end goals might be undesirable, and certainly villainous — his impetuses, and some of his thought processes are valid, and indicative of a hero. First, let us look at his supposed impertinence. Some might say that this was out of vanity, arrogance, and so on; however, I am inclined to think that Satan was working from a rationalist perspective.
We are often told, do not freely accept that what you are told is true. Just because someone tells you that President Trump is over 2 meters tall, does not necessarily mean he is he is actually just under 2 meters.
When Satan shares his pain and alienation as he reaches Earth in Book IV, we may feel somewhat sympathetic to him or even identify with him.
But Satan continues to devote himself to evil. Every speech he gives is fraudulent and every story he tells is a lie. He begins the poem as a just-fallen angel of enormous stature, looks like a comet or meteor as he leaves Hell, then disguises himself as a more humble cherub, then as a cormorant, a toad, and finally a snake. His ability to reason and argue also deteriorates. In Book I, he persuades the devils to agree to his plan. God simply toys with Satan in battle.
Satan is, in fact, cartoonish when he and Belial gloat over the success of their infernal cannon in Book VI. Satan and Belial stand laughing at the disorder they have caused, but they are unaware of the mountains and boulders just about to land on their heads. If all of Paradise Lost were on the level of the battle scene, the poem would be comic.
But Satan's temptation of Adam and Eve moves the demon closer to tragedy. Satan's motives in destroying the human couple may be arguable, but the effect and its implications are not.
Satan brings the humans down and causes their removal from Eden. In so doing, he also provides the way to salvation for those humans who choose freely to obey God. However, Satan provides nothing for himself. Hell is where Satan is because he has no way to rejoin God. Unlike humanity, Satan and the other fallen angels have already sealed their fates.
They live always with the knowledge of Hell. In the end, Satan calls to mind the Macbeth of Shakespeare. Both characters are magnificent creations of evil. Both are heroic after a fashion, but both are doomed. Both are fatalistic about the afterlife. Satan knows that he must remain in Hell; Macbeth says that he would "jump the life to come," if he could kill Duncan with no consequence on Earth.
Both characters are the driving force in their own works. And finally both create a kind of Hell; Macbeth's on Earth, Satan's in the universe.
0コメント