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Satan’s Gradual Understanding of God in Milton's Paradise Lost

 

Paradise Lost presents itself with Satan wanting to pervert the good offspring of God. Satan becomes the protagonist at the beginning of Paradise Lost and it sheds a light on Satan’s motives and how he justifies those motives. Also, the fact that he is the protagonist depicts him as this courageous, decisive, and heroic figure that challenges God. Such a controversial depiction of Satan fades away in Milton’s Paradise Regained. In both poems, Milton is very straightforward with the titles. Paradise Lost mainly dwells on how paradise is lost. Paradise Regained elucidates the ways that unseal the gates of heaven for men. More importantly, In Paradise Regained, Satan’s confident and heroic stance fades away and in the face of Jesus, Satan becomes this confused and perplexed figure that is desperate and impetuous. This essay will analyze Satan’s drastic shift from confident to confused and desperate and this will argue that Milton’s opposite portraits of Satan reflect Satan’s gradual understanding of God. Namely, as Satan becomes more aware of God’s power, his confident stance starts to descend and Satan becomes perplexed.

Satan’s rebellion and his optimistic approach that he can defeat God by corrupting his good offspring stem from his lack of ability to understand God, and in Paradise Lost Milton portrays Satan as this confident and assertive heroic figure to spotlight that it is Satan’s ignorant nature that allows him to dare to challenge. Before Satan attempts to seduce Eve, God is well aware of the future and allows Satan to corrupt Eve only because it grants Eve an opportunity to use her reasoning. God voices his thoughts about freedom and reasoning and says that “What I pleasure I from such obedience paid, / When Will and Reason (Reason is also choice)/ Useless and vain, of freedom both despoild”.(Paradise Lost, lines 107-109). This holds utmost importance as it shows the absolute control God has over everything. Eve’s reasoning is only meaningful if she gets to choose. When God says “reason is also choice” and without the freedom to reason, reason and will are “useless and vain” it alludes to the idea that God values obedience only if his creation chooses to obey. It is this precise reason why God lets Satan’s temptations pass unchallenged. Obstructing Satan from attempting to seduce Eve means taking away Eve’s freedom to choose because there is no option to choose. Thereby, when Satan thinks he is discreetly corrupting the offspring of God, Satan is actually being indirectly shepherded by him. Satan, as he was talking to the other fallen angels, says “Our power sufficient to disturb his Heav’n,” (Paradise Lost, line 102), however, as God reveals, it is God that allows Satan to disturb the heaven. This shows how much control God has over Satan and how little Satan has control over the course of the future. Most importantly, it suggests that Satan’s ignorance becomes his own enemy leading him to help God. His ignorance also allows him to be confident and assertive. This assertive tone changes only after Satan gets a glimpse of God’s grace through the image of Jesus. In the Book III of Paradise Lost God touches upon the unborn corruption and says “Man shall not quite be lost, but sav’d who will,/ Yet not of will in him, but grace I me”( Paradise Lost, lines173-174). God foreshadows that it is the grace of God that will save people from being lost, and Satan’s encounter with Jesus presents him a glimpse of God’s grace through the image of Jesus. It is this picture that drives Satan to realize his vulnerability against God, and hence become confused. Satan’s encounter with Jesus unveils to him the grace of God leading Satan to be more and more desperate and confused, and two opposite depictions of Satan carry importance as it unveils Satan’s helpless and vulnerable nature in the face of God.

Milton portrays Satan as a confident and assertive character to later show that men should only endure the pain by embracing the grace of God that will wither not only Satan’s confidence but his impact on people as well. Satan blinded by his pride doesn’t understand God’s omniscient nature and doesn’t even question God’s indifference against his rebellion. Instead, he says “whose eye Views all things at one view?/ he from heav’ns highth/ All these our motions° vain, sees and derides;”( Paradise Lost, lines 190-191). Here, Satan acknowledges God’s omnipotence and the fact that God is doing nothing but watching and deriding. In Paradise Regained, we see a similar pattern with Jesus. Jesus responds with indifference to Satan’s implacable attempts to tempt him. This reaction from Jesus causes Satan to become desperate and confused.  In a way, God acts quite similarly to Jesus at the beginning of Paradise Lost. This reinforces the idea that Satan is vulnerable and powerless in the face of God’s grace. To put it another way, defeating Satan doesn’t require anything but enduring the pain and temptation because as God puts it “Man shall not quite be lost,” (Paradise Lost, line 173).  as long as they embrace God’s rules. In Paradise Regained, Satan is desperate and perplexed because Jesus is nothing but enduring the pain and embracing God’s rules. In a way, Satan becomes exposed to God’s passivist wraith. As Satan gradually starts to understand God’s power, Jesus says “To worship thee, accursed? Now more accursed/ For this attempt, bolder than that on Eve, / And more blasphemous, which expect to rue” (Paradise Regained, lines 179-180). In a way, Jesus is pointing out to Satan that his endeavors are far more intense than it was to Eve, nevertheless, Jesus is still not tempted because he is serving to God, not him. Satan becomes bewildered and it is at this point he becomes cursed to wither away with the knowledge that he will not succeed in corrupting the good. This reinforces the fact that ignorance is the source of Satan’s confidence and as he understands more about God, he becomes more desperate and confused because he doesn’t know what to do. Ultimately, Jesus refutes every argument Satan makes, however, Satan’s pride forces him to continue and finally fall as a symbolic scene that shows how vulnerable Satan is against the grace of God.

            At the end of Paradise Regained, Satan in an attempt to tempt Jesus to jump from the tower, “But Satan, smitten with amazement, fell” falls. This carries utmost importance as it is the second time Satan falls. Initially, Satan falls because of his pride. The second time he ignores what is shown to him by Jesus and falls, again because of his pride. Satan’s first fall causes humanity to descend from heaven, and in his second fall humanity will regain paradise. The only difference between the two falls is Satan himself. He becomes exposed to the grace of God, and his confident stance changes into utter desperation. Milton depicts him in two different characters to show that only those who are ignorant and prideful enough will rebel against God.

Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Mint Editions, 2021.

Milton, John. Paradise Regained. Mint Editions, 2021.

 

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