For those of you who do not know, Paradise Lost is an epic poem about the Fall of Man that was written by the English poet John Milton (lived 1608 – 1674) and first published in 1667. Even though John Milton was a devout Puritan, Satan functions as the main character for most of the poem. Milton portrays Satan as a larger-than-life figure: the Prince of Darkness, the enemy defeated but not destroyed, a cunning sophist with rhetoric as his greatest weapon, a haughty villian brimming with hate and anger.
Milton’s portrayal of Satan has arguably been more influential on modern ideas about the Devil than any other portrayal. Milton practically created the Devil as we know him today. In fact, Milton’s Satan so dominates the poem that many readers have come away with the impression that Milton himself sympathized with him. The English poet William Blake (lived 1757 – 1827) famously wrote, “The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels & God, and at liberty when of Devils & Hell, is because he was a true Poet and of the Devil’s party without knowing it.”
That famous speech from Book One
Arguably, the most famous lines Milton ever wrote are the ones that make up the following speech, delivered by Satan to Beëlzebub in Paradise Lost, Book One, lines 242 through 270:
“Is this the Region, this the Soil, the Clime,
Said then the lost Arch Angel, this the seat
That we must change for Heav’n, this mournful gloom
For that celestial light? Be it so, since hee
Who now is Sovran can dispose and bid
What shall be right : fardest from him is best
Whom reason hath equald, force hath made supream
Above his equals. Farewel happy Fields
Where Joy for ever dwells: Hail horrours, hail
Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell
Receive thy new Possessor: One who brings
A mind not to be chang’d by Place or Time.
The mind is its own place, and in it self
Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.
What matter where, if I be still the same,
And what I should be, all but less then hee
Whom Thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; th’ Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign secure, and in my choyce
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav’n.
But wherefore let we then our faithful friend,
Th’ associate and copartners of our loss
Lye thus astonisht 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
Regaind in Heav’n, or what more lost in Hell?”
In other words, Satan is saying that, in Heaven, it may be paradise, but you have to serve God; here in Hell, though, things may be awful, but at least we are not in servitude.
ABOVE: Illustration of Satan in Hell after his fall from c. 1866 by the French engraver and illustrator Gustave Doré for his illustrated edition of John Milton’s Paradise Lost
Milton’s true message
If you only read this one, particular passage and nothing else of Milton’s work, you might reasonably be led to the false conclusion that Milton’s intention for the poem was to invoke “sympathy for the Devil” so to speak. Maybe Milton did want to invoke a little sympathy for Satan in this particular moment, but “sympathy for the Devil” was definitely not the intention of the poem as a whole.
By at least as early as Book Three, it is abundantly clear that Satan does not really believe any of the things he said to Beëlzebub in Book One. Far from liking Hell better than Heaven, Satan absolutely hates it in Hell and wants nothing more than to get out and wreak his vengeance against the God who put him there.
What’s more, he leaves his demons behind in Hell while he escapes alone. What kind of true leader would do something like that? The fact is, Satan in the poem is a selfish, manipulative politician who will say literally anything to get people (or demons) to support him and do what he wants them to.
Throughout the rest of the poem, Milton makes it very clear that Satan is a liar, a cheater, and a scoundrel who uses clever rhetoric and sneaky mind games to manipulate people. Everything he said in that famous speech from Book One was just blatant sophistry; he was intentionally twisting the truth to make his demons want to keep following him.
ABOVE: Illustration of Satan in the Garden of Eden after his escape from Hell from c. 1866 by the French engraver and illustrator Gustave Doré for his illustrated edition of John Milton’s Paradise Lost
Abdiel’s rebuttal in Book Six
Incidentally, Milton actually offers a direct rebuttal to everything Satan says in the speech from Book One later in the poem in Book Six, lines 172 through 188. The rebuttal comes from the faithful angel Abdiel who rebukes Satan, declaring:
“To whom in brief thus Abdiel stern repli’d.
Apostat, still thou errst, nor end wilt find
Of erring, from the path of truth remote:
Unjustly thou deprav’st it with the name
Of Servitude to serve whom God ordains,
Or Nature; God and Nature bid the same,
When he who rules is worthiest, and excells
Them whom he governs. This is servitude,
To serve th’ unwise, or him who hath rebelld
Against his worthier, as thine now serve thee,
Thy self not free, but to thy self enthrall’d;
Yet leudly dar’st our ministring upbraid.
Reign thou in Hell thy Kingdom, let mee serve
In Heav’n God ever blessed, and his Divine
Behests obey, worthiest to be obey’d,
Yet Chains in Hell, not Realms expect: mean while
From mee returnd, as erst thou saidst, from flight,
This greeting on thy impious Crest receive.”
If Milton sympathized with any of the characters in Paradise Lost, it was with Abdiel—not with Satan. In fact, Milton wrote a lesser-known sequel to Paradise Lost titled Paradise Regained about Christ’s temptation by Satan in the desert. In that poem, Christ resists Satan’s temptations and Satan is left utterly defeated and humiliated.
What is amazing about Milton’s Satan is that Milton managed to portray such an inherently despicable character so authentically and with such astounding charisma that some people have been misled into thinking Milton actually supported him. William Blake was wrong about Milton supporting the Devil, but he was right about one thing; Milton was a “true poet.”
ABOVE: Illustration of the angel Abdiel striking Satan from c. 1866 by the French engraver and illustrator Gustave Doré for his illustrated edition of John Milton’s Paradise Lost
Excellent.