Question
Does Satan play a role of hero in Paradise Lost?
What are your opinions about Satan and Adam in Paradise Lost, which one is the hero?
All Answers (14)
-
I think satan is the real hero -
None of them is a hero. The better source of information is the Holy Book called the Bible! -
It is just a drama played by the almighty on the stage known as life, no one is a hero....
All do their alloted roles, our job is to do our role to perfection -
These are not replies to the literary question. Maybe they are both heroes, or at least protagonists. Could one exist without the other? A dialectical relationship, perhaps, and possibly it is the two together which is the "hero." Atif, what do you think?
-
Well, i think that it is wrong to assume that the almighty is infallible...Satan is a rebel, a son who was so subjugated that he had to rebel...Adam is a victim of the almighty father...He banishes him from Heaven because he took from the tree of knowledge...God is shown as a dominating father who does not let his children to outgrow him...In this respect he is the same as all patriarchal deitis...I must stress that we are all influenced by the church's dogma, and that we rarely free ourselves and see things for what they are...In the New Testament we see a change and instead of Jahve we have a loving and caring God, but the Church turned him into a punisher, for their means...I recommend to all to stand away from the church and read the holy scripture without the influence of dogma...As Blake says one should cleanse his doors of perception.... -
i think its better to keep religion aside and think as rational mind .......well we know that God almighty is the omnipotent but here is the question of hero and villain .....well so for my thinking concern satan is the real hero in paradise lost well if Satan did not compel Adam to eat that apple how the creation of world could be possible? and next thing is that if we look it from religious perspective God made Satan a hero to create the whole universe........do you guyz agree? -
I agree that here Satan can be regarded as a hero... His compelling Adam to eat the apple can be seen as an act of act of rebellion, a true heroic act against a domineering force...The religious stand point would, as you said, be
that God is the one who operated from the shadows , and made Satan a hero... -
Yes satan is real hero in the paradise lost without his contributio the epic will not give this much effort to the readers as a protogonist he acted better than other characters.according to the holy book both satan and adam created by omnipotent why he insisted them to play like that? Some time people may forget adam but they never forget sata becauae he is the ever green hero whether he is good or bad -
yes Satan can be a hero but we always has a favoritism of hero for a kind person, so we can call the Satan as a hero. -
I think you need to decide if you are using the term "hero" as synonymous with "protagonist" or not. If not, you need to decide what you do mean by "hero."
-
i am pretty sure that Milton did not intend to make satan the villain hero as so blatantly is. Milton was a christian
and held such ideas but the paradise lost is his master piece
in which he takes the side of satan, unitentionally, and making jesus
this puny figure who maist have his father do the hardest work for him. using
thebible as a yardstick, clearly the feats of jesus in paradise lost is nothing compared to the bible, this said,
satan in paradise lost is nothing like his portrayal in the bible. in Miltons work
Satan is mildly put in modern terms a stud. -
the question here is whether Milton presented him as a hero or not.....In the first two books, Satan's existence is larger than life...in these books a psychological justification of his behavior is presented....why he revolted against God, how he mustered up all his power and the way he elevates the morale of his disciples....these make him more of a leader....and make him a hero in his skin....but the turn of events shows how he deteriorated from his own standards...his values were marred by his jealousy, and how his qualities gave way to his hatred for Adam, so much so that he stooped to crawling on his belly, in the most base most venomous form
-
If we leave religion out of the equation of "hero," we can see Satan as the famous warrior hero akin to Old English heroes like Beowulf. If you read the excerpt called Genesis B, you will see the model of Milton's Satan. Except for the third book of PL,Satan dominates the text through Book IX when he "falls" and becomes the serpent crawling upon his belly. But as one of the other responses notes, you must clearly define "hero" before you proceed; if you mean "protagonist" (and it seems that possibly you do mean that), then I think you are correct in denoting Satan as the "main character" who drives all action. But the usual interpretation gives the hero status to Adam (and sometimes Christ); it is important to note that Milton does differ from the usual Christian view that Christ is born to die as the redeemer of mankind. Instead, when God asks for "volunteers," every single angel refuses; only then does Christ step forward to volunteer, making it seem that perhaps Milton's Christ is not a simple member of the Trinity (as taught in Christian theology). Even if you try to move Christian theology out of the poem, it is important to remember that Milton was a radical Protestant, who nearly lost his life by siding with Cromwell during the English Civil War and interregnum, for which he served as Secretary of State. But Milton did run into problems depicting God in narrative--if God has no time sense as humans do, then he comes off sounding like a conspirator before the fact--he knows what will happen and sets it up. In Western law, we call that conspiracy and foreknowledge; a person who knows a crime will be committed is legally bound to report the crime. There are all kinds of problems with Milton's God. His Satan is much more fascinating and rational.
-
Depends on how you view it. Most of the people have not gone beyond the first two books where Satan is his dynamic best. However, the end of the epic, he emerges as a malevolent creature. Again, the definitions of the terms 'hero', 'protagonist' etc need to be clearly given before any definitive stand can be taken. By the way, the Cambridge Companion to Milton offers interesting insights into this debate.
