Question: What impression of Satan do you form from your reading Book I of Paradise Lost?
Or, How does Milton portray Satan's character in Book I of Paradise Lost?
Answer: Satan stands as the most dominant and powerful personality in book I of Paradise Lost. He exists most abidingly in our minds after we have finished reading the book. The character of Satan may be estimated as the sum total of stubborn pride and sensual indulgences, finding in self the sole motive of action. It is the character that is often found on the political platform. It exhibits all the restlessness, rashness and cunning possessed by almost all the mighty conquerors of the world from Nimrod to Napoleon.
These great men, as known from history, must have acted from some great motive. Milton has in a grand manner infused in Satan, the element of intense selfishness and pride, the alcohol of egotism. For this egotism, Satan would rather reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. To infuse this lust of self in opposition to the denial of self or in other words, denial of duty; and to show what exertions it would make and what pain it could endure to achieve its goal, is Milton's main objective in the portrayal of Satan.
Milton has depicted the character of Satan on two levels; physical and moral or intellectual. The depiction of Satan's physical stature is done by a subtle change in figures of speech and mutation of images to which Satan is compared. The first physical attribute of Satan may be noted as he emerges from the burning lake and steps towards the shore in his tremendous size. Here Milton follows the classical tradition. He does not give a detailed description of the physical stature of Satan but compares him to the largest creatures, real or mythical, like the Titans or the giants who fought with Jove or like. Briaroes (huge monsters with hundred hands) like Typhoon (a giant) or Leviathan, sea monsters of huge size in classical myth.
It is told, the pilot of a small ship mistook Leviathan, who was sleeping on the surface of the Norwegian sea, to be an island and fixed the anchor of his ship firmly on the rough skin of the beast. Attaching the ship to the monster (assumed to be an island) on the shattered side away from the night wind, the shipmen were waiting anxiously for the morning to come.
To draw the gigantic figure of Satan the poet emphasises the objects he carries, The shield and the spear he carries, which have been respectively compared to the moon (I. 284-291) and the mast of a flagship (1.292-294). On the basis of that shield and spear, we can easily guess how gigantic the figure of Satan is. Again, we find Satan standing as the commander-in-chief and reviewing his fallen army after they had been raised out of Chaos:
"He, above the rest
In shape and gesture proudly eminent,
Stood like a tower." (I. 589-591)
Satan's comparison to a proud tower and later on to the Sun dimmed behind the mist on the horizon, is remarkable. Satan, as we find, has not yet lost all the original brightness of an angel in Heaven, for he may still be compared to the Sun and the Moon. Although some of his glory has been lost, he still appears like the Sun seen through morning mist, or like the Moon in eclipse. So he has still some kind of majesty and grandeur. Milton after the classical model uses extensively epic similes to draw the physical stature of Satan. On the moral or intellectual level, we find Satan as a great political leader endowed with such virtues as indomitable courage, obdurate pride, implacable hatred, the endurance of suffering and longing for revenge. Satan's indomitable will and his undying spirit of revenge may be traced in the following lines spoken by him to Beelzebub in his second speech:
"To be weak is miserable,
Doing or suffering."
His third speech reveals yet another characteristic of his personality- his stoicism and indifference to pleasure and pain:
"Farewell, happy fields,
Where joy for ever dewells! Hail, horrors, hail,
Infernal world! and thou, profoundest hell,
Receive they new possessor, one who brings
A mind not to be changed by place or time".
Thus Satan's skill as a great leader and orator is proved time and again in his different speeches delivered by him to rouse his comrades from the condition of torpor and despondency.
Although Satan's character is essentially evil, it is undoubtedly a powerful character which indirectly reflects Milton's own heroic, energy.
Satan is the prototype of the eternal evil and he will continue through eternity to fight with the good. Thus, the portrait of Satan is an immortal creation of Milton and we cannot but marvel at him for his fortitude in adversity and courage, never to submit or yield."
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