However, the second line stops this iambic rhythm. However, when analysing the above quotation we see that the first of these lines is iambic pentameter, and is said with ease. This makes Satan's pride and subsequent challenge of God in Heaven not deceptive but an act of curiosity.
What matter where, if I shall be the same".
Satan's flaw is that he is misguided, and follows what he believes to be true: "The mind is its own place, and in itself/Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. Whilst this task is impossible, it is also one that he is persistent in, and this is where his heroic qualities originate from.Īristotle's theory of hamartia (an injury committed against another person in ignorance) can be applied to the traditional heroic archetype, and therefore show that heroes can have flaws whilst having the right intentions. One of the causes for Satan's fall from Heaven and subsequent despair was his pride, and attempt to "equal the most High" an impossible task. With Satan on the other hand we are immediately meant to identify with his desires and disappointments, and notice that Satan is "Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair." In fact the very title "Paradise Lost" is focusing on Satan's loss of Heaven and his success of tricking Adam and Eve into losing Eden, and not God's grace and attempt to combat this. This is obvious from the start, with Milton stating his aim to "justify the ways of God to men." This makes God the opposition, and sets up Paradise Lost as a theodicy to justify God, not to adore or worship him. Milton realises this tension between evil and heroism, and plays with it, portraying Satan in some ways as a very admirable character and God as a wrathful and distanced one. To see Satan as a hero we must see him as more than simply an evil and antagonistic monster. However, when taking a typical descri ption of a hero (the chief male character in a book, play, or film, who is typically identified with good qualities, and with whom the reader is expected to sympathize1, for example), it can be argued that God does not fulfil this criteria, and the Satan we are introduced to in Book 1 of Paradise Lost is far more suited to be given this title. In a poem narrating the fall of Satan, the creation of the world and the subsequent fall of man, one would be justified in assuming the hero is God. Paradise Lost is an epic poem and therefore it is assumed that it contains a heroic figure. What impression do we gain of Satan in Paradise Lost: Book 1?
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