Satan in paradise lost

ogre Satan is the first major character introduced in the poem. one time called Lucifer, the most beautiful of all angels in Heaven, hes a tragic fgure who describes himself with the now-famous quote Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heavn. He is introduced to Hell after he leads a failed rebellion to wrestle correspond of Heaven from God. Satans desire to rebel against his creator stems from his unwillingness to be subjugated by God and his Son, claiming that angels atomic number 18 self-begot, self-raised,4 thereby denyingGods authority over them as their creator. Satan is deeply arrogant, albeit powerful and charismatic. Satans persuasive powers are unornamented throughout the book not only is he cunning and deceptive, but he also is open to rally the angels to continue in the rebellion after their agonising defeat in the Angelic War. He argues that God rules as a tyrant and that all the angels ought to rule as gods. 5 Satan is comparable in many ways to the tragic her oes of classic Greek literature, but Satans hubris far surpasses those of previous tragedies.Though at clock he plays the narrative role of an anti-hero, he is still commonly understood to be the antagonist of the epic. However, the original nature of his role in the poem has been the subject of much notoriety and scholarly debate. While well-nigh scholars, like the critic and writer C. S. Lewis, interpret the poem as a genuine Christian piety tale, other critics, like William Empson, view it as a more ambiguous work, with Miltons complex characterisation of Satan playing a large part in that perceived ambiguity. 6