A Pretty Picture /////// Isabelle Ferguson

    In the beginning of Book 4, my page 133, Satan goes on a rant. That's putting it mildly. This rant includes a speech describing how he feels on the inside, and how it is not being reflected in what he is allowing others to see externally. He calls himself a ruler only in his own misery, despite being put on the throne of Hell. He has "risen" to the top despite literally falling from heaven, and here we see that he is not happy as the ruler of Hell. It's a stark contrast to his large words in Book 1. So he'd rather not rule in Hell than serve in Heaven. The rest of his followers see a great leader with remarkable words. They followed him off a bridge and into a lake of fire. He has this impression of himself painted for everyone around to see while he conceals his misery. Seeing this side of Satan, all I feel is pity.

    It's interesting how Satan's speech brings to light what he is concealing despite all of the large talk he does in our initial impression of him. His followers adore him, but he despises what's happened. Yet, he does not want to go back to Heaven, because he wants to be God. I notice this same thing in others as well as myself. We work hard to "get ahead" in life. Nothing is ever enough. When we stop to think, most of the glory we receive is meaningless. Our supposed "rise" in this temporary world is just taking us further from our Creator. Worst of all, in these reckless pursuits, we drag others down with us. And for what? Pride?


I commented on Samantha's and Emory's posts.

Comments

  1. Andrew J. HenleySeptember 13, 2021 at 11:25 PM

    I love how Milton shifts our initial impression of Satan as this grandiose figure into an impression that asks for pity from the reader. Satan is awful, but he's conflicted in his own destruction, and that much I think most humans can relate to in one way or another.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Emma Kate PattersonSeptember 14, 2021 at 1:43 AM

    I feel we as a society often do the same thing Satan does in book four. We often times hide our true emotions and do not let others around us see how we truly feel. We as a society like to pretend like everything is ok and avoid our problems by never addressing them.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A House Divided//Emily Otts

The words Jesus spoke in Matthew 12 remind me so much of this play: "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand." (Matthew 12:25) King Lear, at the end of the day, is about a family being divided multiple ways. These divisions arise over greed and hatred for one another and cause the whole family to be ruined because of it. King Lear first divides the kingdom after his daughter Cordelia does not proclaim her love to him, so he banishes her. Later, his daughters go against him for not doing as they asked, believing he is unfit and unworthy to be king, secretly plotting against him. But all of this comes to a head in Act 5. After capturing King Lear and Cordelia, Edmund plans to have them killed. You would believe the sisters would be able to work together because their plan is working, but an even greater division has risen between them. Both of them wish to have Edmund for themselves, and they plot against each o...
Read more

The Plague in Everyone// Emily Otts

     In part 4 of the Plague , Tarrou tells Rieux about how he has had the plague forever. Except, this is not the same plague as the one ravaging the town. Tarrou speaks of how his father was a lawyer who believed in the death penalty, how he saw so many people support it and be comfortable about it, and how he had to witness the executions of prisoners. He explains how this sort of mindset is a plague itself, one Tarrou had been fighting for a long time. " That's why everybody in the world looks so tired; everyone is more or less sick of plague. But that is also why some of us, those who want to get the plague out of their systems, feel such desperate weariness, a weariness from which nothing remains to set us free except death" (Camus, part 4, chapter 6). Tarrou wants to desperately not submit to such awful ways of thinking.      Tarrou does not realize it, but the plague he is talking about is sin. Everyone has it, some people give in to it and let...
Read more

The Thirst for Knowledge

     With Book Seven of Milton's Paradise Lost, Raphael is continuing his exposition on Satan's apostasy. The plan is to expose Adam and Eve to the wretched fate of those who cross God's will. The more he shed's light on the subject, however, the more Adam is inclined to ask for more information. He wants to know everything about the subject, as well as God and His creation.      However, while the taste of such knowledge leaves Adam yearning for more, there are boundaries. It is like a toddler eating a cookie... and eventually begging her mother for the rest of the jar. Is it a coincidence that the one thing Adam and Eve are not to touch is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil? Most readers know how the story ends: these toddlers are never going to be content with a few cookies. They're going in for the jar.   There is a statement in the Bible that is constantly being repeated throughout the Old Testament: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of ...
Read more