The Beauty and the Beast -Song Whittington

     After consuming this media, I find myself returning to a general question: why does Milton make Satan the hero? Now I know what you're thinking, "but Song, we talked about this in class. Satan isn't the hero, Man is," and to that I say, yeah you're right. However, I would like to direct you to the first two books of Paradise Lost which are entirely focused on the maestro of sin himself. Satan is portrayed as being "in the right" and is written in a way that makes it easy to sympathize with him. Why? Satan is the villain, no? So why is he painted in a brighter light?

    When looking deeper into the workings of Hell and of Satan himself, you don't have to dig far to learn that Satan's beautiful visage is a facade. Satan is shown as the leader of the fallen, a beautiful archangel who dared to challenge the Highest, but looking deeper he's a self-centered prick. He wants glory, power, control, all things that rightfully belong to God. Satan knows this and still sees himself as worthy of all of this. Much in the way Satan is portrayed beautifully yet is the center of evil, so is the way of sin. Not only does the characterization of sin portray this, but sin, in general, is desirable on the surface yet deadly and repulsive beneath. I believe Milton wanted to show this through his nearly tangible description of Satan and his Hell. That, or I am looking way too far into this. 


Edit: I commented on Aslyn Scism's and Elijah Mahn's posts.

Comments

  1. Justin JSeptember 13, 2021 at 11:39 PM

    I think you're on the right track, as are the people pointing out that they're feeling a bit of empathy for the character of Satan. I think he's meant to serve as a bit of a cautionary tale for the audience. Milton presents him in such a way that we as people can see our own flaws and failures in him, and will (hopefully) strive to do better than he does in the story. One of the most powerful methods of learning moral lessons is through seeing or hearing other people's experiences, sometimes positive but more often through their failures. There are a lot of cautionary tales in the Bible, and I think Milton is trying to continue in that same vein by highlighting the ultimate cautionary tale: God's highest and most honored servants choosing to betray him for their own selfish gain.

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  2. The Mahn-sterSeptember 13, 2021 at 11:40 PM

    Milton probably starts with Satan because he wants to reveal how deceptive the devil really is, as well as his ambitions. Satan often sounds very wise, and you may find yourself following along with his line of thinking, until you really analyze what he is saying and where it leads, and realize that it is evil. Milton most likely wants the reader to recognize why someone would fall for Satan's tricks, as Adam and Eve did.

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  3. Ashlyn ScismSeptember 14, 2021 at 9:50 AM

    It is fascinating how Milton describes Satan and like you pointed out I believe this is intentional. Milton is highlighting the nature of sin itself by writing it as if it is the main character. Sin and Satan want to be the protagonist because the protagonist nearly always prevails in the end. We can see this in the present day throughout our culture. Sin is glorified and beautified and Satan is the ultimate broken bad boy. Since the fall mankind has been trying to fix their brokenness through whatever means they come across, whether that be Christ or the things of this world. So people are attracted to the idea of the redemption for the damaged. The most interesting redemption arcs follow the most fallen characters. So with Satan being the most fallen he is by default the most intriguing character for our culture to sympathize with.

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