The Highest of Thrones //Hailey Walsh

    On the surface, Paradise Lost seems to be an extremely long, drawn-out poem telling a story that sounds vaguely familiar.  Although Milton's style is different, his use of parallelism, symbolism, and allegory is intriguing. Especially when it comes to Satan's fall from glory.

    Rebelling against the One who created you to serve Him doesn't seem like the brightest of ideas, but from what Milton shows us in books one and two of Paradise Lost, Satan and his minions never seem to regret it. Holding council after releasing themselves from their chains in the lake of fire, they agree on one thing: there is no going back to what they once had. Well, poor Belial believes that if they lay low for a while, God may forget entirely about them and the wrath they deserve... but that's about as optimistic as they get on the relationship with their Creator. The rest of them know that would never happen. So they plot to take over God's brand new creation and make Him pay for their failure.

    But wait. Is there parallelism between the fall of the rebel angels, and the fall of mankind? We talked about the divine election and the fact that, according to the Bible, our "fates", or "destinies" or whatever, are already mapped out by the great Planner, the Creator of the universe. He knew that Satan would rebel, and lose. He also knew that mankind would fall prey to the whiles of Satan's crew and their selfish desires. Both angels and man fell from their close relationships with their Maker. At His leave. 

    But God isn't going to leave this big mess for someone else to clean up. In His omnipresence and omnipotence, we see Him fully intending not only to clean it up but also to make something good of the evil He knows Satan is going to do. 

    After all, Satan and his fellow devils couldn't have freed themselves from their chains to plan world domination. That was a God thing. Milton carefully shows the reader that, although Satan is sitting smugly on his thrown making the most of the Hell he's been thrown into, he is always at least one step behind God. One wonders if this is a subtle reference to King Charles I and his "constitutional monarchy". In book two, Satan appears to seek council, but then we see him take his ideas and plant them into the mouths of others (like an absolute monarch under the disguise of being constitutional). While Satan and Charles I may think they are in control, they are just like everyone else: subject to the absolute will of God. 

I commented on Emily Otts' and Song's posts. 

Comments

  1. Emily OttsSeptember 6, 2021 at 6:23 PM

    I think that Satan ultimately being under the control of God goes back to the story of Job. Satan could not do anything to Job without God allowing him. Even though he thought he was in control of destroying Job, God ultimately had control over what he did, and received glory from it.

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  2. Emma LandrySeptember 6, 2021 at 6:33 PM

    When I think about it, it is pretty funny how clever Satan appears to be on the surface with his smooth-talking lies. He knows how to get people to do what he wants, but he seems to lack the skill of critical thinking. If he is aware that he cannot win in combat against God, why does it never cross his mind that God will anticipate every trick he will ever try to play on man and have an ultimate answer to the coming fall of man? Ultimately, it seems that Satan's stubbornness and pride trump any logic. That can serve as a good lesson for us, as well. We can never truly undermine God.

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