PG 1

Madhubrata Bhattacharyya

Roll Number 29

In “Eleven Stars Over Andalusia”, Mahmoud Darwish, a Palestinian in exile, identifies his experience of displacement with that of Arabs exiled from Andalusia centuries ago, and, locating himself at the intersection of these identities of displacement, casts himself as an “Adam of the two Edens, … who lost paradise twice”. (Ali 303)

Darwish is not isolated in being a figure who, racked by colonially induced phenomena of displacement and estrangement, identifies himself with the figure of Adam. Derek Walcott, for example, displays a similar tendency in seeking to circumscribe scriptural history onto the landscape of the Carribeans.[1]  While Walcott consciously engages with the English literary canon as a postcolonial Anglophone poet, no such tendency is obvious to Darwish. In the English translation of the original Arabic by Agha Shahid Ali, another poet of exile who had memorized the entirety of Lycidas and was a “fearsome mimic” (Hall 17), the reference, however, casts itself in a Miltonic idiom of the lost paradise.

Centuries ago, with the early phase of colonially induced displacement being set in motion, a language of displacement as that used in Milton resonated, for a significant figure in literary history, with her own experience of transatlantic exile. The figure was Philis Wheatley, and the language that of the image of displacement in water set out by Milton’s Lycidas. (Loscocco 9) The Miltonic influence could demonstrate also states of spatial anxiety that differ from conventional modes of understanding exile. So, for Forten, another early black female reader of Milton, the “restful depiction” of the English landscape provides her with a “psychological respite from racial inequalities abounding in her native homeland.” Forten and Wheatley provide examples of “the unconventional mode of transatlantic travel…(inspiring) a Miltonic indulgence in epic sublimes”. (Wilburn 267)

As literary studies takes into cognizance the poetics of displacement as a thematically linked tradition in its own right, one is interested in studying the foundations of such a poetics, if any, in the canon of English literature-one that can lend itself to creative engagement with, if not derivation upon, in constructing a historiography of poetic expressions of displacement. In tracing this, the most iconic image of displacement surfaces also as one established, and enduring in collective global imagination even today- that of the Edenic fall, a topic that receives (literally) epic treatment in Milton’s Paradise Lost.

The purpose of this paper is to interrogate the possibility of reading Milton as a poet of displacement. Milton is, obviously, not a diasporic or displaced poet, rather, he casts himself as belonging to the lot of the displaced that characterizes all of humankind. The examination of a possibility of reading him as possessing a definite poetics of exile is a purpose that would take us beyond the presence of displacement in the Miltonic verse, into studying his engagement with poetic, theological, and contemporary socio-political discourses of displacement and exile, and in studying his influence on subsequent poets (whether imbibed consciously or not) of exile. It would also entail an examination of the more overtly political Miltonic prose, and how he engages there, if at all, with the politics of space- including the displacement of the monarch. The purpose of this paper will be limited, however, primarily to the first objective, and will focus on Milton’s poetic works.

The politics of space has received a considerable amount of attention in recent criticism about Milton. This has been read in different ways: the space of the garden of Eden has been a preoccupation with much of Miltonic scholarship. As Milton’s longest epic is also, among his works, so central to Miltonic criticism, and the text that treats with the theme of displacement most obviously, it would not be untoward to centre our examination around it.

In Paradise Lost, the politics of space is operative at multiple levels: the national level in the context of England’s turbulent political backdrop, the global level, with European colonialism being at its incipient stage, and finally, that of Milton’s hierarchically ordered Christian universe.

Displacement, too, operates on multiple levels in Paradise Lost. The epic narrator states the fall of man as the theme central to the epic. The narrative will, however, chart out two falls- that of the angels, and that of Adam and Eve. Alongside this is the “interior exile” of the poet many critics have pointed to, with his “deliberate construction of a prophetic, solitary voice.” (D’Addario 107)

The fall of the angels plays out first, invoking images of destruction, and the vocabulary of space.

 “Hurled headlong flaming from th’ ethereal sky…

…, down

To bottomless perdition, there to dwell

In adamantine chains and penal fire” (2)

The anxiety of the fallen angels, too is cast in distinctly spatial terms, as is their ambition to regain their lost paradisal seat:

“At once, as far as Angels ken, he views

The dismal situation waste and wild

A dungeon horrible, on all sides round,

As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames

No light; but rather darkness visible” (3)

The absence of godly light inscribes into the space of Hell its very infernality. The darkness and discomfort of the space into which they are fallen is contrasted with the glory of the space which they lost. In Milton’s hierarchically construed Christian universe, space appears inevitably and inherently with value ascribed to it. This means that not only is the fall significant as displacement, it is a displacement that carries the meaning of descent, in all its significations. Images of rebellion are thus, also images that disrupt the sanctity of spatial hierarchical organization. Consequently, the anxiety of the fallen angels is not merely the anxiety about loss of a glorious space, it is also anxiety about the instability of the space to which they are now condemned. The fallen angels strive to seek solace in the freedom of having their own space-

“Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven” (8)

 but this is undercut by the control wielded by God over the entirety of the universe. The instability and unpleasantness of the pits to which they are fallen is linked directly to the fact of their condemnation to it-it is base, but it is one God retains control and supervision over. The infernal space is also, through its juxtaposition against Heaven, also firmly a space of retributive displacement.

“Is the region, this the soil, the clime,

Said then the lost Archangel, “this the seat

That we must change for Heaven?- this mournful gloom

For that celestial light? (8)

What surfaces, ultimately, is a potent idiom of loss, a loss felt in the loss of the material and physical space, as well as the state inscribed within that.

It is interesting then, that the agency the fallen angels seek to exert is also marked out in the language of spatiality and materiality- they build, they occupy thrones: they seek to transpose into their fallen, exiled land the material splendor associated with the lost Heaven.

Space may produce new Worlds; whereof so rife

There went a fame in Heaven that he ere long

Intended to create… (19)

In his attempts to chart the uncharted, Satan emerges also as a lonely figure in space- here, space is truly only space-unoccupied, untended, untouched by material culture.

Myself expose, with lonely steps to tread

Th’ unfounded Deep, and through the void immense

To search, with wandering quest… (49)

 The image of the displaced, mobile subject, looking for solace at the cost of others, is also the image of the settler-colonial,[2] just as the anxiety around the instability of space is reminiscent of later theorizations about the settler colonial garrison mentality.

Satan’s grand design of revenge is also one pertaining to spatially rendered chaos, that of causing further displacement. His “easier enterprise’ (35) is primarily directed against a

“place

…

-another World, the happy seat

Of some new race, called Man” (35)

 It has been discussed already that the juxtaposition of Hell and Heaven against each other serve to drive in their disparate conditions. The language of contrast emerges repeatedly:

“…the burning marl, not like those steps

On Heaven’s azure” (9)

This “another World” is chosen as a site of revenge due to its proximity of Heaven, and thus, its disparity from Hell. The implicit contrast posed by this ‘happy isle” (37) is realized most definitely when Satan finally reaches, and gazes upon Adam and Eve in their state of Edenic bliss: “Saw, undelighted, all delight: (86)

The alienation felt by Satan in the Garden is symptomatic of his transgression in entering it- a transgression expressed in spatial terms, and a misplacement of his self. The spatially organized hierarchy sustains itself through the governance of the rights of admission- the presence of a subject is thus loaded, in the context of the space it occupies. It is this order that is disrupted by Satan, a disruption that will see its culmination in an act of displacement, i.e, the Fall of Man. 

In the Garden, Adam and Eve is presented among the environment-one intimately tied to them, and rendered in great detail by Milton over the course of the epic. It is also in this landscape that the key to the Fall-the Tree of Knowledge is inscribed. The lush depictions of the  space of the Garden, extensively laid out before the reader gets their first glimpse of its human inhabitants, will serve to drive in the sense of spatial loss all the more potently. The most final articulation of the reality of the fall is enacted in the image of consumption by fire of the Garden itself, and thus in the annihilation of a spatially realized homeland:

Waved over by that flaming brand; the gate

With dreadful faces thronged, and fiery arms (312)

Similarly, the reality of the displacement is foretold in signs inscribed upon the natural world. (272) It is significant here that Nature is not merely a passive object acted on, it is represented as active (and feminized). As narrated by the poet,

“Nature first gave signs, impressed

On bird, beast, air…” (272)

Similarly, Nature has previously, at the eating of the fruit by Adam,

“(given) a second groan” (228)

Eve’s plaintive, poetic outcry at the prospect of leaving Eden, too, is significantly predicated upon the horror at separation from the natural landscape : “native soil”, “flowers”, and “nuptial bower”. (274) Milton’s depiction of pre-lapserian Nature has been the subject of much speculation, and its identification with Eve paved the way for eco-feminist criticism. What is significant to the poetics of displacement is that the loss of the natural environment, a fate “worse than of Death”, is portrayed not only as a loss of a material space, but as the disruption of a relationship- one enabled by the paradisal nature of their abode,

So Eve laments,

“O flowers,

That never will in other climate grow,

My early visitation, and my last

At even, which I bred up with tender hand

From the first opening bud, and gave ye names,

Who now shall rear ye to the sun…” (275)

Eve’s utterance is a particularly potent articulation of displacement- unlike the complaints of the fallen angels, it is unmediated by the need for revenge. Thus displacement emerges as a both physical phenomenon, and an affectively disruptive one.

The engagement of the human subject with the realm of the natural environment is manifest both ay the level of the affect and that of the body. The physical implications of displacement do not only involve the lost geographical space, but also that of the body. Significant here is the depiction of lapsed sexuality- the most physical manifestation of the fall is first played out in the body, in the sense of the “bad fruit” “leav(ing)… us naked” (231), bringing “guilt and dreaded shame” (232), and inducing a sexual encounter characterized by lasciviousness. The fall is enacted on the physical state before it is realized spatially, it pertains thus to a metamorphosis in state.  The divorce from the natural realm of the Garden is especially poignant when juxtaposed against the deep association to the former with which Adam and Eve are presented in their prelapserian situation:

“From this Assyrian garden, where the Fiend

Saw, undelighted, all delight, all kind

Of living creatures…

Two of far nobler shape…” (86)

It is Eve particularly, who is described through nature imagery- “as the vine curls her tendrils” (87). Both Adam and Eve are also seen participating in  the realm of the natural, as gardeners, and through their partaking of food yielded by the natural world. At one level, thus, their attachment to their paradisal seat is sensually apprehended. The participative nature of the discussed relationship between the human and the realm of the natural environment is then mutually realized.

The enactment of the fall on the body is also its enactment on their bodies in relation to one another- human and habitat are interconnected, and for Eve, Adam is Eden. (Ramachandran 212) The physical element of the fall is intensified by this intense relational term, almost that of identification, between the residents of Eden and the space of Eden- known to the reader and the narrator as one pervaded by impending loss.

The Fall is enacted also on the realm of the mind- it immediately distorts Eve’s perception of space, in the sense of the hierarchical grand scheme of the universe (Lewis 453), and lapsed sexuality, too, is distinguished by the change in emotional states associated with it. That it is brought about my an act of eating establishes the interrelation between body and mind. The mind, thus, undertakes its own journey of downward descent in conversation with the body. (Lewis 453)

Milton’s conception of embodiment thus reflects a view where his “vision of innocence” sees “human nature, body and spirit” constituting an “indissoluble unity”. (Ulreich Jr 38)

This is problematised, however, by the marginalization of the materiality of the spatial in the manner in which Paradise is to be regained- the discourse here is, ironically, anticipated by Satan’s understanding of space as state. The method of regaining posits, instead, Christ. In a way, it is in the space of Christ’s being that the redemptive potential of paradise, lost as space and state, and possible to regain as state, is realized. 

In charting out this trajectory, the regaining of Paradise is, in keeping with teleological, linear views of Christian history, not a physical restoration or recovery. It is a potential, that, no matter how glorious, will not amount to a reversal. With this, the entirety of humanity is placed as operating within a state of loss, the lapsed world as a space of exile.

The significance of the state of exile as demonstrated in Paradise Lost becomes all the more pronounced when contextualized against the theme of exile as it pervades the Miltonic verse at large. In Lycidas and in Epitaphium Damonius, the language of exile is operative at the level of the individual, in Samson to a community. In Paradise Lost, the imagination of communitarian exile is operative at the level of the universal. The universality of this imagination also explains why the language of displacement in Milton held such strong appeals to his contemporaries in framing their own experiences, or feelings, of exile, displacement and spatial nostalgia.

Milton is, of course, taking on a story of central civilisational significance. The fall is an origination story that is at once loss, displacement, exile, and entry. By rendering his description of paradise, and spaces at large, “not peripheral” (Turner 27), with the “landscaping of Heaven” (Turner 29), and the use of the “rhetorical figure”(s) of “loco-descriptive poets” (Turner 31), the Miltonic verse renders the element of place concrete. Subsequently, the narrative sees the articulation of the engagement of the individual with space, and the experience of displacement. The relationship to space is rendered significant, and the identification of space with the self entails that a destruction of one also signifies that of the other. Displacement is established, then as inherently loaded as a phenomenon. The element of a lost or a lose-able place ties together diverse elements of Milton’s hierarchical universe- Christ, with his promise of vacating his heavenly abode in the future to suffer on earth, the lost angels, with their fall from Heaven, Adam and Eve with theirs- and humanity at large, living in the aftermath of the original displacement, able to look back at the lost space only through the filter of their lapserian state. What results is a polyvocal expression of the poetics of displacement. Just as space had, inherently, value attached to it, so does the manner of engagement with exile: the fallen angels, loath to accept accountability and filled with vengeance, are rendered all the more demonic, Adam and Eve, repentant and accepting, have the possibility of redemption. Christ’s willingness to descend to the realm of earthly mortality renders him all the more divine. The Satanic anxiety about inhabiting an unstable world is also the lapsed human reality in a world ultimately headed to its own end. Place and displacement are dynamic states, and the latter a reality underpinning multiple threads of the narrative, what distinguishes states of displaced being is the reaction to displacement. It is these understandings- of displacement as dynamic and universal, of space as state- but of the triumph, ultimately, of mental states over the physical, that establishes Milton’s poetics of displacement as one opening up to diverse influence and engagement among readers grappling with varying forms of exile, displacement, and estrangement. If Milton is an estranged poet reaching out to the universal through an articulation of universal loss, this evocation of an all-encompassing community becomes solace for the alienating experiences of various forms of displacement- and a powerful idiom to capitulate upon, or transform.

LIST OF WORKS CITED:

Conlan, J.P. “Paradise Lost: Milton’s Anti-Imperial Epic” Pacific Coast Philology, Vol. 33, No. 1 (1998), pp. 31-43

D’Addario, Christopher. “ The expulsion from Paradise: Milton, epic and the restoration exiles”. Exile and Journey In Seventeenth Century Literature. Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Darwish, Mahmoud. Trans. Ali, Agha Shahid, Dallal Ahmad. “Eleven Stars Over Andalusia.” The Veiled Suite. Penguin Books, 2009.

Hall, Daniel. “Foreword.” The Veiled Suite. Penguin Books, 2009.

John, Milton. Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. Collin Classics, 2013.

Jr. Ulreich C John. “Milton on the Eucharist: Some Thoughts On Sacramentalism”. Milton And The Middle Ages. Ed. John Mulryan. Bucknell University Press, 1982. 

Lewis, C.S. “Satan.” John Milton: Paradise Lost. Ed. Tesky, Gordon. WW Norton & Company, 2005.

Loscocco, Paula. Phillis Wheatley’s Miltonic Poetics. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

Ramachandran, Ayesha. “This Pendant World”:Creating Miltonic Modernity. The Worldmakers: Global Imaginings In Early Modern Europe. The University of Chicago Press, 2015.

Turner, James G. “The Ideal Form of Landscape”. The Politics Of Landscape. Basil Blackwell, 1979.

Walcott, Derek. Names. Poetry Atlas. 2019 Poetry Atlas.

Walcott, Derek. The Sea Is History. Poets.Org.  Academy of American Poets.

Wilburn, Reginald A. Milton’s Early Black Sisterhood. Milton Studies, Volume 54, 2013, pp. 259-290 (Article) Penn State University Press. Project Muse.

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[1]  In “The Sea is History’, Walcott inscribes Bibilical and European history into the space of the Carribeans:

First, there was the heaving oil,

heavy as chaos;

then, like a light at the end of a tunnel,

the lantern of a caravel,

and that was Genesis.

“Names” sees an engagement with originary myth and the function of Adamic naming.

[2] Paradise Lost has seen a surge of recent criticism that seeks to read it against the colonisation of the Americas. Conlan reads Milton as distinctly anti-imperial, with Satan as a figure of warning for settler colonisers. This draws upon the criticism of Quint, who reads Paradise Lost as an indictment of colonialism by Milton’s countrymen, and Evans who reads in the figure of Satan both the “role of the Spanish conquistadors and the “legendary duplicity of the Indians.” (Colan 31-43)

Sourav Roy English PG1 Roll-68

John Milton,arguably one of the greatest writers of the english speaking world and one of the foremost Nihilists to have taken up the pen and write about it, connecting theology and philosophy with political ideology, may also be called one of the most influential political authors of all time whom we don’t really identify with as a political leader.

       He was also a staunch supporter of freedom of speech and freedom of the press, and wrote in defense of both on several occasions in his deeply motivated political writings.

It can very well be noted that Milton developed his philosophical views first, which later helped form his political ideologies. Although John started writing very early in life, and by the time he finished college, he had already written some of his well known works like L’Allegro and Il’Penserosso, he achieved popularity and garnered respect/audience in the society only after starting his career as a pamphleteer. He was a radicalist by values, and after the new republican government(Commonwealth of England, Ireland and Scotland) was established under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell, Milton supported the Presbyterians and often wrote in favour of them and also took office as the Secretary for Foreign Tongues in 1649.

   Milton’s polemic writings began after he returned from an extensive tour of Europe and found England in a state of confusion and violence following the Bishops’ Wars; he denounced episcopacy in favour of Puritan and Parliamentarian causes.

One central idea and theme that could be found across many of Milton’s writing was his lack of faith in unitarianist faith and monarchical governmental systems. He saw how problematic it could become if everyone put their faith and trust in one entity, who reigned supreme, unchallenged and unparalleled. An excerpt of an article on Paradise Lost from The Artifice states, “The most interestingly examined ideas are his doubts as to the intelligence and sanity of those who would install a monarch as their ruler, as well as the degrading position this puts them in. By using Satan as the protagonist of his ideas he automatically prejudices people against the ideas being explored. This strange flip of characters, with Satan being the hero of the story and God the “awful Monarch,” allows for a full exploration and expression of Milton’s views while forcing the reader to think critically of everything being said and done. Milton wanted England to realize what a monarchy truly means and to answer for the decision they made, if not to him, then to themselves, in perhaps the most elaborate, inspiring and beautiful ‘I Told You So’ in all of early modern England.”

The revolutionary character of John Milton and his writings is well evident, and those paved the way to inspire the thoughts of many great minds during his time and for centuries to come.

   Among his political writings, Antiprelatical tracts, Areopagitica, Eikonoklastes and Paradise Lost may have been more often quoted, but he wrotes sevral more volumes in defence of the Commonwealth Republic and innumerable pamphlets as a professional pamphleteer.

  Milton wrote The Antiprelatical tracts just after the Bishops’ Wars of 1639-1640. He opposed the policies of the Church of England and William Laud(the Archbishop of Canterbury), and entered into a pamphlet war by siding with the Antiprelatical factions. Milton drew various connections and similarities between the church and the government and cited examples and references from religious texts and scriptures to support his arguments.

 Next came Areopagitica which Milton published at the height of the English Civil War, denouncing the Licensing Order of 1643. Areopagitica still stands amongst one of history’s most influential philosophical defence of the right to freedom of speech and freedom of expression, press. Milton reflected on the very purpose of reading, and argued that some of our prophets and holy men were very learned people, and that true learning essentially involves all sorts of knowledge, and that the truth can only be separated from what is false after that, through conscience and consideration. He pointed out that every human has been endowed with the faculties of reason and free will, and they should be able to exercise those faculties rather than the government and church deciding for them. Milton highlighted the futility of the Parliament’s efforts of censorship and pitched for more libertarian principles. Milton’s ideas were way ahead of his time as he had anticipated the arguments of later advocates of free speech by relating the concept of free will and the choice to individual expression; he also “laid the foundations for thought thay would come after and express itself in such authors as John Locke and John Stuart Mill”. Although initially resisted by Puritans, Milton’s ideas were later incorporated into the official charter of the Puritan Church. Areopagitica’s influence can also be observed in the United States Constitution which includes the clause prohibiting pre-publication censorship. The Supreme Court of the United States made references to Areopagitica in interpreting the First Amendment to the Constitution. A quotation from Areopagitica displayed over the entrance to the Main Reading Hall of the New York Public Library reads:  “A good Booke is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, imbalm’d and treasur’d up on purpose to a life beyond life”

Then he wrote the controversial but popular work The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, in which he becomes one of the first Europeans to posit a republic is the only acceptable form of government, and that monarchy is in no way, just.

He further wrote Eikonoklastes to counter the Eikon Basilike in which Charles 1 was portrayed as a martyr. Both books together tried to justify the execution of Charles I.

.

Apart from Eikonoklastes he also wrote two more commissioned books namely Defensio pro Populo Anglicano and Defensio Secunda as defences of the Parliamentary regime.

After that, a major shift in his work can be observed in A Treatise of Civil Power and The Ready and Easy Way. He tried his best to remind the Parliament not to disregard personal liberty and encouraged them to strive for the true essence of an English Republic. His opinion was not paid heed to, and soon, the English Restoration took place.

 Milton’s greatest work, the biblical epic Paradise Lost, although belonging to a different genre, contains traces of political allegories like the Sin and Death allegory in which Milton reminds the reader not to forget England’s violent past in the hands of monarchs, and forebodes that a “comic reconciliation” through Restoration might not go well. Paradise Lost can very well be read as Milton’s greatest stance on religion. Though Milton was a Presbyterian, he took his views further and ultimately called for the removal of all priests. He supported the fragmentation of churches, and saw it as a sign of healthy self-examination. He believed that each individual Christian must be his own church, without having to adhere to any establishment. These differences ultimately led to his break from the Presbyterians. From that point, Milton advocated the complete abolishment of all church establishments, and kept his own private religion, which was similar to the Calvinism practised by Presbyterians but differing in some ways. Milton’s highly individual view of Christianity makes Paradise Lost simultaneously personal and universal. In his later years, Milton came to view all organised churches, no matter Anglican, Catholic or Presbyterian, as an obstacle to true faith. He felt that the individual and his conscience was a much more powerful tool in interpreting the Word of God. Through Paradise Lost, Milton justified Adam and Eve’s fall from heaven as rather fortunate, because it gave humanity a fair chance and opportunity to redeem themselves by true repentance and faith. The importance of remaining strong in one’s personal religious convictions, particularly in the face of widespread condemnation, is a major theme in the later books of Paradise Lost, as Michael shows Adam the vision of Enoch and Noah, two followers of God who risk death to stand up for him. Paradise lost also presents some Protestant Christian positions like the unification of the Old and the New Testaments, the unworthiness of humankind, and the importance of Christ’s love in human salvation.

With his works, John Milton influenced innumerable minds in the centuries to come after him, including the likes of John Dryden, Alexander Pope, William Blake, George Eliot to name a few. Milton has also secured a lasting legacy and popularity through the ages.

About the enigmatic and often conflicting personality that John Milton was, David Daiches’ comment seems very appropriate:

“Christian and Humanist, Protestant, patriot and heir of the golden ages of Greece and Rome, he faced what appeared to him to be the birth-pangs of a new and regenerate England with high excitement and idealistic optimism.”

SOURAV BISWAS

PG – I . ROLL NO – 05

In every story if there is a hero, there must be a villain also. Even if the villain is not a living creature, there must be something negative that goes against the hero. There must be something negative that the hero must overcome, otherwise the story would neither get a pace nor a direction. But if the villain, the antagonist become the focus of the story! Of course a hero is needed there to give the story a certain end, but only and only to fill the demand of a story in need of a villain and a hero.

Reader’s different attitudes towards villains

    At the time where we are standing now, it is quite common where we can find such stories where the villains are appreciated. We can call them the ‘modern villain’s who are not hated by the readers, rather praised. But when we go back in time we can hardly see any of these kinds of works. The main reason behind this is that on ancient times, literature was considered only as a medium to worship God; so no negative energy could be praised there. Most importantly they used to pray because they were afraid of evil so much and used to think that thus their God would protect them. And at that time, the medium of prayer was epic poetry or songs where a story of Godly hero defeating a villain was told. So it was impossible for them to even imagine a story where the villain can leave any positive impact. The villains of those stories at that time were hated or feared by the readers or the listeners. All the stories of any kind of literary form in old age were based upon this basic theme – hero defeating villain. When it comes to middle age, the main theme of literature changed. Now poets and authors shifted their focus from divinity to humanity and nature. But still there were hardly any literary works where the villain was looked with a positive attitude. Even after the humanity  replaced divinity in subject matter of literary work and there was no risk of getting cursed by the God, no poet or author was able to create such an antagonist until john Milton wrote an unforgettable epic ‘paradise Lost’. 

Milton’s Paradise Lost

   Paradise Lost is an epic by John Milton where the story based upon the story of Adam and Eve. Though there are questions on the appropriateness of ‘paradise lost’ being an epic, it is the content of the story that we are concerned of. This is mainly the story of downfall Adam and Eve. Satan, the antagonist who loses his battle with God, resolves to carry on his battle against God even after being defeated. He is able to unify the fallen angles against God. He wants to take revenge by disturbing god’s new creation on Earth. Satan travels to paradise from hell to anyhow make Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit which was strictly forbidden to eat by the Gods. Though Satan fails in his first attempt, he returns to Garden of Eden again as a snake and provokes Eve to eat that fruit. And once Eve eats that fruit, Adam eats it too. Thus succeeding in his plan, Satan returns to hell and is praised by his sons Sin and Death and the fallen angels. Then he sends them to Earth too to make the creation of God suffer more. Adam and Eve are sent out from Garden of Eden as a punishment. Adam after being guilty, is shown how the human kind will be free of sin again when the son of God will sacrifice himself for the sin of whole mankind. At last both Adam and Eve beg mercy from God for their sin and all the devils as well as Satan ends up being snake and loosing the power of speech.

     So it is no doubt that Satan is the antagonist of ‘paradise lost’. Satan is undoubtedly very evil, who is corrupting human kind. So he must be playing the anti-hero role in the story. But even though the other characters like son of God, angels, Adam are suitable for heroic status, paradise Lost is ultimately about Satan. He is in the focus of both the writer and the reader. Satan seems to be greater than he actually is, for this kind of presentation by Milton. More artistic energy was spent on Satan by Milton than any other character in this poem. That is why the character of Satan is able to maintain interest and perhaps sympathy of the reader’s throughout the poem.

       “of  the Devil’s party without knowing it” –

The famous quote on ‘paradise Lost’ by William Blake leads the readers to a idea that Satan is a hero  or kind of hero in this poem. This idea cannot be totally denied as Satan shows many qualities of a tragic hero in this poem.

Satan’s heroic attitude-

Many critics and writers, especially from romantic era, examined Satan as a promethean hero who is pitting his self against the unjust God. These heroic pictures of Satan, described by these critics, are mostly based on the first two chapters of this epic. In these books, Satan like a hero rose off the lake of fire then delivered a heroic speech about his decision of still challenging the God. Satan is a great leader and manages to unify the rebels again. He told them that they can make a ‘hev’n of hell’ and ‘a hell of hev’n’ and ’better to reign in hell than in heaven’. And then finally goes to Earth on his own. This kind of introduction of Satan makes him a hero to the readers on the first sight.

     Satan appears to be the hero also because the first two books of ‘Paradise Lost’ focus on the story of hell and fallen angels and the readers start to read the poem through Satan’s point of view. He also possesses most of the qualities of a tragic hero. Satan is powerful character filled with extreme courage and pride. He risks everything and fights for a cause that he believes in. It is more than enough to achieve readers’ sympathy. He is not as powerful as God, but he continues his fight going beyond his limits. He is a ‘leader with a plan’. Just like an admirable leader, Satan inspires and consoles the fallen angels and asks to continue the war. On the other hand, Milton portrays God as wrathful, punishing and unjust that makes the antagonist more heroic.

Why is Satan ultimately a villain-

     But how much heroic Satan seems to be, he cannot be the hero of the poem. Though Satan posses some heroic characters and able to collect the sympathy of the readers in the first two book, as the story progresses, the evilness of Satan discloses rapidly. This point of his taking revenge can be understood and accepted, but corrupting all the creation of God and destroying all the peace of innocent couple- Adam and Eve, cannot be seen with sympathy, rather this cruel act of Satan disgusts us and starts to create hatred against him. Satan’s motives also changes as the story advances. At first the fight was for freedom, later or becomes for glory. He also degenerates physically in his appearance. And the degeneration from higher to lower species, shows the fall of his motives and characters. A promethean hero is supposed to do the things by judging the right or wrong, but here Satan does only that what he want. This is why he looses the heroic image in the eyes of readers gradually. The Satan, who once was seemed to be a heroic character of this poem, ends up being a fallen villain.

     It is hard to come to a conclusion that if Satan is a hero or not. He is possessing the heroic character and starts the story with a heroic attitude. But his deeds and fallen motives stops him being a hero, making him a villain. But we cannot deny his heroic attitude also. For some reason we cannot hate him even if we want. He resembles the character of Macbeth of Shakespeare. Both of them are magnificent character of evil. Both of them are hero but doomed. Both Macbeth and Satan, is the driving force in their field. Thus none of them can be justified as pure villain. Even after creating such a mess and wrong to humankind and god, we still have sympathy for Satan for his ultimate fate.

Satan as a Modern Villain

      Now when we compare Satan with a modern villain, we can see how it makes more sense now. Just like any modern villain, he was also was run by his situation. No one is villain by birth. Rather the situation and a very horrible past create a villain. It is obvious that a hero is created to be idiolized, but it is the villain who makes more sense. Hero can never represent the social or economical or any kind of crisis that a modern villain can. So if the hero shows how it should go on, the villain reflects what is going on and. It is a modern villain who shows the readers or audiences all the negatives that are going on and should be removed and corrected. Only a villain can show the disputes that the common people want to be removed. He can also be judged as a representative of the untold pains, sorrows, blames of common people.

     One of the most loved villains of all time is Joker from Batman. Even the hero cannot hate such a villain who makes more sense and is correct and appropriate in his place. There are many loved villains like him over there. And all of them are somehow same at some point. Society is responsible for the creation of such villains just as God is responsible for Satan becoming a villain. Readers are sympathetic to him. Just like a modern villain, sometimes he goes beyond the hero. Throughout the story he holds an upper hand over the hero, just like any modern villain but faces a tragic end at last.

Conclusion

     So in conclusion it is better to consider Satan of ‘Paradise Lost’ as a modern villain rather than a hero or just a so called villain. He is the main focus of the poem even after being the antagonist. He is also the hero of the fallen angels as well as of Sin and Death. Just because he is portrayed as an antagonist, he cannot be the hero of the story. But we also cannot consider or accuse him as the villain for his heroic attitude and our sympathy towards him. So it will be justified to call him a modern villain as we cannot hate him even if we want. He has all the qualities to be a hero but he chooses his own way and ended up being a respected villain.

Bibliography

Ampleman, Lisa. “Why Satan’s Character in Paradise Lost Is the Original Antihero.” 19 Oct. 2017.

Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Penguin Classics, 2003.

Monami. “Who Is the Hero of ‘Paradise Lost’?” Owlcation, Owlcation, 9 Nov. 2017, owlcation.com/humanities/Hero-Paradise-Lost.