Milton's Satan

Satan’s soliloquy at the beginning of book four is the perfect of example of the dichotomy within his personality. He expresses feelings of wretchedness and regret at never being able to find peace, which is the true curse of hell, by saying that “Be then his love accursed, since love or hate, to me alike it deals eternal woe.” I think this is a perfect summation of the Satan Milton has been portraying in Paradise Lost. The bitterness Satan feels toward God and himself is evident here. Repetition is one of Milton’s most effective techniques not only for this passage, but in Paradise Lost. Here, he uses it as Satan laments his own foolish ambition, and curses God for possessing the divine love he had/has for Satan even though he knew he was going to fall from grace.

Satan goes onto say that he felt such ill contentment with God, because he could not repay God for his creation or his kindness; and how because of this feeling of indebtedness without means of payment was “burthensome.” He further explicates his actions by blaming his high rank for inducing ambition within him and ponders that if he were some lesser entity he might yet be happy and not cast out of heaven. In this speech Satan flip flops between hypothetical instances of his restore, or never falling from paradise, to statements referencing his dark heart and sinful nature. In lines ninety-three to ninety-seven, he wishes for some redeemable act that will return to him his former grace, but quickly answers his own fervent wishes by saying that his nature would just resurface and produce an even worse fate than that which he has already been sentenced. Therefore, he justifies his acts now as being his only recourse for the evil that he must embrace now, for any good qualities inherit in the Angels no longer exist for him and he will bring his bitterness and anger to the world of men.

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