JOHN MILTON – PARADISE LOST – SATAN’S SPEECH
John Milton is the most important poet and the most representative of the Puritan Age . His poetry was influenced by the historical events of his time. From a literary point of view, he was not a man of the age . He was very much interested in the Latin, Greek and Italian culture. In 1638 he made a tour on the Continent travelling above all in France and Italy where he met Galileo Galilei. During the Civil War between Royalists and Republicans he became involved in the religious debate of the time and he took an active part on the side of the Puritans . He supported Cromwell but he had very little of the strict Puritan. He wrote for the liberty of the press while the Puritans forbade free discussion. He chose the Puritans only because he believed that in a Republic, more than in a monarchy, there were the ideal conditions for independent religion. When the Puritan power ended , he was first arrested and then released. In the meanwhile he had troubles with his eyesight . It was during this period that he started to write his best poetry.
Works : we may divide his works according to the three periods of his life: a period devoted to study, a period in which he took an active part in the political struggles of his time and the last period in which, completely blind, he retired from public life. To the first period belong some Italian poems, L’Allegro and Il Penseroso, written under the influence of Petrarch, in which he shows an excellent knowledge of the Italian language, and some Latin and English poems: Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio ( defending the execution of Charles I and supporting Cromwell’s regime ) On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity , Lycidas (a lament for a drowned friend ) .
In the second part he spent his time writing political pamphlets and taking part in the political activities. In his prose works he defended religious, civil and domestic liberties, freedom of the press , Parliament and divorce. In Areopagitica he defended the freedom of speech even against the Puritans who had re-imposed censorship by an Ordinance for the regulation of printing which stated that “ no book….shall be henceforth printed unless the same be first approved and licensed ”. He chose this title because he wanted to compare the British Parliament he was appealing to, with the Athenian Upper Council which assembled on the hill Areopagus to make decisions about matters that were not to be discussed by the people. He believed that truth was possible only through the open conflict of ideas. His conclusion was that only tyrannies indulged in censorship of the press. He wrote:” Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely, according to conscience, above all liberties “.
In four tracts in favour of divorce ( he had been abandoned by his first wife a few weeks after the wedding) he maintained that just as the marriage tie can be dissolved on account of physical impediments, it ought with more justification to be possible to dissolve it because of incompatibility of characters and feelings between husband and wife.
In the last period he spent the rest of his life in blindness and poverty, dictating his verses to his daughter. To this period belong Paradise Lost , Paradise Regained , a short epic poem which tells of Christ’s victory over the temptation by Satan in the desert, and Samson Agonistes , a tragedy dealing with the biblical story of Samson and the Philistines.
Paradise Lost is a secondary/literary epic poem ( primary epic is oral, for instance Beowulf , Iliad and Odyssey ). It is about Satan’s rebellion against God. He believed God was a tyrant. It retells the story of the loss of the garden of Eden as narrated in the book of Genesis and revolves around one great theme: the rebellion against God . It consists of two dramas linked with the failure of the Puritan Revolution: the divine drama of the fall of the Angels and the human drama of the fall of Adam and Eve. Milton wants to warn against the sin of pride. Both Satan and Adam and Eve had the ambition to become equal to God. They challenged God and were defeated.The whole meaning of the divine drama is summoned up in the figure of Satan .
SATAN’S SPEECH
` Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,’ Said then the lost archangel, `this the seat That we must change for heav’n, this mournful gloom For that celestial light? Be it so, since he Who now is sovran can dispose and bid What shall be right: furthest from him is best Whom reason hath equalled, force hath made supreme Above his equals. Farewell happy fields Where joy for ever dwells: hail horrors, hail Infernal world, and thou profoundest hell Receive thy new possessor: one who brings A mind not to be changed by place or time. The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. What matter where, if I be still the same, And what I should be, all but less than he Whom thunder bath made greater? Here at least We shall be free; the almighty hath not built Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: Here we may reign secure, and in my choice To reign is worth ambition though in hell: Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven.
These lines are taken from Book I . Satan is surveying his new home trying to become aware of the new situation after his downfall. Satan and the Rebel Angels had fallen down through space “ Nine times the Space that measures Day and Night ” before landing in hell. Satan compares the new world to Paradise and feels lost because everything is different here: “ the region, the soil, the clime “; there is only “ a mournful gloom ” all over the place instead of the “ celestial light ” of the Paradise. He is not glad at first to be there, but he soon rejects despair and accepts the new situation: “ Be it so…. Farewell happy fields where joy for ever dwells: hail horrors, hail infernal word ”. In the following lines Satan shows all his ambition, all his self-confidence and determination. He realizes that now he is the “ new possessor ” of a place where “ farthest from him( God)…. at least we shall be free….and….may reign secure ”. His ambition is to have a reign somewhere, no matter if that place is gloomy and horrible. He is great in the self-assurance of his strength: he has got “ a mind not to be changed by place or time ”, a mind that “ can make a Heaven of Hell, and a Hell of Heaven ”. Then hell and heaven are only states of mind. Milton’s hell is not a real place! Hell is in the mind because the mind can change the external world: if we live in a Paradise but our mind perceives it as a hell, that place will be hell and viceversa.
Satan is the real hero of Paradise Lost ; he shows all the characteristics that Milton admired: courage, pride, oratorical power, self-confidence, ambition and so on.He is great in the self-assurance of his strength and in his contempt of the pain that has been inflicted on him. He also embodies Milton’s Puritan ideals of independence and liberty since he is seen as a rebel fighting against the absolute power of a tyrannical God, just as Milton, defender of liberties, struggles his battle against a despotic king. As Blake said, “ Milton is on the Devil’s party without knowing ”. He feels equal to God in reason and inferior only in power. When God banishes him from Heaven, he feels himself injured and wants to take a revenge against him, corrupting His new creation: man. He succeeds in his task and in the form of a snake, he persuades Eve to eat an apple from the forbidden tree of knowledge. Satan is ambitious. He is very proud and his boundless pride makes him believe that it “ is better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven ”. He has got the traits of the great military leaders and tries and succeeds in giving courage to his depressed soldiers after a defeat. The rebellious element in Milton’s Satan was later to influence the Romantic poets in the conception of the “ satanic hero ”, a lonely outsider who struggles against everything and everybody, isolated from the rest of mankind. In the Byronic Hero we can find many traits of Milton’s Satan.
Even if Satan is the central figure in the passage, the presence of God is always felt. Satan never directly names him, but God is always in his thoughts. He feels to be equal to God in reason; he is inferior to him only in the power because God possesses the strenght:” what reason has equalled, thunder hath made greater ”. He considers himself to be only “ less than he ”. Satan despises the pain inflicted on him, but he seems frustrated because he is aware of God’s superiority: he refers to God calling him “ the Almighty ” ,he admits that “ he who now is Sovran can dispose and bid what shall be right ”.
The language of the passage, direct and forceful, has the characteristics of the best oratory full of memorable phrases.
ON HIS BLINDNESS
When I consider how my light is spent, Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, And that one Talent which is death to hide Lodged with me useless, though my Soul more bent To serve therewith my Maker, and present My true account, lest he returning chide; “Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?” I fondly ask. But patience, to prevent That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need Either man’s work or his own gifts; who best Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed And post o’er Land and Ocean without rest: They also serve who only stand and wait.”
This sonnet was written when Milton had become blind. It consists of an octave and a sestet like a Petrarchan sonnet , but differs from it in the rhyme scheme of the sestet which is CDE CDE instead of CDC DCD. Further, he made no separation between the octave and the sestet. The Volta is stressed by a run-on-line: “ But Patience, to prevent/that murmur…” (ll. 8-9).
The sonnet illustrates the importance of religion in the Puritan Age .The main theme of the poem is of course blindness . Milton’s attitude to blindness in the octave is different from the one in the sestet: in the former there is complaint and despair about it while in the latter there is acceptance and resignation. In the octave Milton complaints about blindness, even if it has been given by God, because he can’t serve Him well. He feels frustrated because he is aware that he has got talent lying inside him,but he is also aware that he can’t use it because of blindness “ one Talent …. lodg’d with me useless ” . He complaints about that because his “ soul is more bent to serve therewith My Maker ”. He wants to “ present a true account of myself ” for fear that God “returning” on Doomsday may reproach him. The question he asks is whether God requires day-labour even of those who are blind. The answer is given in the sestet. Man is not saved by works or good actions as for Catholics but by his faith alone:” God doth not need either man’s work or his own gifts ” they also serve who only stand and wait ”. According to the Puritans, men’s purpose in life is to serve God. The best way to serve God is to accept “ His mild joke ” , that is to do His will. Following His directions, their joke becomes mild and they can be directed in the right way and “ serve Him best ”. The term “ Talent ” in the third line alludes to the Biblical Parable of the Talents in Saint Mathew’s Gospel: three servants were given some coins by their master. The first two doubled them, while the third buried them in the earth and was punished for not using them. Milton identifies himself with the third because his “ Talent …..lodged with me useless ”.
The sonnet contains some figure of speech. There is a personification of Patience in line 5 and an alliteration in / d / (days-dark) and in / w / ( world-wide) in line 2. There are also some metaphors: light which stands for sight in line 1, Talent which stands for genius in line 3 and day-labour which stands for work in line 7. The octave has got a particular syntactic structure: the main clause, “ I fondly ask ”, which is in line 8, is preceded by subordinate clauses.
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39 responses to john milton – paradise lost – satan’s speech.
in my view, Adam and Eve ought not be put equal in disobedience to Satan as he is fighting against God while Our Parents were seduced by him as a part of his evil design against God.
Sorry, but I don’t think so. They are guilty, too, because they do not resist temptation and disobey an order by their Maker. Anyway, God does not consider their disobedience equal to Satan’s one. He does not give them an infinite penance because, unlike Satan, they have got the possibility to expiate their sin and regain Heaven.Thanks for commenting
I think we cannot say that the infinite penance was given by God rather it was imposed by Satan himself. God just wanted him to repent and he refused again and again and everyyyyytime. Satan too had the same option/possibility to expiate his sin but it was his choice not to opt prostration.
besides it, the analysis is very worth reading and helped me as a teacher.
(Y) Thanks and “Ciao” 🙂
yes u also say rit
very good presentatiopn
well written and exhaustive, Rosario. Good job. Claudia
its superb. getting more info on paradise lost. i was amazing when was reading thiese articles
its just awsOm..u really did a great job…v.informative…thnkuu:)
thanks for the nice words 🙂
John Milton was such a great poet reaching immense poetic diction, indulging profusely in a gamut of figures of speech. He introduced inversion and we can feel the enormous philosophical wealth he imparted in his lines. The comments you’ve contributed are very praiseworthy and do great credit to Milton’s genius as poet. Well done, Mario!
Thanks and a smile 🙂
thank you so much, sir. this will help me a lot in my exam. 🙂
Happy and good luck 🙂
thank you. 🙂
Paradise Lost suggests that to be bad is acceptable but not to be hypocrite
sir if you could.send.me satan’ s speeches analysis.
Sorry but I do not understand your request because, in my opinion, my article is an analysis of Satan’s speech, even if it is not a fully exhaustive one 🙂
If God is omniscient and omnipotent, then why would God allow Satan to rebel against him and, later, allow Adam and Eve to do the same? Is it just that God would create Satan and Adam and Eve knowing that they would rebel against him?
Without getting bogged down in endless theological details on the free will theory, being a nonbeliever I am not competent on the matter , I simply think that God needed an opposite. Something may exist if there is an opposite: man/woman, black/white, believers/non-believers, war/peace, good/evil, Paradise/Hell, God/Satan….. God himself has an opposite: He is the God of love and pardon but also the God of vengeance and punishment. Adam and Eve were not “The Evil”, they did not rebel against him, they only disobeyed him and their punishment was milder than Satan’s one. He needed one who rebelled against him, one to be defeated and punished …..and he created Satan.
thankyou sir
(°-°) Thank you for commenting
these are very beautiful words ❤
True, there is opposition in all things. How else are we to be tested, grow and progress? Milton was brilliant as was C.S. Lewis. These men understood evil and what is behind it. Domination or free will, that is the struggle.
It has been said that God is “Being Itself”: being, life, creation, creativity. God Himself/Herself CHOSE to be, chose to create. He/She might have chosen not to be and create. This ability to choose is a divine prerogative, part of the very nature of God.
The Creation is God’s very substance. “Are they not Gods, to whom the word of God hath been given?” according to Jesus. The word of God is the very breath of life, the very act of creation.
If the created world, including the angelic realms, is consubstantial with God Himself/Herself, it must share fully in the divine prerogative to choose. Hence, Satan’s existence seems, in a sense, almost necessary to the existence of the created world–which would almost seem to require an embodiment of the choice for nonentiry, non-existence, darkness, and death.
Also it seems almost necessary that human beings, if they are to participate fully in the life of God, be permitted this choice.
Adam and Eve were innocent, like children. They didn’t even know they were naked. Heavenly Father knew they would disobey, that is why he prepared a savior for them and all of us. When Adam fell, all were then to experience a physical death. As the scriptures say, “In Adam all die, in Christ all shall live”. This fall started the human race here on earth. We as individuals are responsible for our own sins. If we repent sincerely, we can forego the punishment if we follow the Lords commandments. Because of the Atonement by Jesus, the Son, all will be resurrected to face our judgement. Heavenly Fathers work is this “This is my work to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man”. Those spirits who followed Satan (Lucifer) did not receive a body, i.e. they did not keep their first estate. All residents of this earth who have lived here did not follow Satan, and are able to progress. Our progression still continues. If Satan really understood this wouldn’t have tempted them at all and they would have remained child like in the garden. Once a snake, always a snake. Heavenly Father loves, and does not want to yoke us, just the opposite. He gives us guidance in the form of scriptures, prayer, and revelation. Yes revelations. You are entitled to revelations about yourself and your family if you’re righteous and pray sincerely for the truth. People we are being taught and tested to see if we can live in the same Kingdom as God. Seek out the truth.
Many thanks for your contribution 🙂
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Satan is obviously great character and has shown his unconquered will to further disobey God.He does not owe or demand penance
Thanku sooooooo….much sir…u helped me a lot….nd sir can u send me detailed summary of the exam point of view… bcoz many sites provide summary…but the way u make… that is more helpful… Sir plz reply 🙏…I’m waiting….☺️
Sorry but I can’t help you. It is difficult for me because I think that every part of the article is important. A summary is always personal. I think that if you try, you’ll be able to make a better detailed summary than mine; underline what you think it is important and omit the rest. Then link the underlined parts and….you made it. Good luck 🙂
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Paradise Lost
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To this period belong Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, a short epic poem which tells of Christ’s victory over the temptation by Satan in the desert, and Samson Agonistes, a tragedy dealing with the biblical story of Samson and the Philistines.
Summary: Lines 27–722: Satan and Hell. Immediately after the prologue, Milton raises the question of how Adam and Eve ’s disobedience occurred and explains that their actions were partly due to a serpent’s deception.
Satan’s is the first and greatest revolt against the hierarchy of God’s universe. God arranges all his creation according to rank, and Satan upset this order by trying to do battle with God himself, the supreme monarch of all.
A summary of Book I, Lines 1–26 in John Milton's Paradise Lost. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of Paradise Lost and what it means. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans.
The speeches of Satan create on the mind of the readers, the impression of his greatness and heroic nobility. In the Paradise Lost Book 1 there are found five grand speeches delivered by Satan. His first speech goes thus:
This first Book proposes, first in brief, the whole Subject, Mans disobedience, and the loss thereupon of Paradise wherein he was plac't: Then touches the prime cause of his fall, the Serpent, or rather Satan in the Serpent; who revolting from God, and drawing to his side many Legions of Angels, was by the command of God driven out of Heaven ...
Quick answer: Satan's speeches in Paradise Lost highlight his emotion, assertion of independent will, and commitment to revenge and hatred. Milton presents Satan as a...
Satan's three speeches in Milton's Paradise Lost are significant because they reveal his character traits. In his first speech, he shows shock at their fall and irony in...
In John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Satan is a major figure in the narrative. The poem’s intense focus on his temperament presents a psychological profile of someone with a conflictive personality. Among his fellow fallen angels, he is a rebellious leader with no regrets, but in private, his deeper thoughts come forth.
J. Milton (1608 – 1674) - “Paradise Lost” - 1667 - Satan's speech. 1 “Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,”. 2 Said then the lost archangel, “this the seat. 3 That we must change for heaven, this mournful gloom.