Milton's Paradise Lost

Contemporary views of Satan stem from his role as an adversary of God and potentially mankind in the Bible. Nevertheless, even though there is no basis for such a portrayal of Satan in the Bible, one theologian argues that the modern portrayal of Satan is that "of a red-costumed comic character who parades around forcing people to do things against their will; or who presides over a placed called Hell, where he and his demons gleefully torment the residents" (Satan 2003, 1). While such depictions of Satan may have little or no basis in Scripture, he is portrayed as possessing some of these characteristics in literature like Dante's Inferno and John Milton's Paradise Lost.

In Milton's Paradise Lost we see a variety of different portrayals of Satan from his fall from Heaven to his rise as the supreme adversary of God. In Book I Satan is portrayed as full of energy and almost heroic in his status as an underdog fighting against the forces of the universe. He is not yet the jealous and hateful Satan we will see later in the work. He is more forlorn and in pain, but he remains energetic and revengeful, "So spake th' apostate angel, though in pain, / Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair" (Milton 1979, 1415). Satan laments the fact that God must be "almighty" because "no less / Than such could have o'erpowered such force" (Milton 1979, 1416). Therefore, in Book I we see Satan as a rather energized, vengeful and wounded warrior. This is a far cry from

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