Commentary on Paradise Lost Essay

Paradise lost.

When Satan falls from heaven into hell you hear the untold side of the story, Satans side. We all hear how and why God kicked him out its written all over the bible but we never got to hear what Satan felt and what he was thinking as well. The story takes place in hell where Satan plans to get the sin out to the world. In Satans eyes he makes the reader seem to take pity on him and make him feel like he is a hero in the story he is telling us. However the reader must come to a conclusion that Satan is deceptive and deceitful. Milton makes Satan a manipulative being in paradise lost.

Milton has vivid description of the hatred that you may find in Satans heart and evil though process that comes about when Satan enters the earthly realm and temps Adam and Eve at the Garden of Eden. Satan could be depicted as conniving in book one he is found trying to over throw God in heaven. Milton depicts Satans behavior that may suggest great power and along with that power comes great corruption in many individuals who possess it. Meanwhile on earth Adam and Eve are tending the garden and trying to obey God and all his orders, the main motif of the story id the disobedience to God, while Adam and Eve are recorded in the bible to be the first humans to disobey God and all of his orders Satan is the first of all of Gods creatures to disobey him. Even though Satan may say one thing in the story and have it totally mean something different.

Milton describes Satans struggles, weaknesses, and his doubts throughout the book. In Book I he is a strong, imposing figure with great abilities but while in the end he slinks back to Hell in serpent form. Satans gradual degradation is dramatized by the sequence of different shapes he assumes, showing that Satan has a charming face it may seem and an evil thought process. Satan loses his ability to reason and argue in the poem as if he was guilty of all the sin he caused while leading the two humans into temptation where they eat the fruit from the tree of good and knowledge.

Milton opens Paradise Lost by formally declaring his poems subject: humankinds first act of disobedience toward God, and the consequences that followed from it. While in book IX Satan turns into the serpent form and finds eve alone, basically telling her the words she wants to hear such as her getting admired by such a creature but little does she know Satan is just using her for his plot to have sin come into the world. This is the book that many refer to in the bible of Eve eating the fruit on the tree that God said not to eat from as well. Satan finally shows his true colors at being manipulative and deceitful in this book more than any other book. Miltons imagery and tone that he played onto Satan made him a smooth, sly and shady kind of being because he appeals to the readers as an innocent angel that is trying to tell everyone that no one is good enough to measure up to Gods standards.

In book IX Milton explains that this is where the poem turns into great tragedy when you hear the first disobedience, also Milton shows that the fall of human beings may be more heroic than the Greek mythology tales. When the time came in the third book Milton has to confront some issues that came up. Satan is a manipulative being no matter what he has to say. In the poem Satan may have his side of the story on why he got kicked out of heaven but for many readers that have common sense, he got kicked out of heaven for a reason.