“Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n” (I, 263)
When Professor Hanley asked the class if the above statement was true, initially I was stunned: Was that a rhetorical question? I had hoped it was, because I did not have an immediate or a definitive answer. When I read the passage initially, Satan appeared to be in control, self-assured, confident of his actions, considered the consequences of defeat, and had an alternative plan. However, further reading suggests that perhaps Satan was speaking rhetorically. Did he really believe his own declaration? Especially when you consider that his “fall” into the abyss lasted nine days, if not a “thousand years,” and “many legions of angles” fell with him. What could the “vaunting apostate angel” say? “I am sorry. I made a mistake?” No, he could not. Satan must encourage and reassure himself. And, he fails in that attempt as well. When he looks up at the sun, he has no recourse other than to acknowledge his mistake:
O sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams That bring to my remembrance from what state I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere; Till pride and worse ambition threw me down Warring in Heav’n against Heav’n’s matchless King: Ah wherefore! He deserved no such return From me, whom he created what I was In that bright eminence, and with his good Upbraided none; nor was his service hard. (IV, 37-45) It is difficult to put “Satan” and “attractive” in the same sentence. Nevertheless, Satan’s “remembrance” of his former “state” has its appeal.
Contrary to the efforts of Milton, Edith reinstates Satan back in a place where we remember him being -self-absorbed,unwilling to accept defeat, relentless in his endeavors.
But Edith, is that a bad thing? If one does not stand up for one's ideals, then who will? We are constantly defending God, who then defends Satan, but himself.
3 comments:
Testing.
Paradise Lost
“Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n”
(I, 263)
When Professor Hanley asked the class if the above statement was true, initially I was stunned: Was that a rhetorical question? I had hoped it was, because I did not have an immediate or a definitive answer. When I read the passage initially, Satan appeared to be in control, self-assured, confident of his actions, considered the consequences of defeat, and had an alternative plan. However, further reading suggests that perhaps Satan was speaking rhetorically. Did he really believe his own declaration? Especially when you consider that his “fall” into the abyss lasted nine days, if not a “thousand years,” and “many legions of angles” fell with him. What could the “vaunting apostate angel” say? “I am sorry. I made a mistake?” No, he could not. Satan must encourage and reassure himself. And, he fails in that attempt as well. When he looks up at the sun, he has no recourse other than to acknowledge his mistake:
O sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams
That bring to my remembrance from what state
I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere;
Till pride and worse ambition threw me down
Warring in Heav’n against Heav’n’s matchless King:
Ah wherefore! He deserved no such return
From me, whom he created what I was
In that bright eminence, and with his good
Upbraided none; nor was his service hard.
(IV, 37-45)
It is difficult to put “Satan” and “attractive” in the same sentence. Nevertheless, Satan’s “remembrance” of his former “state” has its appeal.
Edith
Contrary to the efforts of Milton, Edith reinstates Satan back in a place where we remember him being -self-absorbed,unwilling to accept defeat, relentless in his endeavors.
But Edith, is that a bad thing? If one does not stand up for one's ideals, then who will? We are constantly defending God, who then defends Satan, but himself.
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