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Paradise Lost
by John Milton, Gordon Teskey
by John Milton, Gordon Teskey
Clint's review
Jun 19, 07
Recommended for:
People who like reading about the devil
Read in August, 2007
Let's face it, John Milton was a closet devil-worshiper. Satan here is presented so sympathetically it's hard to think otherwise. He has the best lines, and even his actions would be laudable by most Christian standards (excepting, of course, starting a war in heaven). He never gives up, he fights for what he believes in, he's really clever, and he even pities humans for having to be his tools to get back at God. The good angels come off as such sissies and are always really smug and self-satisfied and say things like, "Yeah Satan, I know you're a lot better than me at everything, but remember my dad is God and if you hit me he's going to kick your ass." Gabriel and Michael are real assholes, and it makes me feel sad that Satan doesn't whip up on them some more.
This book is incredibly awesome but a litle dense. It's super sweet and kick ass but you have to sit down and really spend some time with it, and you'll have to read it pretty slow. I've never understod blank verse so I just read it like prose.
This book is incredibly awesome but a litle dense. It's super sweet and kick ass but you have to sit down and really spend some time with it, and you'll have to read it pretty slow. I've never understod blank verse so I just read it like prose.
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Your review cracked me up because, while I was reading this, I said almost the exact same thing to my husband! I know John Milton was no devil worshiper (because I am a nerd and after reading Paradise Lost I had to read his whole biography) but damned if he doesn't have a little man-crush on Satan. But maybe he isn't really in (capital L) LOVE with Satan...maybe he is in love with the IDEA of Satan. I have to admit...after reading books 1 and 2, I had a little tiny crush myself. At least until he ran into Sin and Death and all the incest starting happening:)
I agree with most of your take on this, but when did Lucifer ever whoop on Mikey and Gabriel? As I recall it, Satan aka Lucifer was an amazing thinker, however every time he put up his dukes (usually 15 seconds too late), he was getting his backside handed to him. In fact, when in Hell some the others vote on heading back to Heaven for a round #3, but Satan remembers-through his haze-the other two thrashing. Remember Gabriel's or Mikey's (I can't remember which) sword splitting him from head to waist just before the "son" kicks them out into Chaos???
I think Satan's sympathetic portrayal is actually one of the poem's many subtle nuances demonstrating the fallen nature of humanity; we sympathize with Satan because, in a way, we are in the same boat as he, for the same reasons, according to Milton.The theory that Milton was a Devil worshiper in disguise is fairly popular but not consistent with his work. If you read Paradise Regained, you'll see that Satan, using basically the same wit he has in Paradise Lost, loses spectacularly to Jesus Christ where he succeeded with Adam and Eve.
Your review cracked me up. I am reading this right now with the group Classics of the Western Canon. I am enjoying it way more than I thought I would and the discussion has been very interesting, though sometimes I have been frustrated. I can't wait to read what other people write in relation to their understanding. We have the gamet of beliefs from atheists to people who still take the Bible literally and the discussion has been very civil!
Just gotta say, I'm taking a Milton course in university and I'm writing my final research paper on Milton's Satan, and I completely agree with Logan on this issue. Satan is the best character for a reason, not because Milton was 'of the Devil's party' as Blake said.
"Milton was a True poet, and of the Devil's party without knowing it."-from Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell
I agree with Logan. Honestly, nowhere in the book did I ever think Milton made Satan appear likeable. In fact, throughout the book, whenever Satan spoke, I always got the sense that he was faking. His little 'tearful' moment in lines 618 particularly struck me as overly melodramatic. He's like one of those villains you see on TV that has everybody fooled in a dramatical irony. His leadership was not really leadership. He left his so called 'council' (which really wasn't a council since they ended up following his plan all along) just to pursue his own thirst for revenge, leaving his confused people with no one to lead them, thus making them more confused. Satan does not appear to be likeable here at all, though the passages that talk about him are much more interesting than the passages concerning God, his Son, and the angels.
I agree that Satan appears heroic in the beginning but I think he looks decidedly less so later on. Milton wants us to like Satan at first, just to reveal how seductive evil is. But when Satan looks on Adam and Eve and knowingly chooses to lead them and all of humanity into unspeakable suffering, just to satisfy his grudge with God, he looks petty to me. He does pity them in his way, but do they have to be his tools? No. As Milton says, "necessity/ The Tyrant's plea."