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On the Encounter of Satan and Christ in John Milton’s Paradise Lost
SHEN Hong
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2017.05.005
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
In Milton’s Paradise Lost, Satan is conspicuously depicted as the “mighty chief” (I 566) and “the dread commander” (I 589) of the rebel army. True to the Hebrew meaning of his name, Satan poses appropriately as a grand “Adversary” (I 629; II 282) to “wage by force or guile eternal war” (I 121) against God. The poet has deliberately built up a parallel between Satan and Christ the Son, who is the commander-in-chief of the angelic army. With “Almighty arms / Gird on, and Sword upon [his] puissant Thigh” (VI 713-14), the Son certainly makes an impressive figure of warrior-general. Satan’s stance as the “idol of majesty divine” is really extraordinary. During the War in Heaven, he does show superhuman courage and strength; his ability to change his bodily form has no doubt increased his potential as a warrior. Furthermore, he commands a highly disciplined army, surpassing by far the best troops in human history. All this seems to indicate Satan as a great hero. Even before God proclaims the Son to be raised “by merit” to the position of “second omnipotence” (III 309), Milton has already made it clear to the reader that Satan, too, is “by merit rais’d / To that bad eminence” (II 5-6). This ambivalent merit of Satan has incurred heated controversy among the critics. The present paper will set out to analyze the encounter between Satan and the Son in Paradise Lost, in an effort to determine the true meaning of heroism.
Satan, Christ, John Milton, Paradise Lost, heroism, pagan warrior, Christian virtues, literary tradition
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