Satan's speeches

Satan used to be one of the most important of God's angels, but rebelled when God declared
the Son to be above all the angels in glory. Satan persuaded a third of the angels to rebel
with him, and declared war on God. Satan was defeated by the Son and cast into Hell with all
the other rebel angels.
Milton’s style in writing the Paradise Lost has been called a ‘grand style’, which means it is an
elevated, serious, highly crafted, and different from common speech.
Speaking is what Satan does extremely well; his speeches in the first two books of Paradise
Lost are a rich store of quotes for any motivational speaker. We must never forget that the
two major events of the poem are created through the persuasive speech of Satan - he
convinces the angels to take up arms, and convinces Eve to eat the fruit. In the former
achievement he takes a third of angels with him, in the latter he takes the whole of the
human race (or so he thinks until Christ spoils his party).
To display how good orator Satan is, I’ll contrast him to Belial. Belial is one of the fallen
angels, whose name in Hebrew means 'worthless', so his words are - pleasing but
meaningless. In Paradise Lost talk is not always only talk, but while Satan is the Archenemy
of God, worthy of fear and able to seduce the innocent Eve, Belial is ineffective and can only
work in the already corrupted fallen world to persuade people to do rather nasty and
immoral things. Satan is charismatic, eloquent, and unanswerable; the bright angel speaks
again and again, tempting with knowledge, tempting the reader, as he tempted Eve, to
think, question, explore, reinterpret, and to eat of 'this intellectual food' (IX.768) and 'make
wise' (IX.778), to be won over by the power of the free-willed mind and make it 'its own
place'.
Lucifer's speeches were based on three major elements: 1. He declared his policy-
everything he would do would be anti-God. 2.Defeat is not total defeat. 3.Logical
argument for the hopeful future that angels cannot die because God created them so that
they could not be destroyed( in Catholicism).
Satan’s speeches reveal pure Miltonic lyricism. His opening speech to Beelzebub reveals the
character of Satan- a defiant rebel and a great leader. He encourages and sympathizes with
his followers with bold words and sentiments.

IN 1. SPEECH Lucifer first takes pity on the change in his friend. Then he refers to their
friendship of the perilous enterprise in heaven and in their present misery. He has nothing
but contempt for God who insulted his merits. It is a sense of injured merit that makes him
wage war against the tyrant of Heaven. God’s secret weapon that won the war. A single
victory doesn't permanently ensure God’s victory. They may have lost the field, but that
does not mean they have lost everything. Defeat is complete only when the spirit and the
will are subjugated. The bow down before God is worse than defeat. So he is determined to
wage eternal war by force or guile.
With his 2. SPEECH, Lucifer sweeps off all doubts from his friend’s mind saying that to be
weak is miserable. If God attempts to turn evil into good, it must be the sacred duty of the
fallen angels to stop his attempts and turn all good to evil. His strategy is founded on
unrelenting opposition to the divine will; it is a part of the dynamic interplay of contraries-
good and evil, order and disorder, light and darkness. God withdrawn all his forces and is in a
confounded state. They should not let this opportunity slip. They all have to assemble and
consult how they may most offend their enemy. The audacity and superb self-confidence of
Lucifer are well brought out in these words. He seizes the opportunity to mobilize his forces
once again, conscious of the crushing defeat that he and his followers have suffered. He is
trying to infuse fresh courage into them. His speech shows a heroic quality.
IN 3. SPEECH after winning over Beelzebub and putting new courage in him, Satan asks him
whether they are forced to exchange mournful gloom for celestial light. He says that it is
better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven. He says that he is better and that God’s
monarchy is based on force not on reason.
IN 4. SPEECH taking Beelzebub with him, he addresses other angels, with a resounding voice.
He directly touches their ego by calling them, “Princes, Potentates, Warriors..” He asks them
whether they are sleeping because of physical exhaustion or in despair. He exhorts them to
“wake, arise or be forever fallen.” He tries to revive their detached spirits. His speech is so
commanding and fiery that his followers are roused out of their stupor.
IN 5. SPEECH Lucifer addresses the assembled angels. He is filled with joy to have so many
comrades. They are all powerful and still there is hope of regaining their native seat. God has
conquered them by use of force, but such success is only partial. Hell cannot contain so
many valiant spirits for long. The only course opened to them is war. With emotions and
tears, he begins his speech, he indulges in rhetoric like a politician. Without distorting facts
he turns them to a different light and gives his defeated host a margin of hope. Throughout,
Lucifer resolves “to wage by force or guile eternal war.” Later he places an alternative before
the infernal council “op’n war or covert guile.” But now one finds that the emphasis is on
war, not guile. He is determined to combat with God and to stop His autocracy. Lucifer
makes a warlike admirable and impressive speech.
‘In Satan, Milton created a politician and a seducer, a tragic but heroic figure with virtues
of readiness, fervour, eloquence and opposition to tyranny.’ Richard Westall (1765-1836).
 Paradise Lost as a secular epic

Milton's work reflects the influence of both the Reformation and the Renaissance. He imbibed the
true spirit of both tendencies and intertwined them. Puritans emphasised every man's inner light,
hated all arts such as painting, sculpture and music and luxury, favoured highly formalised and
rigorous conduct, and turned against all literature and aesthetic pursuits. Milton was born in a
Puritan family. His surrounding made him to love Puritan ideology and way of life. However, he did
not accept anything in its totality and that gave him the ability to look in more directions. His love
toward Renaissance elements made him his own version od puritanism. He loved nature, beauty, art,
Renaissance humanism and unlike most Puritans he prefered emphasis on spirit rather than conduct.

In 1667 John Milton published Paradise Lost, perhaps the greatest long poem in the English language.
Paradise Lost received recognition at once. Despite its current canonical status, a favourable
reception for Paradise Lost in the late seventeenth century was no foregone conclusion, and its
reputation has oscillated surprisingly ever since.

Throughout the 18th century it sold well, was highly praised and adored, and exercised considerable
influence on religious thought. The use of the Biblical theme , though, hampered Milton's freedom of
invention, yet, Books I-IV are full of heresies and with this comparatively greater freedom are better
written than the other books.

Paradise lost is a classical epic written in blank verse, having all the common features of the epics of
Homer and Virgil. It is a long narrative adventurous poem in XXII books, with grandeur and majesty
of the classical epics. It's unity of theme and treatment of every episode lead to the central theme -
'the fall of Man' and 'the loss of paradise'.

Alongwith wars and heroic exploits there's supernatural intervention in plenty. It's characters are
mostly superhuman - God and His angels, and Satan and his followers. There are only two human
characters, Adam and Eve.

Unlike a classical epic which deals with a subject of national importance, with the war-like exploits of
some hero of national stature, the theme of Milton's epic is vaster and of a more universal human
interest. It concerns itself with the fortunes, not of a city or an empire, but of the whole human race,
and with that particular event in the history of race, which has moulded all its destinies.

Around this event, plucking of an apple, are raged, according to the strictest rules of the ancient epic,
the histories of Heave, Earth and Hell. The scene of action is Universal Space. The time represented is
Eternity. The characters are God and all its creatures. And all these are exhibited in the clearest and
most inevitable relation with the man and his destiny.

The Paradise Lost with its embellished, hyperbolic , bombastic language deals with the ancient
subject-the conflict between the good and the bad. His subject belongs to a time before nation was
born. He deals with history of mankind itself. Its actions moves frome Heaven to Hell and from hell to
heaven through chaos in which lies the newly created world of man.

The epic-poet narrates the adventures of the hero of his epic whose faith, victory, or defeat is always
of primary significance in the poem. Paradise Lost celebrates the greatest war ever in th cosmic
history, and the greatest victory ever of the Absolute Good over the absolute evil.
The epic is a theological story, which has a secular complexion.

Tillyard writes, 'Milton did partly believed ally himself with Satan, that unwittingly he was lead away
by the creature of his own imagination... the character of Satan expresses, as no other character or
act of feature of his poem does, something in which Milton believed very strongly; heroic energy. "
Blake calls him of the Devil's party.

‘In Satan, Milton created a politician and a seducer, a tragic but heroic figure with virtues of
readiness, fervour, eloquence and opposition to tyranny.’ Richard Westall (1765-1836) captures the
virility and urgency of Satan as the Classical hero of Paradise Lost.

SUMMARY OF ‘PARADISE LOST’, JOHN MILTON

Book I

Book I of Paradise Lost introduces Milton's intention to write a great epic of lasting literary
importance about the biblical story of the Fall of Man, Adam and Eve's expulsion from
Paradise, and the consequences of eating fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. It also tells the
reader, briefly, about the rebellion of some of the angels and their subsequent expulsion
from heaven.
It then gets to the heart of the action, presenting the reader with an image of Satan and the
host of newly fallen angels, writhing in confusion, prostrate on a burning lake in Hell. They
eventually start to rise and Milton describes the ranks of Satan's army and his rousing
speech to them, which describes a prophecy of man and a new world. We are told about the
fallen angels as individual, militaristic figures and their response to their leader. Satan speaks
compellingly. He is charismatic and uses powerful rhetoric. We begin to build up a
sympathetic picture of an appealing Satan: Satan as an anti-hero. The close of Book I sees
the building of the palace Pandæmonium and the preparations for a council of Hell.

Book II

Satan sits on a throne and talks about how, being united in misery, the devils can, and
should, be in complete and democratic agreement. He asks the assembly what they should
do to fight and frustrate the will of God.
Moloch counsels open war. There is nothing to lose, he says, the most that God can do to
them is to destroy them utterly and end their agony. Belial criticises this for being motivated
by despair and the hope of destruction. He further states that there is no way they can
defeat the invulnerable and all-knowing God. He fears the consequences - being utterly
destroyed, or worse, having greater agony inflicted on them. It is their duty to suffer; they
should be content and hope that in time they will get used to the flames, or that God might
decide to save fuel and turn down the heat.
Mammon develops this idea of inaction, advising that they should forge their own kingdom
in hell and enjoy their freedom from subjection to God. A cheer arises from the devils, who
don't quite wish to go to war again and have their behinds handed to them on a platter.
Beelzebub mocks both the possibilities of peace and of war, and puts things in stark
perspective - hell is a prison, not a new world of joy and tree-planting. He speaks, though the
idea was given him by Satan, of a prophesied New World of Man, and counsels shifting
operations to this battleground. The proposal meets with assent and a brave adventurer
who fears nothing is called for. There is silence. Satan eventually steps up. He tells the rest to
make themselves comfortable and do some home improvement, while he goes exploring.
Satan reaches the gates of Hell, guarded by Sin and Death. Death threatens Satan with his
spear and Satan raises his; the opportunity arises for a great movie moment but
unfortunately, Milton wasn't into movies, being rather blind. Sin prevents the fight by
revealing Satan to be her father, and also the father of her child, Death. (Work out for
yourself how that is possible!) There is a touching family reunion, as Sin and Satan catch up
on what their son has been doing in the meantime - incest, rape, attempted cannibalism, in
short, if you believe Freud, all the things that children would love to do but never quite get
around to, on account of excessive schoolwork. Although commanded by God never to
unlock the gates, Sin is convinced by Satan to do so, and she lets him out.
The first thing Satan sees is the ocean of Chaos, where the elements or 'dark materials' of
God's Creation reside. Satan meets Chaos himself who directs him towards Earth. The book
ends with Satan seeing Heaven, and Earth hanging from Heaven like a pendent on a golden
chain. He moves towards Earth with revenge in his heart, and here the book closes; a cliff-
hanger if ever there was one.

Book III

This is a book dealing with a lot of tricky theological concepts, as God the Father sees Satan
on his way towards Eden and foresees his success in provoking the Fall of mankind. God
insists on the free will of man to fall, but also acknowledges that man will be tricked and will
not fall through conscious malice as Satan did. There are plenty of questions here about
whether Man was created predestined to fall, which relate back to similar issues regarding
the fall of the angels. The Son offers himself as a ransom for the salvation of man from
eternal death, and is celebrated in Heaven.
Meanwhile, Satan makes his way to the gates of Heaven. From there he flies to the Sun and,
disguised as a lowly angel full of the wonder of God and desirous to gaze on his works, seeks
directions towards the home of Man from Uriel, the angel stationed there. Satan, at last,
finds himself on the edge of Paradise.
Please discuss the significance of three
speeches by Satan in John Milton's Paradise
Lost.
Satan’s speeches in Milton’s Paradise Lost are interesting not only for what they say about
the different topics he discusses but also for what they reveal or imply about Satan himself.
Whenever Satan speaks, he is inevitably telling us something about Satan, no matter what the
ostensible “subjects” of his speeches are.

Take, for example, his very first words in the poem, words which he addresses to Beëlzebub.
Satan begins as follows: “If thou beest he; but O how fall’n!” (1.84). Satan speaks just four
words before he interrupts himself and blurts out a surprised exclamation. He looks at
Beëlzebub and is shocked by the change he sees. He cannot, of course, at this point see
himself, but Milton will make clear throughout the poem that Satan has been physically
changed as well. Yet these physical changes in the fallen angels are far less important than the
spiritual degeneration they symbolize.

Later in the same speech to Beëlzebub, Satan refers to their “glorious enterprise” in rebelling
against God (1.89). The word “glorious” is, of course, highly ironic, because the rebellion was
glorious neither in its inception, its execution, or its ultimate results. Satan is either deceiving
Beëlzebub or deceiving himself (perhaps both); he habitually refuses to face reality, but he is
also, of course, a great liar. Thus, when Satan a few lines later refers to God’s “rage” (1.95),
he actually reveals one of his own most important characteristics. Indeed, he is exhibiting this
characteristic in the present speech.

Another interesting example of the ways Satan’s speeches are self-revealing occurs in lines
681-87 of Book 2. In that speech, addressed to Death (whose identity Satan does not yet
recognize), he reveals his pride, his contempt for others, his combativeness, his defiance, and
his resolute determination. Yet he also reveals his tendency to deceive himself, as when he
calls himself one of the “Spirits of Heav’n” (2.687). Of course, he is at present no such thing,
and indeed he will be such a spirit never again. Having led the revolt that caused his own fall
from heaven, he cannot really bring himself to admit that he is now a denizen of hell.

Finally, another example of the ways Satan’s speeches reveal aspects of his own character
occurs in Book 4, where he essentially tries to blame God for his own evil designs on Adam
and Eve (4.387-87). Here as so often elsewhere in the poem, Satan refuses to face facts,
refuses to accept personal responsibility, and lies as much to himself as he does to others.
Character Analysis

Milton's Satan is one of the most dynamic and complicated characters in all of literature.
While he possesses an unhealthy thirst for vengeance and havoc like the little red dude with a
pitchfork you're used to seeing, Satan is also the most likeable character in the poem. OK,
maybe likeable is going a bit too far, but nearly every reader of the poem has found it difficult
to avoid sympathizing with him to some degree, if not completely. For many years readers of
the poem have been divided over the question of whose side Milton was on: Satan's or God's.

Just bear with us here. Satan is flat-out, hands down, without a doubt, the best speaker in the
poem. He's like the greatest Shakespearean actor you've ever seen. When he wakes up in Hell,
chained to a burning lake, how can we not feel a bit sorry for him? All he really tried to do
was overthrow God, which is impossible anyway because we're talking about God here. Yeah
we get that he's God, but when we actually meet God in Book 3, he doesn't even compare to
Satan. He comes off like some boring unnamed character, whereas Satan is like an evil
Hamlet, or Iago, or any other major character that isn't a talking corpse (check out his famous
speech on Mt. Niphates in 4.32 to get a sense of Satan's Shakespearean flavor). The great
English poet Percy Shelley, who idolized Milton, summarized the point well:

Nothing can exceed the energy and magnificence of the character of Satan. It is a mistake to
suppose that he could ever have been intended for the popular personification of evil.

Sadly, however, Satan really is evil. But his is a very seductive kind of evil, which makes him
even more dangerous (just think Tom Riddle from the Harry Potter series). Let's consider an
example. We just said that God seems like a boring, authoritative figure; well, that's how he
comes across. But that's also what Satan would love for us to believe about God. In Books 2
and 5 especially, Satan does a great job of portraying God as some type of fascist despot or
tyrant who loves arbitrary power. Sometimes, Satan even acts like he's some kind of innocent
victim.

OK, God's power is arbitrary, that much is true; but he's also the boss. It's his universe; he
created it. All he wants from Satan, and everybody else, is a thank you in the morning for
being allowed to live in Heaven….FOREVER! Is that really so much to ask? Does that sound
like despotism? Not really. But listening to Satan's impassioned speeches and their infectious
rhetoric might make you think so.

It turns out, conveniently and ingeniously, that Satan's speeches are uncannily like the animal
whose shape he dons to tempt Eve: the serpent. They are tricky, clever, wily, and anything but
straightforward. For example, whereas Satan will champion some type of heroic perseverance
or a refusal to repent and submit to God's slavery, he's really just ticked off that he lost the
war in Heaven and that he has to live in Hell. He knows that his auditors (which include us)
love that kind of rhetoric, which has proven successful and seductive for centuries.

Sometimes, Satan tries a different angle; at one point he even sheds a tear, a moment that
bears some similarities with the sadness he feels when he sees Adam and Eve in Paradise and
realizes he's screwed (he actually says "Oh Hell" at that moment). Poor Satan, right? Wrong.
He really just wants to make Adam and Eve suffer to spite God; he wants to ruin it for two
human creatures who, from one perspective, are his brother and sister (they're God's creations
too). Adam and Eve had nothing to do with his spat with God; they're just pawns in Satan's
game, innocent victims whom Satan cruelly takes advantage of.
OK, we get it: Satan is a great speaker, but he's a really mean dude. He's smart and knows
what everybody wants to hear, but he's also very dangerous. Why then, does he take up so
much space in the poem? Why is he without a doubt the most interesting character in
Paradise Lost? Before we meet God, the Son, Adam and Eve, or anybody else, we meet
Satan. In fact, his is almost the only voice we hear for the first two books of the poem! We
can see why he's attractive, but our buddy John Milton's motives for letting the villain steal
the show are more complicated, especially considering the poem's supposed purpose of
"justifying the ways of God to man."

The question of why Satan gets so much face time is difficult to answer; one reason that Satan
is so attractive and dominates the early books of the poem is because Milton wants us to be
seduced, wants us to be lured by Satan's infectious words only so he (Milton) can correct us
later and show us the error of our ways. In this way, Milton re-enacts the Fall for his readers:
like Eve, we buy into Satan's arguments, only to suffer the punishment of Milton's rebuke.
Similarly, when we first see the Garden of Eden it is through Satan's eyes. When Satan sees
what he's excluded from, it suddenly becomes clear to us what the consequences of siding
with Satan are: we won't be able to get into paradise (exactly what happens to Adam and Eve
in the end).

But one could easily say that Milton doesn't want us to succumb to Satan's snares. In that
case, Satan becomes another temptation to resist. Throughout his writings, Milton champions
a notion of trial, whereby virtue is meaningless unless it confronts and resists temptations,
dangers, etc. From this perspective, Milton is testing us as readers, attempting to appeal to the
good angel on our shoulder over the attractive but ultimately evil devil on the other shoulder.

http://www.compleatheretic.com/pubs/literary/eng450paper.html
 Comparison of Lucifer and Beelzebub

Beelzebub
Beelzebub means 'Lord of the Flies'. In Paradise Lost, he is second in command to Satan in
the hierarchy of fallen angels. He is broad-shouldered, well-proportioned and every bit the
superhero (or supervillain). It is true that he is a crony of sorts to Satan; Satan uses him as his
mouthpiece to articulate the final plan (to shift the battlefield to earth) to preserve the
appearance of democracy in the council. Yet he comes into his own as a speech-maker.
Oozing derision at the useless plans of the other demons, he puts forth the plan with
confidence and poise, asking the assembly, advise if this be worth attempting, or to sit in
darkness here hatching vain empires. (II.376)
He is the only fallen angel who comes close to Satan in screen-time and charisma and Milton
deliberately leaves it vague as to who speaks when the call comes for someone to go out
from Hell and find information about earth and Man. Yet like the other devils, he soon fades
into the background when Satan takes center-stage. This semi-elimination of secondary
characters focuses the drama on Man and his adversary, and tightens the plot, turning up
the tension until the climactic one-to-one encounter between Satan and Eve in the Garden
of Eden.

Satan’s speeches reveal pure Miltonic lyricism. His opening speech to Beelzebub reveals the
character of Satan- a defiant rebel and a great leader. He encourages and sympathizes with
his followers with bold words and sentiments.
These two important characters seem to share many similarities. Both are diplomatic,
charismatic speakers who easily stand out from the other fallen angels and show an ability to
sway their audience through their powerful rhetoric, as Book II displays. Both are fallen
angels, and Lucifer, in his opening speech in Book I, draws a parallel between their
characters, almost describing them as equals: mutual league, united thoughts, equal hope.
Both characters are similar in terms of their character and their aims. Both united together
in their attempt to try and overthrow the powers of heaven, and both share a similar fate as
they are cast down to hell.
The key difference between these two characters is that Beelzebub is realist and Lucifer is
idealist. Also the way in which Beelzebub appears happy to be Lucifer's "second-in-
command" as opposed to trying to seek power himself. He therefore appears to lack the
same kind of driving ambition that causes Lucifer to continue his opposition to God even
from his present location. He exhibits tremendous loyalty and faithfulness to Lucifer. He
addresses his chief by words O Prince, O Chief, Fearless perpetual King.
This is perhaps the key to understanding the differences between them. We would never
expect such servile terms to be uttered by Lucifer. Beelzebub distinguishes himself from
Lucifer through his willingness to be led and his loyalty.