Satan in Paradise Lost is sort of like Walter White from “Breaking Bad.”
Although they don’t start on equal footing morally (or rather, we don’t see the
time when Satan was “good” in Heaven), both characters become progressively
darker and darker throughout their story. While they end in different places (I
really can’t spoil Breaking Bad in all good conscience), they are both
portrayed as antiheroes. Dictionary.com defines an antihero as “a protagonist
who lacks the attributes that make a heroic figure, as nobility of mind and
spirit, a life or attitude marked by action or purpose, and the like.”
Audiences tend to love antiheroes because blurring the lines of morality is
absolutely more entertaining.
In
“Breaking Bad,” Walter White does most of his actions for his family. In fact,
he screams that frequently. While some of the things he does are certainly…
questionable, the intentions are mainly pure, for the most part. Walter White
gets less and less forgivable as the show goes on, (THAR BE SPOILERS AHEAD) but
eventually redeems himself by the end. Somehow I don’t see Satan redeeming
himself much by the end of Paradise Lost,
but the parallels are clear in the way that he is going down this path, getting
worse and worse. Milton has done us a great service by giving us this path,
though. If he had simply written Paradise
Lost saying “oh yeah here’s Satan he’s evil, look at all this evil stuff he
does,” no one would be particularly surprised. It’s Satan, yeah of course he’s
evil. To show him as a fallen angel and giving him reasons for the way he acts,
that is what both entertains and lends more credibility to Milton as an author.
The dude made Satan endearing. That’s rad.
I would
really like to see Satan before all the shit went down because I feel like
seeing him in that “innocent” state would give us even more of his motivations
and help us understand him a little better. If Milton had given us “Breaking
Bad,” he would’ve started us midway through the first season, when we really
wanted to see the beginning. We get hints here and there and a decent
explanation, but actually seeing Satan’s decline and eventual fall would be
amazing. I’m sure some kind of literature exists on that, though.
I wanted the title of this to be some kind of Breaking Bad/Satan joke, but I couldn't think of anything.
I like the idea of reading of Satan when he was still one of God’s angels in heaven. He has always been the bad boy who fell. I don’t know an author who has tried to piece together the bright ‘Morning Star’ angel when he was good. It would be interesting to say the least. I know I would read about it. Knowing his beginning gives readers a point to refer to when they notice he starts to go bad. We’d be able to figure out his reasons and decide whether they are agreeable or just silliness. From the two books of Paradise Lost we’ve read so far, I find Satan to be admirable just like Zach. Satan’s a bad-ass salesman, manipulating the minds of those around him to get his way. I’ve no doubt that as the story goes on, he becomes more sinister and his inner desires spring forth. Satan is the biggest baddie of them all, but I don’t blame him for continuing on his path of destruction. I figure Satan probably doesn’t think he can all of the sudden repent and go back on his actions. Nor does he actually want to. Like his demon pal Mammon said, who wants to eternally serve God again and sing forced songs of praise? Not Satan, that’s for damn sure. Keep on conquering you fiery heathen.
ReplyDeleteYes! I love strange connections with literature and TV shows! I missed several episodes, but I saw enough to agree with your connection. Especially the whole “I do this for you, not me” bullshit Satan pulls, and for a while it seemed like Walter was insincere too, but you are right, I he uses all that drug money for good… even though he gets and gives it in super-immoral ways. Walter definitely fits into the category of really-bad-dudes. I guess both Walter White and Dr. Faustus are mainly in the mindset of I’m screwed, so let’s go for it, but at least Walter does have a noble goal buried deep, DEEP behind his actions… but back to Paradise Lost! I agree that Satan pre-falling would be cool, but it isn’t really necessary for me to understand him. Like Walter White, he just wants what he can manage to get, and he wants to be on top.
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