Satan as Walter White, doin it for the family.

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.

The Backslide of the Baptized: A Bitch Fest About God's Creations

I feel bad to say this because of my religious background, but hell (literally) I'm going to say it any way. Milton is no preacher or holy person, he has an imagination that created this text. He presents Satan in a light that I've never seen before. Sure, he's called a fiend and we see that he's evil and has evil intentions all along, but I feel this text magnifies why he's the way he is and evokes my pity because I'm just as flawed as he is.

The more that I read this text, the more resistant I feel toward Christianity. Just like when a parent neglects a child and people say, "the child didn't ask to be born," NONE of God's creations asked to be born either. God made Satan a beautiful angel of music, but he also created a side effect in him---a thirst for power. Humans also have side effects---we were born to sin. I'm starting to get angry and yell to myself, "Well why the fuck are you mad that Satan betrayed you? You made created him to cause drama, so Why are you punishing him for something he was created by you to do. Fuck the free will shit. Destiny is destiny, right? AND you also made him to SUFFER, but claim that you favored him!"

 This text makes me look at God as a bored giant who has nobody to play with, so he uses his creations like little girls do with Barbie dolls and makes all of us go through stupid shit for his own entertainment. It's weird that I'm siding with Satan---he's supposed to be the enemy. However, I feel God is because he's the reason that all of this is happening. Adam and Eve were tempted by Satan because he wanted to get back at God. God knew this all along, but he still  punishes all of us for it then says, "But I sent my only son to bare your sins!" I'm sure humans can suffer way more than we do, but why should we suffer at all if God loves us?! Christians say it is to recognize how mighty God's love is and how fortunate we are to have good things in our life... I'm starting to think this is crap.

Okay I'm going to stop talking now because I'm pissed. Actually no, I'm disappointed because I feel my purpose is to entertain a God who created me to be flawed for his own amusement and for gratification of how perfect he is. Okay I'm shutting up!

I've Got The World on a String

Milton continues to confuse me with his winding staircase sentences that lead to nowhere. I love the language and creativity he has, but just write a simple sentence once in a while to get your point across, you know? I do like where the story is headed though, and I wish we had time to trip over the words in all ten of the books, but my end of semester brain thanks Dr.MB for only making us tackle two.

All seems to be well in hell. We've now taken a look around and in addition to the expected molten fire, we've also found a surprising frozen tundra. Satan has asked his little devils to keep house and tidy things up to make hell a more suitable place to live. And now, because no good story begins and ends by staying in one place where you've been banished, Satan has taken it upon himself to go exploring. He journeys to the gates of hell, which I am actually surprised exist/he is not in charge of them. Part of me has always pictured Satan having some sort of docking station upon a lake of skulls or fire and only he has access to let people in or out. Anyway, he comes across two figures by these gates: a half woman-serpent and something shapeless and terrible. We find out that this woman is Sin and that her son, who Satan is the father of is death. Interesting, right? Sin and Satan have worked together to produce death.

I really like this theory behind the existence of death. Whenever someone dies from an illness, suddenly or just too soon, people are so quick to say something like, "How could God let such a terrible thing happen to such an innocent soul?" But is it God? If death was produced by satan and sin, it isn't really God at all. The embodiment of rule-breaking and cruelty has teamed up with a fallen angel that wanted God's powers. We don't know why death exists, but it's more of a chain of events than something God just thought up. If Satan had never betrayed God and fallen, then maybe death wouldn't exist. But then again, God knew that Satan would do this and it would eventually result in death. Beyond this, Satan actually bribes death and sin and says Hey, if you let me out of this gate, I'll let you roam earth with me. Satan literally brings death and sin to earth.

The chaos part confuses me, which I guess it should. I really thought chaos would be one with the earth, but I guess its more of a messy limbo. Chaos is described as a potpourri of miscellaneous tasks and objects that Satan must get through and I think that might be symbolic of the chaos a person on earth would have to go through to get either to heaven or to hell. Chaos sparks people to make decisions that can lean in either a positive or a negative way, but we have to make it through the chaos to make a decision. I also like that Satan sees earth is dangling from heaven by a string. In fact, I think that's my favorite symbol so far. We are dangling from a single tie to heaven. It's so much easier to fall into the depths of chaos or hell, but heaven is barely holding on to us and seems so out of grasp. The ties between heaven and earth are slim and few, showing that maybe good is not as common on earth and that if the earth is truly all evil, it would be quite easy to cut the string and let it all fall to chaos.

100%, Genuine Devil.

            If I were a character written into Paradise Lost, I would one hundred percent be a devil. No offense, God, but Heaven seems a little boring. Not to mention, the planning up there seems just a tad off. Who uses those guys as guards? Really. I'd much rather be a fallen angel than one of the ones stuck up there doing (no pun intended) God knows what. I found it very interesting that, like Nicole said, God seems to have created this whole mess. It would be intriguing to ask him/her why. P.S. Please go easy on me when it comes to all of this religion stuff. I have no idea about anything concerning it; growing up, my parents version of prayer was to put on a Bob Marley CD on Sunday morning, so I really am pretty ignorant.

          One of the other things that I found interesting was the planning and the way that the great city of Hell was designed. I love the fact that it was built beautifully and exquisitely. It adds a whole extra twist to the idea of Hell. It's not all fire and brimstone, it can be aesthetically pleasing as souls spend an eternity being punished for their sins. I think that part of the reason that it was built in the image of heaven is that that is all the fallen angels know, and there's something to that. I can't figure out what it is, but I know there's something there.  Also, the fact that these devils seem to be reminiscent of that one  kid in grade school that everyone had who just did whatever he pleased is just icing to the cake. Much like Bender from The Breakfast Club, or Dash from The Incredibles, the devils have that attitude that makes them fun to be around/more attractive than the Angels that still remain in Heaven.

Debate for Days

The devils’ debate in book 2 is kind of weird.  It starts off with Satan opening a can of worms (not out of character… one would think that they would learn from the last time he had a grand idea) and saying that he believes that they still might have a chance to invade Heaven and take over.  Which is kind of ridiculous considering where he is standing and saying this.  This is another moment where Satan shows his true colors of being an all-powering manipulator for evil. 

So, when Satan says this of course Moloch jumps right up and says that he is totally down to take over and fight and win.  He thinks with the weapons of Hell they could over throw God.  Although, his main point is that they have nothing left to lose, but they do which Belial quickly points out.  He says that this is a horrendous idea and that they do in fact have lots to lose; they could be put back in the fiery lake.  He also states that he believes that if they are good God might forgive them and let them live a better life.   I believe that this is the best decision.  Why push it? I know the saying, “It is better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission,” but in their case they already are asking for forgiveness.  They are already in the Hellion doghouse; they need forgiveness because they are fresh out of permission. 

But, this wouldn’t be in our English class if the devils decided to sit around and behave and pray for forgiveness.  So, here comes Mammon saying he will never ever, ever be getting back together with God. He enlists the idea of making a Heaven part two in Hell.  Everyone thinks this is splendid, but Beelzebub wants more.  He wants to find and destroy the new world filled with the new race: humans.  Of course, up hops Satan and offers to go look for this new race.  Classic Satan.

All these positions in the debate are important.  They help form a character study of each devil and in turn the devils as a whole working unit.  When Moloch jumps up to fight another identical war to what they just lost it embodies the idea that he is so angry and prideful that he is willing to do anything to get what he wants.  Then when Belial decides to try to do what God says it adds an idea that maybe the devils are salvageable, but then further reading leads one to believe that he doesn’t want peace, but he is just lazy.  By having this debate Milton is able to help the reader form an opinion of the devils and show their true colors.  He adds insight to there inner workings. 

It's All God's Fault

I’m still pretty stuck on the idea that this is all God’s fall. Regardless to free will, God created Hell and put really shitty guards on duty to keep his bad guys contained. I mean, sure, Satan had to do one step above a hop, skip and a jump to get around his kid (which, by the way, who the hell doesn’t know that they’ve reproduced…), but it really was not that difficult to escape his eternity in Hell. I sympathize with Faustus more than ever now because seriously, I don’t think Hell is all that permanent after all of this anymore either—especially before people were created.

Anyway… God created free will, God create Hell, God put these guards on duty, and… God created Satan. God sucks at making things that work in his favor… and really, it seems like God created sin.

Otherwise, I wish we were reading the rest of this text. I mention all the time in class that I know nothing about religion so it is so interesting reading about theories and stories from this time. It’s probably not the best idea, though, because I think the devils are complete badasses and are the best kind of bad guys. I mean, there the annoying kids that unscrew the legs in God’s chair so he falls on his ass and look silly. This world he is creating is supposed to be is little baby and the human race are his new favorite beings and Satan is all ready and able and essentially free to manipulate it into his personal revenge on God. Super cool… Go Devils!

I blame you…and you, and you.

So... God created Satan; Satan is the devil; the devil created Sin; then Sin and the devil created Death. Wow. So is God to blame for all of this? Satan would most likely argue yes, that God is to blame for everything, especially if we think about Chad’s “teenage rebellion” analogy. As a teenager, we blame a lot of things on our parents, mostly because it’s easier than finding the real reason for why things happen that we don’t like or understand. So a recently grounded teenager is going to blame his parents for everything since they are the ones who gave him the punishment, just like Satan is blaming God. But how can Satan hate God when He is the reason Satan even exists in the first place? When we argue with our parents we say we hate them, but do we really? Does Satan really hate God or is he still trying to pretend like he is fine with being in Hell and is making the most of it? Back to Satan and his children, isn’t it funny how they are the ones opening the gates of Hell to their Father? Could they be seeking revenge on their father just like Satan is trying to do to God?

         On another note, of course Satan is the one who volunteers to seek out the new world (rolling my eyes). As I got more and more into the story I couldn’t help but find comparisons between Satan and Beowulf. Both men (if you can really call them that) wanted to be the one with all the fame and glory. They wanted to be the men who, if they died (which they knew most likely would happen) were known for being brave and saving others lives and protecting their people. Both their pride and their greed lead to their downfall. I suppose that this story has more connections than I thought, teaching us lessons about most if not all of the seven deadly sins (sloth, wrath, lust, gluttony, envy, pride, and greed). Other than pride and greed, as I have already pointed out, could there be one sin that triumphs all the others? (Maybe we should ask Sin, pun intended).

Sin plus Disobedience and Satan equals Death? Finally.

So to begin, I’d like to point out how awesomely cheesy it is that “Sin” is the one to open the gates, thus letting sin into the world.  And the fact that she is Satan’s offspring.  I also find it interesting that Sin is a woman, considering this is technically a prequel to the events that unfolded between Satan, Adam, and Eve. I feel like Milton should’ve considered that, at the time this is set, the world wouldn’t know that a woman committed the first sin yet. (Perhaps he was too caught up in those presumptuous sentences.) In fact, all of this presumably happens before “Man” is actually created. 

When I finished this, I had some impressive (impressive to me, at least) revelations about who Sin and Death are in this story.  First, what I found utterly stupid is that fact that Satan doesn’t even remember reproducing.  After all, his disobedience was a way to “stick it” to God, right? I mean, technically Satan CREATED sin.  So why would he not remember the creation of the ultimate revenge on God? He must’ve hit his head way too hard when he landed in hell. 

I find it interesting that Sin is attractive, yet ugly at the same time.  Perhaps this is Milton’s warning of the attractive temptation of real sin—that we should not fall victim to it, despite its appealing nature.  Satan’s daughter is the ultimate personification of original sin.  And maybe the fact that she is a woman is necessary, because women are also considered to be great tempters (at least during Milton’s time, and even today, on some levels).

And speaking of Sin, I found the incestuous offspring between Satan and his daughter to be really weird.  I mean, what??? (Again I ask, HOW could he not remember this?) But then again, it’s kind of interesting because Death is the offspring of Sin and Satan, who is the ultimate symbol of disobedience.  So here’s the equation:

SIN      +          DISOBEDIENCE       =          DEATH

The end of Book II is a warning—that Death is not a natural occurrence, but rather, the ultimate result of disobedience toward God.  Woah! If only it was that simple in real life, eh?

            Right now, Satan doesn’t seem so awesome anymore! Obviously I can’t come to an accurate conclusion, considering we’re not reading the rest of Paradise Lost.  But I no longer feel bad for him, considering this odd chain of events that unfolds at the end of Book II.  Now he’s the god ol’ manipulative Satan we all know and love!