Criticims of Milton

¶ … Dante Alighieri "Inferno," -- which is a physical description of hell that is a feast for the senses (Alighieri, 2003), Paradise Lost is also a comprehensive description of the process of creation of the Universe (Milton and Bentley, 1974). In the latter case, however, man is at the center of events. Paradise Lost is about personalities -- God's, Satan's, Sin's, Death's, Jesus Christ (Son), Adam and Eve. The epic poem has been severely criticized by scholars who aver that Satan has been given a place in prominence that is not deserved. (Hamilton, 1977) The most severe criticism comes from William Blake in prosaic sections of "Marriage of Heaven and Hell." (Blake, 1994) Blake's accusatory tone goes so far as to aver that thought there might be hints of poetic license in how Milton created the character of Satan, Milton might be operating as a vessel of Satan. The exact quote is: "The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels and Gods, and at liberty when of Devils and Hell, is because he was a true poet and of the Devil's Party without knowing it." Strong words indeed.

One might argue that in portraying the Devil, Milton was being true to what was written in the Bible. After all, Ezekiel (28:15) states that "You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you." This shows that Satan was first created as an Archangel complete with all the powers, but somehow iniquities entered into him. The expectations as in any religious missive or religion are that good and evil exists and that good eventually triumphs over evil. The problems that Blake and many others have are due to the kind of power that is given to Satan's character. Blake complains that the description of the Messiah is ambiguous. It is the name given to the archangel (eventually Satan) and Jesus Christ. There are some instances where the disgust factor is perpetrated through graphic (almost pornographic prose). Satan has incestuous relations with his daughter-Sin who bears the progeny Death. This triumvirate (Satan-Sin-Death) is very powerful and its taints are cast on humankind.

Milton's Satan functions as an antagonist or the anti-hero. Anti-hero's in most epics are looked on as rebels and they garner a measure of sympathy. Milton's Satan is shown as being possessed of a similar awareness in the long soliloquy in Book IV of Paradise Lost (IV:32-113). Consider the following extract:

Which way I flie is Hell; my self am Hell;

And in the lowest deep a lower deep

Still threat'ning to devour me opens wide,

To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heavn'n.

O then at last, relent is there no place

Left for Repentance, none for Pardon left?

None left but by submission; and that word