Alexander Walden

Dr. Allen

Engl. 201

November 28, 1998

Part 1 Summary

Satan, who is referred to as a lost archangel, asks if this is the place where he and his fellow archangels have to live instead of heaven. He answers himself the Question by saying, "be it so". He seems to be quite happy. Now he can decide everything on his own because now he is independent. Hell is the place that is farthest away from heaven and God, to whom Satan thinks himself to be equal. Hell, according to Satan is a place where joy will be forever. Next, he introduces himself to Hell. He says that he is the new "possessor" of the Hell. By doing that he takes the leadership role of all the lost archangels. He says that he has a mind that is not changed from his mind he had earlier when he was a regular angel under God. His mind is independent from places and times. The mind is its own place and can make "Heaven of Hell or Hell of Heaven". He asks, what is the difference where he is, if he is still the same. Then Satan asks why he should be less than God, just because thunder has made God what he is. He thinks they are equal by "reason". Satan concludes that in Hell he is at least free from God. God does not have any influence down in Hell and Satan knows that. Satan says that God’s jealousy cannot drive the behavior in Hell. Therefore in Hell, Satan is able to govern in a secure manner by his own choice. But then, Satan asks his friend why their faithful friends had to leave them. At the end of his speech, Satan says that they have to do something concerning heaven. He wants to get back whatever heaven has taken away from him. Satan calls his friends to go to heaven and attack God in order to get what he thinks belongs to him.

Part 2 Analysis of Milton’s English

The English Milton is using is different from the English Shakespeare was using and the English we are using today. One could say he lies somewhere in the middle between the two different kinds of English. Some various examples of this are the long sentences Milton uses. He puts different ideas in the same sentence and only separates them by commas. For example the sentence "Be it so, since he Who now is sovereign can dispose and bid What shall be right: farthest from his best, Whom reason hath equaled, force hath made supreme Above his equals." By using commas Milton was able to put several ideas right behind each other without interrupting the flow of the ideas.

Another difference to today’s English is the word order Milton uses. For example, take the sentence "Be it so". We would put the word "so" in front of the sentence. Milton did not necessarily use the same word order, subject, verb, and object, which we use today. By reading his poetry it becomes obvious to the reader that this was not written for the common people of England back in the 16^th and 17^th century. Not only is the thinking behind the writing very deep, but also the writing itself is on a very high level. Milton uses words that are not used in everyday language. An example for that is found at the beginning when he uses "celestial". In Modern English we would probably use "heavenly" instead. If we do not even use this word today we can assume that it was not commonly used in Milton’s time. When Milton wrote "Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven." He did not put the word "or" between those tow sentences. Since only either one of those two events can occur, Milton would have to put something between those two sentences. Again he put a comma where he should have put a period. In line 263 Milton wrote "Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven." Milton did not start this sentence out with "It is". He did not put the Subject and the Verb into the sentence. But in general, Milton’s English is much easier to understand than Shakespeare’s, because it is much closer to our English today.

Milton’s use of vocabulary also differs from ours today. "this the seat That we must change for heaven?" Instead of "change" we might use "exchange" for a better understanding. Milton also uses "be " when he should use "am". An example for that can be found in line 256. The vocabulary Milton uses is not very different from the vocabulary we use today. In fact it is so close that I did not have any problems reading it, like I did with Shakespeare or Chaucer.

Part 3 Interpretation

In this short speech of Satan Milton addresses many very important issues. He introduces Satan to the reader as well as to Hell, he shows the position Satan takes and keeps throughout the poem, he mentions the sovereignty Satan beliefs to have, Satan assumed equality to God and the resulting relationship between the two. Milton uses this speech to introduce not only Satan but the opposite to the good or God.

Satan finds himself in Hell and asks himself if that is the place where he has to live instead of heaven. Apparently he is in Hell for the first time. He seems to be surprised, but he is able to answer that question by himself. Milton starts the poem by introducing Hell to Satan and Satan as one of the main character to the reader.

Satan very quickly finds the advantages of living in Hell. It also seems as if he is trying to convince himself that it is the best that could happen to him. Now, that he is living in Hell he is able to govern himself. He knows that because he says "… sovereign can dispose and bid…". He seems to like this better than to live in Heaven under God. Another reason that he likes to live in Hell is that he is far away from God and Heaven. "…farthest from him is best", this shows how desperate Satan is in getting away from God. But the reason for that is that God threw him out of Heaven. One would be surprised if Satan wanted to live with God after what has happened. In Hell he has more opportunities to act against God than he would have in Heaven. "We shall be free;" lets him realize the new won freedom that they had, outside the sphere of influence of God. "Here for his envy will, will not drive us" also implies that he is now independent from God, but it also shows that he is jealous of God. Even though he does not say it rather than saying that they, Satan and his fellow angels, are free from God’s envy. He still brings the whole issue up. If he was honest he would be glad to be away from God, as he says, and carry on with his own live and not try to analyze God’s actions and behavior. Satan convinces himself that it is better to live in Hell than Heaven.

Even though he likes his new sovereignty, he does not like to live in Hell. He is constantly looking for reasons to like Hell and in a way he compares it to Heaven. Proof for that can be found in the following lines. "Here we may reign secure; and in my choice To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:" This clearly shows that he does not like Hell compared to Heaven. Satan is also still justifying being in Hell, even though he knows well why he is there. Satan says that it is "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven", which cannot be true since Hell is the worst place to live. Satan is not satisfied with his situation at all. He is convincing himself as well as all the other angels that it is better to be in Hell, but he knows better than that.

Satan still think that he is equal to God, he says about himself "Whom reason hath equaled,". The whole argument in Heaven was about that issue and he got thrown out of heaven for trying to be equal with God and now in Hell he still believes that they both are equal. The entire poem is built upon Satan’s attempt to get even with God. Without Satan’s assumption to be equal, there would be no poem at all.

The relationship between God and Satan starts before this poem. In the poem Satan makes God look like a tyrant, which he is not. Satan believes that he had to suffer in Heaven and blames God for everything that has happened. Despite his belief, it was not the case that he had no freedom at all in heaven. The only difference was that he was not the leader. Satan could not accept to have to obey God. The fact that Satan is a dualist and God has faith in his power also brings some tension in the relationship. Satan believes he has to fight God, in order to find the better one of the two. But God does not fight him because he knows his power and he knows that he is the better one.

Satan is the leader of Hell. It is out of question that somebody else takes over as the leader. For all the Archangels that followed Satan down to Hell nothing got better, but only worse. In Heaven they had God to be their leader and a pleasant life but now in Hell they have Satan as their leader, but the worst life one can possibly have. That is the price they have to pay for their loyalty to Satan. On the other hand, Satan acts in their favor and their interests. In line 270 Satan says he will try to "Regained in Heaven, or what more lost in Hell". He wants to get back Heaven, which he thinks belongs to him and all the Archangels that followed him. This can only be in the interest of his fellow angels. This leads to the plot of the poem and is therefore a very important speech for the whole story, because without it there would be no poem. Satan uses this speech to introduce himself to Hell and all his fellow angels. "Receive thy new possessor," were the words, which he used. He makes it clear who is the leader in Hell. He knows that he needs power in order to fight God. If somebody else had become the leader of the Hell the whole story might have gone a different way, because it takes a lot of courage to fight God, after all he is the Creator of the universe, which includes Satan. Satan had everything that was needed to fight God. His belief as a dualist made him fight God rather than accepting the punishment. Therefore he was the right leader for Hell. The best leader is the one who is the fittest. Satan also says he is still the old one. He has "A mind not to be changed by place and time". He is implying that he is still as capable as he was before. Since the other archangels knew him before, he is making them more comfortable with him as their new leader. But he is also saying that this is not a personal war against God, which it is. His mind "is not to be changed" by anything. If it was a personal war he might lose some of his supporters, because they may have different ideas of what should be achieved than what Satan does. If Satan presents the whole issue to them from a different perspective, he will be assured to have their support. To show his capabilities and aims he says that he is able to "…make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven". It is only up to him. He has both options. But since it is obvious that he will never be able to convert Hell into some sort of a Heaven it is clear what his objectives are. In his speech Satan mentions that he has not changed. This will guarantee him the support of his followers but also keeps him from getting a bad conscience. He will always believe that he would have done the same thing while he was still in Heaven, therefore it will be the right thing to do. Satan just wants to get even with Heaven, because he feels he got cheated. He believes that he belongs into Heaven and God needs to be in Hell or in Heaven, for that matter, as long as Satan is above God. Milton makes the position that Satan takes throughout play clear. He sets up the beginning of the story in this speech. He explains not only what is, according to Satan, going to happen but also explains the situation in Hell.

Not only does Milton use this speech to introduce the story and the position of the devil, he also introduces the character of Satan. Satan starts to be a little bit confused. He does not really seem to know what he is doing and where he is. On the other hand he could just be a little bit surprised, because he suddenly found himself in Hell. He obviously does not like Hell, as nobody else would, but he tries to convince himself that it is a better place to live. Especially attractive to him is the idea that he has so much more freedom that he had before. He keeps reminding him of that throughout the whole speech. He also believes that he is equal to God. The whole story is based on this wrong assumption. If it was not for Satan’s believe to be equal to God, he would have never been kicked out of heaven. Satan is the leader of all the angels that went down to Hell with him. Most likely because Satan started the argument in Heaven with God and they did not agree with God on that issue either or on another issue, they just followed Satan down to Hell, not knowing what they were getting into

This speech is essential for the whole poem. But there were also some events that happened before this speech that are essential and introduced through this speech. Especially the last four lines set up the play. Milton introduces Satan as one of the main characters in the play and makes it clear which position he takes in the play. Milton also shows the rivalry between God and Satan. The theme of the poem is man’s first obedience. Satan tries everything to get man to do the first disobedience. He finally succeeds by getting Eve to eat the forbidden apple. For Satan, it is just an attempt to get even with God, For mankind it is the end of the life in the Garden of Eden.