First Draft AE

Who’s The Bad Guy?

 Part of the problem with being a subordinate is reconciling the binding restrictions imparted by one’s superiors with the perceived freedoms witnessed in those higher on the totem pole. In any situation in which a hierarchy exists there will always be an internal struggle to either accept one’s subjugated lot or attempt to transcend one’s position into a higher existence. No more in this evident than in John Milton’s Paradise Lost, in which the poet presents a universe rife with characters that are in constant struggle to reconcile their ordained position in their individual spheres of existence, with the possibility of transcending their position into a very tangible higher plane. Milton presents his readers with characters that are so torn between their assigned roles and their desires for positions in a higher state that it is often difficult to discern what actions are grounded in morality; thus, blurring the lines between who is inherently good, and who is evil. Therefore, if no character in the epic can be definitively identified as the primary aggressor, then the true enemy of Milton’s tale is the hierarchy itself. The Miltonian hierarchy seen in Paradise Lost is so caustic that even God struggles against it, a point echoed in The Decentralization of Morality in Paradise Lost by Jarod Anderson. In his article, Anderson speaks to an “otherness” associated with beings and institutions that exist outside of God’s rule.

 It is very easy to immediately look to Satan as the primary antagonist in Milton’s poem, in part, one could argue, because of the obvious negative connotations associated with the biblical figure. Yet, Milton is not progressing a biblical characterization of Satan. Instead, he is progressing an extraordinarily three-dimensional figure whose primary motivation behind causing the fall of man was not due to an inherently evil nature. In fact, Satan is merely rebelling against what he perceives to be an unjust rule. Readers are presented with this notion when Satan says early on, “What shall be right: farthest from him is best/ Whom reason hath equaled, force hath made supreme / Above his equals” (9. 247-249). Satan is referring to the idea that God is among his intellectual equals in heaven, and the only aspect that sets Him apart, and justifies his rule, is his use of force. Thus, Satan and his fallen brethren are more freedom fighters than evil monsters. Their rebellion is no more “evil” than any rebellion that’s occurred throughout history. More so, the fact that the fallen are in Hell, as opposed to truly dead (i.e. removed from God's universe) signals God’s perverse desire to keep the fallen under his watch and control­. This idea is touched upon in Andersons article, where when referring to the initial desire of the defeated fallen to simply commit suicide in order to escape God’s rule, he writes, “[…] God may not allow egress of from his creation […]” (Anderson 1). Anderson is putting forth the idea that God, being the omnipotent and all powerful being that he is, certainly has the power to destroy the fallen angels, yet chooses to keep them in Hell and under close watch. In addition, the all seeing God knows that man must be tested, and he chooses to allow Satan to be Man’s tempting agent. With that, even after Satan orchestrates the rebellion in heaven, God keeps him around to further do his bidding, which clearly demonstrates the tyrannical rule of God as witnessed by Satan and his followers. 

However, Satan does do morally questionable acts throughout the play. In fact, he outright admits his unjust ways when he says, “To do aught good never will be our task, / But ever to do ill our sole delight,” (1.159-160). In conversing with Beelzebub, Satan lays out a framework for how the fallen should behave from then on, yet the motivation for the statement, again, does not come from inherent evil. Satan’s motivations for doing “ill” comes from his desire to seek vengeance on God for the fall. Satan knows, at this point, that God's power far exceeds the rebellious fallen; he knows the only way to seek vengeance on God is to embark on a guerilla campaign rooted in sabotage. In addition, he feels remorse for what he and his defeated rebels must do. Milton progresses Satan’s internal agony when the devil witnesses the perfection and beauty of earth for the first time, “O earth, how like to Heav’n, if not preferred / More justly, seat worthier of the gods, as built / With second though, reforming what was old;” Satan recognizes the majesty of earth, and he momentarily admires it before he is overcome with a sense of anguish at the thought of something so beautiful being created by his nemesis (9. 99-101). In lamenting, “[…] the more I see / Pleasures about me, so much more I feel / Torment within me, as from the hateful siege / Of contraries,” Milton is debunking the notion of Satan being a truly evil force, for if he was, there would be no internal anguish, no struggle, and nor remorse with the rebel angel.

If Milton is progressing an idea of Satan that is not evil, then the cause of conflict between Satan and God has to come from somewhere else. In fact, conflict between the two comes from the hierarchy. In heaven, the hierarchical order is extremely visible. You have God at the top and angels below. Satan, however, was said to have been God’s favored subject, or his right hand, yet God’s son usurped his position in the heavenly hierarchy. This situation would be analogous to a nobleman being next in-line to ascend the throne of a kingdom, only to be knocked down the ladder when the monarch has a child. Milton, then, is progressing the conflict in heaven within a framework that would have been very familiar to seventeenth century Europe. However, the rebellion in heaven was not just Satan’s. We see that Satan “persuades” one-third of all angels in heaven to follow his rebellion, and while Milton does not give an exact number of followers readers get a sense of just how immense his rebel army is when the God appoints Gabriel and Michael as leaders of his opposition force,

Go Michael of celestial armies prince,

And thou in military prowess next,

Gabriel, lead forth to battle these my sons

Invincible, lead forth my armed saints

By thousands and by millions ranged for fight;

Equal in number to that godless crew

Rebellious, […] (6. 44-50)

With God’s decree that Michael and Gabriel mobilize an army that matches Satan’s we see a force of millions on each side. It is difficult to imagine Satan eloquently persuading his would-be followers to join his cause, no matter how skilled at persuasion he may have been. Instead, it is much more plausible that those angels who followed Satan felt just as slighted with the addition of the Son in heaven, for the balanced and comfortable hierarchy that once existed (i.e. God then angels) had now been altered with the arrival of the Messiah. In one act, all angels in heaven got pushed down the hierarchical order, essentially becoming lesser beings. The conflict, then, between Satan and God, as presented by Milton, is derived from the anger associated with being moved down heavens hierarchy.

The other perceived antagonist in the Milton’s poem is Eve. She’s characterized as being prideful and intellectually inferior, which eventually leads to the fall of man. However, like Satan, Eve is an incredibly complex character and ultimately her assigned subjugation is what eventually led to the fall. According to events of Milton’s poem, pride played an incredibly small role in Eve’s initial act of sin, and her perceived intellectual failings were not fully responsible, either. In the scene where Satan approaches Eve as a snake, and tells her of the incredible powers of the fruit he claimed to have consumed, she appears to be skeptical. And upon reaching the tree she rejects Satan’s initial attempt at corrupting her when she states, “[…] of this tree we may not taste nor touch; / God so commanded, and left that command / Sole daughter of his voice” (9.651-653). If Eve were so prideful, and so intellectually dull, then she would have reached for the fruit immediately, but instead she maintains her composure, she recognizes the perceived wrong in eating the fruit, and she rejects Satan’s attempt. With that, Milton is doing away with the claim that feminine pride and stupidity lead to the fall. In fact, he presents the corrupting factor as her desire for equality–an idea in opposition to the hierarchy. She succumbs to temptation when Satan poses the question,

Why then was this [fruit] forbid? Why but to awe,

Why but to keep ye low and ignorant

His worshippers; he knows that in the day

Ye eat thereof, your eyes that seem so clear,

Yet are but dim, shall perfectly be then

Opened and cleared, and ye shall be as gods (9.703-708).

Satan was not appealing to Eve’s pride, nor was his initial attempt to trick her successful; he realized the way to get her to eat the fruit was by appealing to her inner desire to transcend her subjugated status. In Eden, she was relegated to being the subordinate of Adam, and, according to Milton, on a cosmic scale Eve was the lowest of the rational beings–just one step above common beasts. Eve’s decision to consume the fruit of the tree of knowledge stems from her dislike of her status in the world, and, like Satan, her downfall was brought about from her attempt to go against an established hierarchy. 

            Yet, the hierarchy itself is an institution created by God, according to Milton, and in describing God as the cosmological architect Milton writes that He is, “Author of this Universe” (7.997). Anderson touches on this idea of the God created hierarchy being the ultimate creator of conflict in the poem by asserting that he is, “[…] the author of all that is good and by extension, had the power to determine what is or is not good within the bounds of his universe” (Anderson 4). How, then, can either Satan, his fallen brothers, or Eve be considered truly evil when all they are doing is acting in opposition to their assigned subjugation as ordained by God? The situation is analogous to a monarch deeming it treason for a lower class citizen to seek an education, or for a middle manager in a corporation being fired for seeking a promotion. Yet, Milton does not present God to be the antagonist either. In every situation where a fall occurs, be it Satan’s or man’s, God has given the perpetrator the freedom to choose, and has welcomed those who have chosen “correctly” back into his good graces. Instead, it would seem that Milton is arguing that the institution of a hierarchy, be it in Paradise Lost or in seventeenth century Europe, is the primary cause of conflict–if you go against it, you are deemed evil; if you go with it, you remain in favor of the established rule.

In Paradise Lost Milton purposefully avoids presenting any one character as a classic villain. His characters are all deeply complex, and conflicted, and it is through that inner conflict that the internal agony is felt by Satan in having to spoil paradise. It is the intellectual struggle of Eve in wanting to abide by her superiors while simultaneously feeling the need to gain more from life, that make it near impossible to label either one as being “evil.” Instead, they are individuals who have been tortured with the realization, and visualization of what life would be like if only they were able to move up one step on the totem pole of God’s universe.