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　　Abstract：John Milton, the most learned poet, is the greatest writer of the 17th century. Paradise Lost is one of his greatest works. Satan, as the most remarkable figure, has always been a major that be studied by academic circles. Some has shown the notion of Satan as the true hero of the poem. However, among anti-Satanists there is a tendency to emphasize his evil and regard him as a villain. The present paper attempt to probe into the character of Satan according to the original work. It shows that neither idea is right that look on Satan from one angle. He is not a single conception. His various behaviors manifest that he is a paradoxical and many-sided figure.
　　Keywords:paradox many-sided true courage dissimulation controversy
　　
　　Chapter One
　　In Paradise lost, Satan is the most remarkable figure in the poem. That is, those readers who have left their reactions on record have seldom been able to regard Satan as a depiction of pure evil. Barker finds that eighteen-century admirers of the sublime praised Satan’s high superior nature, and so come into conflict with Addison and Johnson, who declared Satan’s speeches ‘big with absurdity’ ⑴. Among Romantic critics, Blake, Byron, and Hazlitt championed Satan, whereas Coleridge indentified him with Napoleonic pride and sensual indulgence. In the 20th century, anti-Satanists such as Charles Williams and Stanley Fish have been opposed by A.J.A.Waldock, E.E.Stoll and others. These simplified versions of Satan ignore or evade the evidence within the poem that fails to square with them.
　　Chapter Two
　　As kastor has shown that it was not until about AD 200 the official Judaism began to absorb popular concepts of Satan. To account for the presence of evil in the world. From then on appearances of Satan in literature and theology multiplied. Scores of literary Satan evolved and some of them notably those created by Du Bartas, Grotius, and vondel-possibly influenced Milton⑵. However, no convincing single source for Milton’s Satan has been found. His Satan is not a single evil one, but a many-sided figure.
　　The traditional Satan story involves Satan in three separate roles―an Archangel (son of the morning); a Price of Devils in the council in hell; a serpent-tempter in Eden. Satan is at the most noble in BookⅠbecause he is still close to his original state and he is the most beautiful angel God created. But in BookⅢ, Satan disguises himself as a cherub. After he has leapt into the Garden, he sits on the Tree of Life. He has become an animal. But one who can soar through the air with some of the freedom that belongs to the angels. To observe Adam and Eve more closely, he takes the shape of a lion and then of a tiger. These four-footed creatures are limited to movement upon the earth, but men usually think of them as noble, even though they are dangerous. When Satan whispers in Eve’s ear as she sleeps, he has reduced himself to a toad that is much nastier than it is dangerous. Each change brings his nearer the earth. Satan’s deterioration reaches its final stage in the scene in Hell when he is boasting of his achievements to his fellow devils. He hears only hisses. In striving to exalt himself to become equal to God, he has become a snake. If one attempts to soar too high, he will find that he must also sink low.
　　By comparison with Satan, the other characters in Paradise Lost---Adam, Eve, even God exist simply at the level of the words they speak. Satan does not ---partly because his habitual mode is dissimulation, partly because unlike other characters, he exists, or has existed, within the historical span the poem covers, in a number of different modes⑶. If we wish to find a single term for Satan’s presentation, take as a whole, generates, then most suitable term seems to be “paradox”.
　　Chapter Three
　　Let’s go back to the poem and trace his paradox.
　　The paradox Satan gains from the BookⅠ. After the rebels thrust into Hell, Satan moves by pride, raises his head and looks about the hideous prison for which he has lost Heaven. Shamed by Satan’s cry, they spring to attention like well-disciplined soldiers and begin to collect themselves into military formation, gather before their leader. However, he weeps at the sight of his fallen followers, and cannot speak for tears:
　　 “Thrice he essayed, an thrice in spite of scorn,
　　Tears such as angels weep, burst forth”⑷.
　　Satan created by God. His eyes are clouded with remorse. He is so much moved by their pain. When God tries to bring evil out of good. He assumes them that no matter what happens, the fallen angels in Hell will never do the will of God. Satan discovers the bitter consequences of sin. Satan’s state of awareness, we are given to understand, are paradoxical.
　　The following speech is another factor that gives Satan paradox.
　　“What though the field be lost?
　　All is not lost, the unconquerable hate,
　　And study of revenge, immortal hate,
　　………………………………………
　　 ………………………………………
　　 Who now triumphs, and in th’excess of joy
　　 Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heaven⑸”
　　The speech made by Satan intends to courage his fellows to fight against God. We have been aware of his native majesty. He is as large as the monsters who in pagan myth. On the other hand, the effects of his sin are beginning to show. Satan presents the commonest excuse the wrong doer who has failed can make. He lies when he claims to have emptied Heaven. According to Satan, God rules in Heaven as a tyrant. In fact Satan attempts to make himself equal to God. In short, Satan is given to bragging about his courage, his sincerity the way in which he always stands up fearlessly for his right.
　　The one part of the poem where access is provided to paradox of Satan is his soliloquy at the start of BookⅣ. Satan looks sometimes toward paradise, or Eden, and sometimes toward the blazing noonday sun and begins his soliloquy. At the beginning of his speech, he tells the sun he hates it. Why? In the light of the sun he cannot help seeing the truth. He chooses evil freely. He concedes his own criminality and his own responsibility for his fall. He admits as he never has before in the poem, that God loves him, and that he has sinned against that love utterly without reason. At the end of the speech he explains that even if he could repent and get back to heaven by act of grace, it would do him no good, once back there, he would grow proud again, and this would lead to a worse relapse and heavier fall. Edward Phillips, Milton’s nephew, told us it was written as part of a drama, not an epic, at a time when Milton intends to write a tragedy on the fall.⑹ The soliloquy has the immediacy of drama, not the distance of epic. Satan is able to face the truth about to admit that he has done wrong. One part of him, clinging to the truth, recognizes his sin. Since Satan will not repent, turn away from his sin, he cannot be forgiven. How is he to give himself any peace? He tries to do so by destroying everything in himself that is good. He succeeds only in making himself unhappier than ever. So that the response elicited is paradox.
　　After Satan has leapt into the Garden, he sits on the Tree of Life in shape of a cormorant. At the time, he sees the noblest creatures---Adam and Eve. They walk erect, and their freedom and nobility declare that they are truly made to be the images of God. Adam’s nobler brow proclaims him to be the higher of the two. Eve is gentle. Her hair falls freely in curls to her waist. Because they have not sinned, neither of the two need to ashamed and they walk naked in native pride and innocence. After having worked just enough to make rest sweet, they sit down beside a fountain to eat their supper. About they play all the beasts of the earth that have, since the Fall been wild and the foes of men. The lion, the elephant, the bear and all the other animals do their best to entertain the pair. The sun is about to set, and many of the animals are preparing for rest. Satan watches the beautiful scene in wonder at first, and finally says to himself:
　　“whom my thought persue
　　With wonder, and could love, so lively shines
　　In them divine resemblance⑺”
　　We can see that when Satan first set eyes on Adam and Eve in Eden, he is as much attracted to them as he was repelled by sin sand Death when he met them at the gate of Hell. He is deprived of his “fierce intent”. However, Satan has observed their love for each other. Adam and Eve enjoy a paradise more blissful than the garden in which they live. He snatches himself back from the brink of innocence, recollects his hatred, and excites himself to evil once more:
　　“Thoughts, whither have ye led me, with what sweet
　　Compulsion thus transported to forget
　　What hither brought us, hate, not love?⑻”
　　He loves them so much that he wants them to be close to him, even if the closeness means only pain for them. And at the end of that speech, he justifies the wanton evil he intends those lovely and harmless creatures by saying that their suffering will be in “the public good”. Satan perverts his love for them.
　　These four examples all help to make Satan seen inscrutable and enhance his paradox.
　　Chapter Four
　　The correct critical reaction to the controversy about Milton’s Satan is not to imagine that it can be settled---that either Satanists or anti-Satanists can be shown to be right. A more reasonable reaction is to recognize that the poem is insolubly ambivalent, insofar as the reading of Satan’s character is concerned, and that this ambivalence is a precondition of the poem’s success---major factor in attention it has aroused⑼. Satan is basically a noble and intelligent man whose balance has been disturbed by the blind and purposeless fury of revenge that eventually destroyed him. In a word, Satan is fairly a many-sided figure. Devil or angel? Neither response can be pronounced right. Satan, I would suggest, paradox.
　　
　　Notes
　　⑴ Kastor, Johnthe Devil in Literature the University Press of Oxford 1988 P5
　　⑵ Evans, WilliamMilton and his Satan English Teaching Forum 1994 P4
　　⑶ Empson, MandThe Saovation of Satan The University Press of Cambridge 1989P20
　　⑷John MiltonParadise Lost P11
　　⑸John MiltonParadise Lost P17
　　⑹Riche ChirstopherMilton’s Grand Style Teaching English In China 1996 P15
　　⑺John MiltonParadise LostP132
　　⑻John MiltonParadise LostP135
　　⑼Frend HelenThe Poetical Works of Milton Review of English Studies 1998P21
　　
　　Bibliography
　　1.John Milton Paradise Lost
　　2.Darbishire, HelenThe Early lives of Milton(London, 1932)
　　3.Freud, Sigmund Civilization and Its Discontents (London, 1979)
　　4.Lewis, C.S A Preface to Paradise lost (Oxford, 1942)
　　5.Bentley, RichardMilton’s Paradise Lost (London, 1732)
　　6.郭群英 毛卓亮《英国文学教程》 河北教育出版社1998