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Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Complete Poems and Major Prose. Ed. Merritt Y. Hughes. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Co., 1957. 206-469.
more like that of a hero because his point of view is the most often pointed out in the story and his character remind me of one. On the basis of Aristotles hamartia which states that heroes are appealing people who make mistakes; who enjoy favor and prosperity and who are inhibited and limited by a character flaw which jeopardizes their situation and forces them to test their own competence, one could relate heroes to humans and humans to Satan.2 In short, like humans Satan also has his flaws such as being misguided but was still able to fight all odds hence, some can see him as a heroic figure. One can admire his compelling qualities (though there is no sense of emulating evil deeds) quick mind and fearlessness in his quest to find the answers to the questions that has raced in his mind. Thus, Milton has portrayed Satan in his literary work as a being with heroic tendencies, misguided it maybe, and at the same time he turns him into a metaphor for the ultimate sinner; that is, the human being who acts on his own will alone and continuously refuses Gods offer of merciful forgiveness and redemptive salvation. At the end of reading, Ive realized that Miltons purpose in portraying Satan as a misguided heroic figure was to make the readers see Satan at his lowest, see how cunning and deceptive he could be and make us reflect on our actions and what we stand to lose if we sin. In Dantes Divine Comedy, Satan is portrayed as a grotesque giant beast with three heads entrapped frozen mid-ice in the very depths of hell. He is depicted more as a victim of Hells torturous pain. Moreover, Dante made out Satan to be the ultimate sinner and made the readers understand the agonizing pain and suffering that Satan has to endure for waging war against God. Dante placed Satan at the center of hell and reduce him to a less powerful being to make his readers realize that Satan represents Hell and to follow Satans ways means to live in Hell for the rest of our afterlife. Lastly, in William Blakes Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Satan is portrayed as a role model to the act of fighting against authority. Blake portrayed Satan in an unconventional manner which really confuses the readers but what he actually wants the readers to understand is that Satan can be really cunning in his way of charming humans to do evil deeds by making us, humans, think of his voice as the voice of reason and we must be aware of it. In his poem, Blake created a more powerful Satan compared to Miltons but in the sense that he wants to unite his and Miltons concerns relating to Satan as to be able to liberate mankind from the clutches of Satan and become to closer to God. In an overall evaluation of the three writers way of conceptualizing Satan, Dantes was more effective because he was able to portray Satan in his lowest form and his perception of Satan was easier to understand than that of the other two whose Satan was more complex and hard to understand unless you have deeply internalize the entire poem. Overall, the three writers were very impressive with their writing skills to show their readers a better version of the Bible in a way that they were able to give characteristics to invisible beings like God and Satan. They were able to give a bigger stronghold to Christianity by telling us of the misguided and deceptive ways of Satan. Nevertheless, they have created an image of Satan that will last forever which will help in the liberation of mankind from evil.
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