Theme Of Betrayal In Paradise Lost

However, craving independence from God ferociously backfires on Satan when he finds out that even after leaving hell, he cannot escape it, “which way [he] [flies] is Hell, [he] [himself] is Hell,” (IV, 75). Satan finds his way to revolt against and separate from God to overrule Heaven and become king, instead however, he takes on the role of the representation of all evil which is evidently seen in his interactions with Eve.

Satan was unwilling to back down, no matter how great God’s power. This mission stands out as an element of the epic hero. In almost all epics written the hero has to stifle past guarded boundaries in order to complete goals. Satan’s bravery in trying to learn answers concerning his existence in heaven and his damnation to Hell is noble. Determination to derive truth is an admirable quality. Though his bitterness creates negative characteristics, his core purpose is not entirely blasphemous. He considers all that is placed before him and says in book 1, “Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven” (263). He knows that Hell is a place of doom and torture, but he is committed to living there with dignity and hopes to eventually rise above the creator and gain back what he feels he is entitled to as a living being. This acceptance of his conditions and determination to overcome makes him the underdog that an audience cannot help but root for. Everyone knows what it’s like to be in dark place with no visible escape. People want to be able to relate to a character that remains hopeful. In this sense Satan seems very heroic and critics have even gone as far as interpreting God as the villain.

The Bible does not give any details on the war in Heaven, only that it occurred and led to the dismissal of Satan and his followers from the Heavenly court.  In Paradise Lost, Milton gives a detailed account of the battle that was fought in Heaven, Satan’s reason for initiating it, and how his army was defeated and removed from Heaven.  One of the reasons for Satan’s rebellion given by Milton was that  “Lucifer refuses to be subordinate to God or his divine Son (Christ)” (Moss).  Satan says in Book V of Paradise Lost to his followers that “our being ordained to govern, not to serve!”  This line shows the reader that Satan, also known as Lucifer, believes that he feels he was created to rule instead of serve God. Another reason for Satan’s rebellion against God is that he doesn’t fully believe that God created him and the rest of the Heavenly host.  “ ‘That we were formed, then, say’st thou?... Who saw/ When this creation was? Remember’st thou/ Thy making, while the Maker gave thee being?/ We know no time when we were not as now; Know none before us self-begot, self-raised/ By our own quickening power when fatal course/ Had circled his full orb, the birth mature/ Of this our native Heaven, Ethereal Sons’” (5. 853- 863).  Satan’s disbelief shown in this passage helps lead himself and his followers against God.  Along with his disbelief, Satan’s jealousy got the better of him.  He was jealous and outraged that God had created a Son to inherit the Almighty’s throne.   He believed that he was being cheated out of his rightful place as the “inheritor” of God’s

In (Revelation 12:3) Satan appeared as a 7 headed dragon that had a crown on every head. He became so jealous and full of pride that he threw a rebellion against God. Isaiah 14 says “ I will raise my throne above the stars of God.” (Isaiah 14 12-15 NIV). A war broke out in Heaven, Michael and his angles fought Satan (Revelation 12:7). This next verse proves that Satan is truly evil, It says “Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born.” (Revelation 12:4 NIV) That clearly shows that he wants nothing good for us and wants to destroy us. Hell was originally for Satan only, but in Genesis God gave us the choice to live in eternally in heaven or go to hell. The

Satan’s fall can be easily broken up into four steps: he came to think of himself too highly, putting himself equal to God; he made a following for himself; he plotted a rebellion with his fellow rebel angels; and he attempted to carry out the rebellion. His attempt to overthrow God and obtain power was, however, futile and easily thwarted. Satan was severely demoted and he spent the rest of the plot trying to pervert every good thing as if it would be to any avail to do so. He attempted to exert his own powers over creation and tried to get a foothold so that he could gain more power. His extreme arrogance led to his fall from grace. “This is the same willfulness which lies behind his rebellious claim in heaven that he is ‘self-begot’…What Satan the general refuses to give up here…is…individual glory, which he pursues at all costs.” (Loewenstein, 56-57). Considering that Satan was an angel in the presence of God at the beginning, he had no excuse such as ignorance to claim. Satan’s rebellion began within himself with little else to prompt him. Satan had the ambition to raise a rebel force, but army or no army, he surely would have thought himself more powerful than he ought have. His pride also got in the way of him ever being restored to his former position. “As part of his task of exculpating God…Satan explains that even if he could repent and get back to heaven ‘by act of grace’, it would do

Betrayal is a human condition that comes from breaking trust. The act of betraying one’s self can be commonly seen in people. A character in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Jay, betrays himself and wasted his life away on trying to impress a girl. Jay essentially did everything in his life, like becoming a bootlegger, all so that Daisy would notice him. Jay’s life was devoted to chasing around love and a dream instead of doing something productive and betrayed himself in that way. Furthermore, being betrayed by a friend is something no one wants to go through. Hamlet is betrayed by his two friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, in Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Hamlet’s long childhood friends betray Hamlet by saying, “Both your majesty / Might,

Satan encourages his followers and reminds them of their original cause. He shows great leadership skills by re-emphasizing their ideas that at least when they are reigning in Hell, G-d doesn't interfere, and although it is Hell it is still worth ruling rather than serving in Heaven. Satan is dwelling on his power which could be seen as his tragic flaw. He is allowing his pride and ego to surface by glorifying Hell (calling it "profoundest") and declaring himself in possession of Hell. He starts to think of the idea of Heaven and Hell as a mindset. He starts to believe that the mind is what creates a place as Heaven and a place as Hell. Satan feels as though Heaven is Hell because he must serve G-d there, but in Hell, he has a true Heaven because he is served and worshipped. This could be determined as his tragic flaw.

In Things Fall Apart, Umuofia is representative of Africa. Achebe writes the novel in the tumultuous time of postcolonial Africa. Western literature at this time has not been friendly towards the African nations. European arrogance and unfamiliar African mythologies and religions create stereotypical ideas about the Sub-Saharan cultures and lifestyles. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of darkness specifically aids in the Western mindset about Africa. Conrad’s aim, although perhaps not primarily meant to degrade Africa, nevertheless paints a picture of African citizens and cultures in a light that Achebe could not accept . In a conscious effort to counter the influence of novels like Heart of Darkness, Achebe decides to write Things Fall Apart as an attempt

He makes up for that by continuing to fool himself by his new life. “The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n / What matter where, if I be still the same / And what I should be, all but less than he / Whom thunder hath made greater” (Milton 9)? Satan wants to make Hell even better than Heaven. It is his new home now, and he’s trying to make the best of a bad situation. “Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n” (Milton 9). He can’t be saved like humans. “The first sort by their own suggestion fell, / Self-tempted, self-depraved: Man falls deceived / By the other first: Man therefore shall fall grace, / The other none” (Milton, III, 129-132). The reason why Satan is so intent on deluding himself is because he knows there is no hope of going back to his old

Satan cannot stand the idea of subjection, and this also leads to his fall. It is a thoroughly Satanic idea that gratitude to God for creation is an immense debt (4.52), and this also was present before his fall. Satan reasons that repentance is futile, and neither possible by him or allowable by God (4.103-4). Satan says that if he were pardoned, it would not take him long to "unsay / what feigned submission swore," because reconcilement cannot grow where hate resides so deeply (4.95-99). Therefore, even if given a second chance, Satan would choose to fall once more. This ties in with the meaning of second soliloquy, presented later.

God throws Satan and his followers into hell for their defiance. Satan shows rebellion towards God, this is the first rebellion there ever was. According to Webster’s dictionary rebellion is organized opposition to authority, a conflict in which one faction tries to take control from another. I think rebellion also includes disobedience. John Carrey says that in the epic “Satan concedes his own criminality, and his own responsibility for his fall. He facilitates between remorse and defiance. He confesses that his rebellion was completely unjustifiable, that he had the same freewill and power to stand as all God’s creatures, and that he therefore has nothing to accuse but heavens free love dealt equally to all”(134). Basically Satan did this to himself. We do not really understand why Satan defied God and we probably would not understand.

Satan is indeed “Hurled headlong flaming from th’ethereal sky” (Book I, line 45) and into Hell where he will live in fire. But as a leader, and a true protagonist, Satan chooses to accept his situation and rise as a hero for the pack of fallen angels he has led from Heaven. Even if God is his enemy, at least he is not serving anyone. He possesses his own heaven now, though not joyful and happy as the heaven he was just expelled from, “Farewell happy fields/Where joy for ever dwells: hail horrors, hail/Infernal world, …/ Receive thy new possessor” (Book I, lines 249-253). Satan makes Hell his Heaven with his mind, as he says, “The mind is its own place, and in itself/Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n” (Book I, lines 254-255). Satan acknowledges that he has made a Hell of his previous Heaven, but he also uses that reasoning to make Hell into his own Heaven. His anti-heroic qualities are apparent, though, when he tells his followers in Book I, “To do aught good never will be our task/ But ever to do ill our soul delight” (lines 159-160). It cannot be forgotten that Satan is evil by his creation and through his free will. God created Satan with all of his imperfections but makes it clear that he had a choice by

One of these obstacles is Satan’s insecurity; he encounters moments of weakness along the pathway to glory, but he recognizes them and grows stronger in his resolve, like a true classical hero. For example, when Satan enters Eden he is amazed by its beauty. Again he considers repenting to God but he justifies the bitterness he feels as foretelling of evil actions he intends to commit on humans (and snakes). Additionally, he has to justify the reason he rebelled once again and convince himself that he is hell and, “in the lowest deep a deeper deep / still threatening to devour me opens wide / to which the hell I suffer seems a heaven,” he is happier now than he was in Heaven (4.1-78). He goes on to say that he will feel no fear or shame in doing evil because evil is his good (4.104-113). Satan accomplishes his goal of tempting Eve to evil against God, and so slithers victoriously back to Hell. When he reaches Hell, he is treated like a king by his followers.

As Satan later claims, “To reign is worth ambition .. /Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.” (PL, I: 262-63, p.156) His statement suggests that his fatal flaw might be his ambition, his desire to become even more powerful than he once was. This image of Satan having a 'fatal flaw', something that drives him into destruction, connects him with the idea of Aristotle's hamartia, and connects him to the imagery of the other a 'good person' who has fallen from grace, but is nonetheless a hero. Satan is also connected to Aristotle's idea that “heroic virtue is superhuman, godlike, and divine”5, when he is described to be “stretched out huge in length” (PL, I: 209, p.155) across the lake, further imprinting the image of his heroic status.

Because of the strict rule of God in this situation, Satan's rebellion is made to seem heroic. He is standing up against the rule of a tyrant, and helping and encouraging others to do the same. Part of the reason Satan in considered such a good leader in this story is because of his ability to persuade his followers through his