Mel Gibson’s new film The Passion of the Christ opens with a ominous scene in which Satan tries to convince Jesus not to carry the cross on behalf of the human race. Satan’s questions to the Son are peculiar. He asks, “Who you are?” and who your father is. It appears to be a mistake to challenge an opponent with an identity that is as hazy as night fog. Milton’s audience recognizes this same ignorance as well, which is what fuels Satan’s hatred for the Son. Milton uses the epics Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained to show how Satan’s insufficient knowledge of Godhead influences his actions and thoughts. Milton’s Satan is a particularly dramatic character because he believes that he’s another son. His interaction with the Son of God makes a profound impression on Milton. In Paradise Regained he continues the confrontation, and reveals his true identity, behind the human mask. Satan’s prejudice and ignorance cloud his view of what it means to be the heir of the Father, resulting in his tragic defeats.
In order to understand Satan’s hatred of God’s Son, we must first look at the event which made Satan aware of the danger that threatened his princely position. It is this atomic moment that caused his hatred and envy towards God’s Son to explode. Milton’s Paradise Lost resembles a serene foster home, where God is the benevolent parent who takes angelic children under his care. On New Year’s Day his father introduces him to the rest of the family, granting him all the proper privileges. He also asks that the children hand over their toys. In this scene, Satan is competing to be acknowledged by the Father and defending his overshadowed position. Satan’s justification for his relationship with Omnipotence is this: “The Son Of God I Also Am, Or Was, And If I Was, I Am; Relation Stands” With these powerful and eloquent words, the satanic king passionately claims the birthright of his son, while he only has a limited understanding of that status. Satan’s anguished cry for illegitimacy takes place in Paradise Lost.
Satan is convinced that the Son is an illegitimate Prince because he does not understand his filial relationship to God. Satan does not recognize that the Son represents the Godhead and is what the Father takes “chief delight” in. He therefore believes that the Son has been promoted to a regal position unjustly. Satan tells the other Satans: “Another hath engrossed’t himself.” All power is ours, and we will be eclipsed by the name. “The King Anointed”. Satan’s insulting the Son by claiming he is not a descendant of the Father but merely a mere angel who has the kingship bestowed on him arbitrarily, is unquestionable. The word “another”, which implies that anyone may be selected to take God’s place, is also a blatant insult. Michael Bryson says that Satan views the elevation as a grievous offense because it’s a reaction of “who does this Son think he’s anyway?” In a rage over his denial of legitimacy, Satan is akin to Edmund in Shakespeare’s King Lear, who has an internal conflict about his social status.
I have my services bound. What do I do?
Allow yourself to be a victim of the customs plague
Why do nations want to take me away?
…Lagging behind a sibling? Why bastards? What is base?
…With baseness, bastardy? Base, base?
This passage shows the turmoil Satan feels as God’s unborn son. Satan could feel disappointed if God calls all of his angels “Progeny Light”, even though Satan is the strongest and most beautiful of them all. Satan also believes he has equal authority, power and status to that of the Son despite the Father’s declaration that the Son is superior.
You can’t assume that you are right or reasonable.
Live by the right to monarchy
It is not impossible that he would be his equal in both power and magnificence.
In freedom equal?
Satan complains, claiming that the elevation of Jesus Christ literally undermines the equality of the heavenly host. The narrowness of his perspective on the Son’s supremacy is also revealed. Milton’s poetry offers a passage in which Satan’s view on the Son is revealed. Right after the Son has been crowned, Satan whispers secretly to his peers “New laws thou seeest impos’d, New laws from him that reigns, may new minds arise. In those who serve”. The word “new” has a revolutionary effect on Satan, who believes that the Son of God is a brand new creation that demands worship imperiously and unjustly. Neil Forsyth explains in The Satanic Epic how Satan misunderstands the Son. He believes God the father has violated the pre-existing hierarchy by ordering angels worship a new-created man and not his Son.
Satan’s conception of Godhead, like his partial understanding of Christ, is objective. Satan’s inexperienced understanding of Godhead can be compared to a child who gets swayed by superficial appearances. He fails to appreciate the true value of things. Satan’s view of God’s nature, in other words, is flawed because he believes that it is manifested externally, as God’s sovereignty and power. Satan’s misperception about the Divinity was best illustrated in Paradise Lost by Satan’s observation of the Son being blessed by the Father. Satan saw that God had external power and authority.
God reveals this when he says, “My Son, and upon this holy hill, I am God.” Now that you see Him, whom God has anointed. At my right hand; your Head I him appoint” ). The anointing process seems to be transferring divine power directly to the Son, similar in nature to blood transfusion. Milton returns to the image, describing Satan’s sullen retreat from the celebration after the Son’s enthronement: “he resolved with all his legion to dislodge… and leave Unworshipt… unobeyed” the Throne. Milton depicts Satan’s sullen withdrawal from the celebration following the enthronement of the Son: “he resolv’d With all his Legions to dislodge, and leave Unworshipt, unobeyed the Throne supreme” (Milton p. 86).
Milton’s poem is a tangible manifestation of Son’s unstoppable power that creates a compulsive victory over the Prince of Darkness. Satan, as the first angel, gets to taste its savage fury. Milton’s sonnet offers a manifestation of unstoppable Son energy, which generates a compulsive triumph of the Prince Darkness.
They were all there when [the son] came; and in his left hand
The Thunders he sent were ten thousands.
He was a soul infixer.
All resistance is lost in the face of plagues
Down their idle guns dropped.
In the picture, the fire and the thunder not only frighten Satan but the wounds that are inflicted also show the Son’s superior power. This aspect of Godhead is what causes Satan’s confusion about the Son as he appears in Paradise Regained. Satan’s ignorance concerning the Son’s power becomes apparent after his descent to Hell. “He and his Thunder. Who knew until then?” The force that those dire hands” Satan’s failure to recognize the Son as God’s chosen victors and his miscalculations of the Sons superiority in strength have led him to only suffer shame and dishonor for his fruitless struggles against God’s chosen one. Stella P. Revard says this about Satan’s tragic harartia.
Milton intentionally retains Satan’s ignorance in Paradise Regained to achieve dramatic irony. Satan is anxious about the prophecy of the woman inflicting the wound on the serpent. Satan mutters nervously: “That fatal injury will be inflicted on the serpent by a woman’s descent.” Upon my Head” Satan’s fear is evidently heightened by the Messiah’s arrival, since the prophecy shows the truth behind the divine vengeance he will receive from the Son. Satan’s curiosity is also sparked by the divine radiance from the Son. He asks, “Who are you? You look like a man.” The glory of the Father shines in all his lines, but also on his face. This wonder drives Satan to keep a close eye on the Son, from his conception to adulthood. Milton’s satanic villain in Paradise Regained is a detective, not the angry prince from Paradise Lost. He wants to uncover the secret agent sent by God the Father to Earth.
Milton’s Paradise Regained reader will be disappointed again by Satan’s ignorance, despite his apparent change in attitude. Satan’s view of Godhead manifestation is objective, but based upon extrinsic characteristics, as was mentioned earlier. As a result, the detective is led to believe that the Son’s divinity cannot be detected. Satan thinks he is able to get the Son excited about power when he says, “Great acts require a great enterprise”, and implies that power. Satan plays the expert geographer by showing different areas of the world where kingdoms are flourishing.
The city that no one else can see
Rome, queen of the Earth!
The spoils of war have enriched the renown
Rome’s greatest Emperor, with his wide realm
On a large Territory, power and wealth.
It is therefore not surprising to find out that Satan’s methods of revealing the identity of the Son concern only material things such as power and wealth. Satan’s ability for seeing the truth may be distorted, despite how pathetic this may appear. His perception is clouded by images of God that are superficial and his belief in God’s physical power. In summary, Satan does not have a clear idea of who the Son is. He can only imagine his mission as a ‘Woman’s Seed’ based on the hierarchical and external categories in which he lives, moves, and has been.
Satan’s distorted opinion of the Son’s appearance is also naive. Because he believes he was created from human flesh, Satan assumes the Son’s weakness and that of an ordinary person. Satan is actually tempted by the Son confessing his faith in God at a banquet. Eat and sit down”. This test only serves to frustrate Satan and reveal the irony of the poem. Stanley Fish, in his essay “Inaction & Silence”, offers an insightful insight into Milton’s irony through the ignorance of the poet.
Satan will not change his approach and assumptions based on a few “bad successes”. He is incapable of learning from experience. His mind is so accustomed to its ignorance that it is unteachable by any method, not even the searchingly irenic one of dialectic. (Wittreich 36)
Satan’s quote: “I’ve always thought of you as worth my closer look / and narrower scrutiny, so that I may learn” is ironic. Satan’s learning capacity never matures, despite the zeal he has to find out what the Son is really like. In the end, the satanic’s bitter defeat is reborn in him at the pinnacle, when he finally learns who his target really is.
In the pivotal temple scene, Satan is answered by the Son who simultaneously declares his Godhood as well as his judgment against Satan. As if waking from a bad dream, the prince must face the truth behind his wrong preconceptions. For Satan, Satan is thrown into a cloud of confusion by the solemn words “Tempt the Lord, thy God”. The Messiah that Satan perceives as a man is God, not an angelic army, a heavenly fighter, or a newly created man. Satan’s final defeat is no less pathetic than his expulsion from Heaven at the end of the war. It doesn’t matter if it is physical conflict or a question about obeying the Father. Regardless, the illegitimate child will always be destined to suffer the fate of a treacherous, ill-behaved son. He will fall to his death at the hands of the Son. Satan recalls at the end Paradise Regained that Edmund is dying and he finally learns that it’s his real brother Edgar who has cut the fatal wound into his side.
EDGAR. Edmund, I have as much blood in me as you do.
If you do more wrong to me, then I will be more offended.
Edgar is the son of thy father.
EDMUND. You have spoken the truth, it is true.
Here I am, at the end of my journey.
Milton’s Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained shows the satanic Prince blindfolded in Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained. This ignorance leads to his tragic defeat. It is obvious to many readers that Satan’s greatest flaw is that he is ignorant of the Godhead. He is unable to know the full story of God, which leads him into making erroneous conclusions about what the Son is. Milton’s depiction is filled with prejudice, suspicion and envy. Milton has created an impression in readers that will last for decades. Satan only regrets not having heard his Father say, “Thou wert mein geliebter Sohn”. No matter if it’s Mel Gibson or John Milton, Satan seems to find the right to be God’s heir as impossible as the Morning Star.
Works Consulted
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Bryson, Michael. Milton’s Rejection Of God As King. Newark and London were the locations of the University of Delaware Press and Associated Universities Press, respectively, where the book was published in 2004.
Foakes, R. A., ed. King Lear. Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd. published the book in London in 1997.
Forsyth, Neil. The Devilish Tale. Princeton University Press. Princeton University Press.
Revard, Stella Purce. The War in Heaven, Paradise Lost: Tradition of Satan’s rebellion. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 1980.
Wittreich, Joseph, Anthony, ed. Calm of mind Cleveland: Press of Case Western Reserve University. 1971.