WHO IS THE REAL HERO

FROM PARADISE LOST:

The poem was written in the year 1658 to dictate the work which Milton planned thirty years before. The Puritan Age that he reigned, his style- the “The Grand Style” and the form - The Epic Form.

The poem revolves round the central character Adam. Other very important and powerful characters Milton throws considerable amount of light are the characters of GOD and SATAN where Satan loses a battle with God. It is here we see Satan as an entirely different from the devil of the miracle plays and overshadows the Hero both in interest and manliness. He had lost the battle but his will power which he calls ’unconquerable will’ is still with him. His confidence is so reflected in the thought that God doubts his own power over his empire because he so fears Satan’s power .His proud nature is sown with seed of immortal hatred. He says that he is equates God in arms as well as in foresight.

Here Satan’s character looms as a magnificent figure. However how much can a staunch Puritan writer allow? So came the sudden fall of Satan and we see Satan groveling in the low dust. Milton here feels and perhaps believed that this downfall was caused because by FATE God is made of “Empyreal Substance’ and by virtue of this God cannot fail.

However talking about Satan ---- my question is who is the real hero—the one who becomes a hero by virtue or the one who have to fight for it. The presentation of Satan in a Grand Scale makes us think over as Lamartine has described Paradise Lost as the dream of the Puritan fallen asleep over Bible.

                                                                                                Nandini Mukherjee