Satan's First speech | Paradise Lost

     "Paradise Lost" was first published in 1667. Milton had began to composed it in 1658,he had then been totally blind forever five years and we have to imagine that the poem taking shape by a process of mental composition, the dictation of perhaps 50 lines at a time and as well as repeated checking and revision. When it was complete there was a final revision which took about two years ; and the subsequent process of getting the poem into print was a massive task.

Satan's First speech

    In his "On poetry and Poets" T. S. Eliot is of the opinion that his "appreciation of Milton leads no where outside of the mazes of sound" . Perhaps Eliot 's anxiety about the efficacy of Christianity clashes with the surely of Milton's faith.  But Milton is something more than merely 'the mazes of sound' . This is apparent in the first speech of Satan. 

Satan's First speech

    This speech is addressed to Belzebub.  The represendent figures have become sooty as sin. Satan says that this is because God has proved 'so much so stronger' than them  with his thunder. But they have lost, according to him, only the field of Heaven: 

     "All is not lost, the unconquerable will                     And study of revenge, immortal hate                       And courage never to submit or yield                      And what is else not to be overcome?" 

             God can never scare him into submission. He would never "bow and sue for grace / with suppliant knee".  He decides to draw lessons from his defeat,  "In Arms not worse in foresight much advance't" ,  wage fresh war against God. But this time it would not be the war of heroes - Dharmayuddh, as we call  it in India - but a war of guile as well. It would be targetted at ending the tyranny of Heaven. 

    This speech, which shapes the character of Satan is the subject of much critical debate.  William Blake is of the opinion "Paradise Lost" and has become one of "Devils party without knowing it" . Therefore he has been drawn to the noble yet defiant figure of Satan. 

    In contrast God is fighting the devil from his "Cold security of undoubted triumph" ,  and is immorally inflicting an enduring and terrible revenge upon him in the knowledge of his own assured victory. 

    But these poets fail two notation that at the end of the first speech Milton calls  this verbal exercise of Satan as 'vaunt' while he is being 'rackt with deep despair' . It is clear that the poet does not justify the ways of evil. This speech of best reveals Satan's 'ravaged grandeur'. 

    At best we can say that this speech is the beginning of the process of the moral and intellectual consequences of a life lived in sin. 

    Reader Response criticism gives us an interesting insight into this speech. Stanley Fish is of the opinion that rather than showing on where side Milton is battling, this speech move the reader through temptation and fall that will again he replicated in Book Iv.  Interesting Fact in Hindi

    Finally we would be moved to grace. Therefore it would be logically impossible for Milton to present Satan as a truely heroic or tragic figure. His refusal to accept the supremacy of God appears more positional than fundamental. We would find the character gradually falling apart as the story progresses. 

    Shelly,  "On the Devil and Devils" , says that Satan, "as a moral being is for superior to God". He strives "inspired of adversity and torture" towards his ambition. 

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