3. Introduction:
• Satan of Book-I Paradise Lost, is one of the glorious examples
of political leadership and political oratory. His speeches are
the key to his character and his art of oratory excels the best
of Roman rhetoric. He is the leader of the rebel-angels in
Heaven and the uncrowned monarch of Hell. By following his
lead, the fallen angels are deprived of “happy fields, where
joy forever dwells.” Satan has now the task of retaining their
loyalty and does so by the sheer magic of his high-pitched
oratory. There is a certain pathetic grandeur of injured merit
in them which wins the hearts of his followers. Around the
character of Satan, Milton has thrown a singularity of daring,
a grandeur of sufferance and a ruined splendor, which
constitute the very height of poetic sublimity.
4. • Satan is the first to recover from
the stupor into which all the rebel
angels fall. Soon he notices his first
lieutenant, Beelzebub, weltering
by his side. He finds that his
compeer is much changed. So he
makes a cautious approach, for he
is not sure whether his friend is in
a mood to blame him or he still
loves him.
5. Satan’s first speech to Beelzebub;
being immortal, Satan resolves to
carry on eternal war with GOD.
6. First Speech:
• Satan’s speeches reveal pure Miltonic lyricism.
His opening speech to Beelzebub is a magnificent
set-piece. It reveals the character of Satan – a
defiant rebel and a great leader. He encourages
and sympathizes with his followers with bold
words and sentiments.
• A single victory does not permanently ensure
God’s victory. For the present, they may have lost
the field, but that does not mean they have lost
everything.
7. Satan first takes pity on the change in his friend. Then
he refers to their friendship of the hazardous
enterprise in heaven and in their present misery. He is
ashamed to admit the might of God. But he will not
allow it to change his mind. He has nothing but
contempt for God who insulted his merits. It is a
sense of injured merit that makes him wage war
against the tyrant of Heaven. As for the battle, it has
been an equal match and the issue uncertain. It is not
their want of merit but God’s new and secret weapon
that won the war. There is an irony through Satan’s
speech which continually reduces his stature even
when apparently it seems to be building it up. Satan’s
historical of “high disdain” and “sense of injured
merit” have overtones of the ludicrous. It seems
weak and childish.
8. • What though the field be lost?
All is not lost-the unconquerable will.
And study of revenge, immoral hate,
And courage never to submit or yield.
And what is else not to be overcome?
• He, who failed to conquer these things cannot be said to be
victor at all. Defeat is complete only when the spirit and the
will too are subjugated. The bow down before God is worse
than defeat. So he is determined to wage eternal war by force
or guile.
• Satan’s question “what though the field be lost?” is “an
exposure of himself and his inability to act in any other way
other than what he enumerates.”
• Though the speech is one of high rhetoric's there is
barrenness; no suggestion of action at all except to brood on
revenge and hate. Revenge will be eternally “studied” and
have sustained yet it is so grandly expressed that we are
thrilled by the implied suggestion to wage ceaseless war
against hopeless odds, this appears as admirable.
10. Second Speech:
• With his second speech, Satan sweeps off all doubts
from his friend’s mind. “To be weak is miserable,
doing or suffering.” If God attempts to turn evil into
good, it must be the sacred duty of the fallen angels
to foil his attempts and turn all good to evil. God
has now withdrawn all his forces and is in a
confounded state. They should not let this
opportunity slip. It is imperative that all of them
should assemble and consult how they may
hereafter most offend their enemy, best repair their
own loss.
11. The audacity and superb self-
confidence of Satan are well brought
out in these words. He seizes the
opportunity to mobilize his forces
once again, conscious of the crushing
defeat that he and his followers have
suffered. Satan is trying to infuse
fresh courage into them. His speech
shows a heroic quality.
13. Third Speech:
• After winning over Beelzebub and putting new courage in him, Satan asks him
whether they are forced to exchange this mournful gloom for celestial light. Now
that they have become avowed enemies of God, the farther they are from him the
better. So he welcome the dismal horrors of the infernal world. For him Hell is as
good a place as Heaven, for his mind remains unchanged by place or time.
• The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
• In Hell they are free from servitude. It is “better to reign in Hell than serve in
Heaven.”
• “Farthest from him is best” is a statement of heroic defiance and of moral
alienation. Once again the appeal is to the law of nature and God’s monarchy is
presented to be based on force not on reason.
• The line “Receive thy new Possessor” is characteristic of the Satanic mind and its
passion for over lordship.
• Satan’s speech is “full of ringing phrases expressed with a deliberate sonority.” The
brief elegiac note gives way to rhetorical assertions of self-confidence. Again irony
underlies the rhetoric. The ringing line “Better to reign in Hell than serve in
Heaven” with its melodramatic tone scarcely conceals the mixture of pride and
spite which it expresses.
14. • “Farthest from him is best” is a statement of heroic
defiance and of moral alienation. Once again the
appeal is to the law of nature and God’s monarchy is
presented to be based on force not on reason.
• The line “Receive thy new Possessor” is characteristic
of the Satanic mind and its passion for over lordship.
• Satan’s speech is “full of ringing phrases expressed
with a deliberate sonority.” The brief elegiac note
gives way to rhetorical assertions of self-confidence.
Again irony underlies the rhetoric. The ringing line
“Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven” with its
melodramatic tone scarcely conceals the mixture of
pride and spite which it expresses.
16. Fourth Speech:
• Taking Beelzebub with him, he addresses other angels,
with a resounding voice. He directly touches their ego
by calling them, “Princes, Potentates, Warriors, the
Flower of Heaven.” He ask them whether they are
sleeping thus on account of physical exhaustion or in
despair. He exhorts them to “wake, arise or be forever
fallen.”
• Initially, Satan sarcastically addresses his fallen angels
and then he tries to revive their detached spirits. His
speech is so commanding and fiery that his followers
are roused out of their stupor.
18. Fifth Speech:
• Satan addresses the assembled angels. He is filled with
pride to have so many comrades. It is impossible that these
vast numbers are vanquished. They are all powerful and
still there is every hope of regaining their native seat. God
has conquered them by use of force, but such success is
only a partial success. Hell cannot contain so many valiant
spirits for long. Peace of course, is despaired and therefore
ruled out. The only course open to them is war. “War open
or understood.” Satan invites all of them to the great
council.
• Satan choked with emotion and tears, begins his speech,
like a politician he indulges in rhetoric. Without distorting
facts he turns them to a different light and gives his
defeated host a margin of hope.
19. Throughout, Satan resolves “to wage by force or
guile eternal war.” Later he places an alternative
before the infernal council “open war or covert
guile.” But now one finds that the emphasis is on
war not guile. Satan is determined to combat with
God to save his own pride. Satan makes a warlike
speech full of contradictions and absurdities when
examined closely but admirable and impressive on
the face of it ending with an appeal to continue
conflict.
• “War then war
Open or understood must be resolved
