Paradise Lost - Satan as a heroic figure

However, Satan’s charming persona and unstoppable drive cannot conceal the fact that he is, indeed, the Devil. Paradise Lost successfully portrays humanistic features in Satan, enabling readers to sympathize with him, and to see the contrast between good and evil. He responds to his eternal fate by declaring, "the mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heaven of a Hell, a Hell of a Heaven. "(Book I, 254-255) Satan’s strong will and personality causes the audience to favor his position. His mastery of deception and manipulation causes him to possess a certain power over the audience. He cleverly utilizes dignity in affiliation with his determination to lead both his legion of fallen angels and the readers to believe that it is "better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven"(Book I, 263). Satan is able to influence his followers to battle God by presenting them with his own spontaneous, perhaps false, reasoning.

Satan's ambitious character proves to be far more complex than God’s, and more interesting.