Satan's Heroism Is Also Intensified By His Deep Inner Suffering. Milton

Satan's heroism is also intensified by his deep inner suffering. Milton presents an inner world of Satan that does not conceal his feelings, and such truthful explanation of emotions and actions reveals his heroism, because not everyone is able to uncover his/her nature.

Thus, John Milton does not portray Satan as an ideal creature, but rather as a character with two selves good and bad, and the poet implicitly puts major blame of Satan's failure on God that fails to create appropriate conditions of living for Satan and other falling angels. In this regard, Satan's attitude towards oppression of God is similar to Achilles' attitude to his enemies; although Satan and Achilles pursue different goals, their emotions and actions are understandable. According to Danielson (1999), the epic question and answer present Satan and hell in heroic terms, with reference to a range of epic passions, motives, and actions (p.118). In view of this heroic representation of Satan, such poets and writers as William Blake, Robert Burns, Percy Shelley and Charles Baudelaire appreciated Milton's Satan, regarding him as a real hero of the poem. For these Romanticists, Satan embodied the ideas of freedom that were rejected in their own times. These poets pointed out that Satan's resistance and strength revealed his attempts to oppose inequality and despotism. This point can hardly be considered disputable, as Satan really believes in his truth and in his struggle against God's oppression, rejecting any passivity in such crucial issues as freedom and free will. Contrary to Achilles, who conforms to the virtues of Greek culture and pagan religious beliefs, Satan usually ignores the established rules, especially if he feels that they restrain his true nature.
Milton's combination of classical similes in the characterisation of Satan with his own interpretation of heroism provides an opportunity to observe this character from different perspectives and angles. Comparing Satan with a pharaoh, a wolf and a thief, the poet stresses on the fact that these images of the character do not reflect his true essence. Sometimes Satan utilises one image, in other times he applies to a different image, but John Milton never reveals Satan's whole portrayal. Unlike other classical epics that try to demonstrate certain historical events through their heroic figures, such as Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey, Milton in his Paradise Lost makes major stress on Satan, utilising classical epics to create a new epic poetry with more ambiguous characters. The comparison of Satan with a wolf reveals that Milton follows the classical representation of a wolf as an outsider: As when a prowling Wolf, / Whom hunger drives to seek new haunt for prey / Or as a Thief bent to unheard the cash of some rich Burgher / So clomb this first grand Thief into God's Fold (Milton, 1993 Book 4 183-193).