By Joe Carlson

Milton Text and Curriculum
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If you’ve heard anything about Milton’s Paradise Lost, you’ve heard about Satan. Satan this, Satan that. Satan as main character, Satan as study in modern psychology,  Satan as hero, Satan as anti-hero, Satan’s powerful logic and colorful rhetoric. You’ve probably heard so much about Satan that you’d be surprised to hear Milton say, in Book III:

Hail, Son of God, Savior of Men! Thy name 
Shall be the copious matter of my song 
Henceforth, and never shall my heart thy praise 
Forget, nor from thy Father’s praise disjoin. (III.412-415)

The Son is the true hero of Paradise Lost. To read this great epic and miss the preeminence, the power, the beauty, the magnificence, the wisdom, the justice, the grace and mercy of the Son is to misunderstand the entire poem. Yes, it opens with Satan falling dramatically into the hell of his own mind. Yes, his monologues are striking. But they are mere backdrop. They are the velvet cloth on which shines the brilliant diamond of the Son in all His glory. There are 10,563 lines in Paradise Lost, and at the very middle of the poem you find a description of the Son sitting atop the wings of the cherubim, decked in the garb of a warrior, advancing in all his pomp and power upon Satan’s rebellious horde, making ready to cast them forth from Heaven. On one side of this description is the Son’s reply to the Father, in which he says:

This I my glory account, 
My exaltation, and my whole delight, 
That thou, in me well pleased, declar’st thy will 
Fulfilled, which to fulfill is all my bliss. (VI.727-730)

On the other side is the Son’s encouragement to the faithful host of heaven, granting them rest from the battle, telling them to

stand only, and behold      
God’s indignation on these godless poured 
By me; not you, but me, they have despised, 
Yet envied; against me is all their rage, 
Because the Father, t’whom in Heav’n supreme 
Kingdom, and power, and glory appertains, 
Hath honored me, according to his will. (VI.810-816)

And so the Messiah casts Satan and all his followers out of Heaven, proving His superiority, His power, His regal might upon the backs and heels of the fallen (and falling) fiends. 

In case you are thinking this might be a mere coincidence, let me assure you it isn’t. If you have read Paradise Lost before, you will no doubt remember its very non-linear structure. Chronologically, Books I-IV happen after the events described in Books V-VIII. Why does Milton rearrange his material in this way? I would argue Milton wanted the exaltation of the Son over the forces of sin and darkness to occupy the exact middle of the poem. Even the Fall of mankind in Adam, which only occupies a single book, serves this greater and more central theme. The story of Adam and Eve’s disobedience in Book IX is balanced by the Son’s willing offer of Himself to atone for their sin back in Book III, and leads directly to Books XI and XII where Michael traces the fulfilment of the promise made to Eve in Book X, that her offspring would one day come to destroy the serpent forever, a promise made by none other than the Son Himself.

But what of Satan? Though certainly an interesting study, he is ultimately only a supporting character, a catalyst, a tool in the hand of Providence, expertly wielded to achieve the glory of the Son, in Whom infinite goodness is poured out on all mankind. As Milton says early on, 

the will 
And high permission of all-ruling Heav’n 
Left him at large to his own dark designs, 
That with reiterated crimes he might 
Heap on himself damnation, while he sought 
Evil to others, and enraged might see 
How all his malice served but to bring forth 
Infinite goodness, grace and mercy shown 
On man by him seduced, but on himself 
Treble confusion, wrath and vengeance poured. (I.211-220)

Satan’s own loss of Paradise and the vengeance he hoped to achieve, proves to be the vehicle by which Paradise is established forever and ever. As you read this tremendous epic, keep your eyes fixed on the Son. See in Milton’s most important character a clear and beautiful image of Jesus Christ, Son of God, Son of Man, the fulfillment of all the promises of Heaven. 

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JOE CARLSON (MA Humanities) lives in Moscow, Idaho with his wife and son. He received his BA from New St Andrews College, and his masters degree from the University of Dallas where he is currently finishing his doctorate. He has managed a chain of coffee shops, published (micro) epic poetry, co-pastored a church, co-founded a university campus ministry, and taught many different kinds of classes over the years. He is an adjunct lecturer at New St Andrews College and a curriculum developer at Roman Roads Press. He is the author of the Dante Curriculum, which includes an original blank verse translation of the Divine Comedy, published by Roman Roads Press.