SATAN’S SPEECH

Satan’s speech is a passage belonging to the epic poem Paradise Lost written by John Milton. It is about Satan’s arrival in Hell, his new kingdom, after his downfall. In particular, he arrived in Hell after he had tried to challenge and to rebel against God, but he was defeated and therefore he had fallen down and then he landed in Hell.

At the beginning, Milton explains the first Satan’s reaction to the sight of Hell. Satan feels lost (as you can see from the words “the lost Arch Angel”) because everything is different (the region, the soil, the clime) and compares Hell to Heaven, making a contrast and underlining the opposite features of the two kingdoms. Indeed, the text is built from the antithesis between Hell and Heaven and in particular between the dark of Hell (“this mournful gloom”) and the “celestial light” of Heaven and then from the other antithesis between the “happy fields” of Heaven and the “infernal world” of Hell.

Moreover, after the comparison between Heaven and Hell, Satan compares himself to God, saying that both are equal in reason, but God is superior because he has powers that Satan has not.

Satan seems to have accepted his inferiority and his situation, indeed he says goodbye to Heaven and then he addresses to Hell, inviting the kingdom to accept the “new possessor”. After that, he focuses on himself highlighting his new position as the master of Hell and saying that he will not change his mind.

So, while at first Satan is not glad to be in Hell, then he accepts his situation and realizes that, after all, what matters is to have a reign somewhere however the horrible and gloomy conditions of the place. In other words, being the possessor of Hell is better than being a servant in Heaven. It underlines his ambition, self-confidence, desire of power and determination: the qualities that makes him a hero.