John Milton, Paradise Lost, Satan’s Speech

`Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,’
Said then the lost archangel, `this the seat 
That we must change for heav’n, this mournful gloom
For that celestial light? Be it so, since he 
Who now is sovran can dispose and bid
What shall be right: furthest from him is best 
Whom reason hath equalled, force hath made supreme 
Above his equals. Farewell happy fields 
Where joy for ever dwells: hail horrors, hail 
Infernal world, and thou profoundest hell 
Receive thy new possessor: one who brings 
A mind not to be changed by place or time. 
The mind is its own place, and in itself 
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. 
What matter where, if I be still the same, 
And what I should be, all but less than he 
Whom thunder bath made greater? Here at least 
We shall be free; the almighty hath not built 
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: 
Here we may reign secure, and in my choice 
To reign is worth ambition though in hell: 
Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven.

The passage is taken from the first Book of John Milton’s epic poem: Paradise Lost.

The passage deals with Satan’s arrival in his new kingdom, Hell, after his downfall from Heaven. Satan is  the speaking voice and he is observing   his new home (“Is this the region, this the Soil, the Clime”), trying to become aware of the new situation. Satan compares the new world to Paradise (“this is the seat the we must change for Heav’n”) and verifies that there is only “a mournful gloom” all over the place instead of the “celestial light” of the Paradise.

But although he finds an inhospitable and dark place, Satan is glad to be as distant as possible from God, the undisputed Sovran who “force hath made supreme”.

It is important to remember that John Milton was a politically engaged writer, who sided with the Republican revolutionaries.   He served the republican government, despising all forms of tyranny, from political, to religious, to domestic. His experience of political and personal loss is reflected in Paradise Lost, where Satan shows the main characteristics of the epic hero and embodies the figure of the rebel against the authority, represented by God.

This explains why Satan, at least, prefers “to reign in Hell” in spite of “to serve in Heaven”.

So he definitively bids farewell to the “happy fields where joy for ever dwells” that is a paraphrases for Heaven, and hails the “horrors” of the “profoundest Hell”.

Satan goes on proving to be proud of being the “new Possessor” of that dark land, and reveals his self-confidence and determination through the expression “one who brings a mind not to be chang’d by Time or Place”. He is great in the self-assurance of his strength:  he owns a mind that can’t change, a mind that “ can make a Heaven of Hell, and a Hell of Heaven”.  Therefore hell and heaven are only states of  mind and depend on human perception of the surrounding world.

Anyway Satan proves to be sure of his mindset and of his incorruptible and independent spirit; he feels equal to God in reason, and inferior only in power (“what reason has equalled, thunder hath made greater”).

Satan embodies the Puritan ideals of independence and liberty: he is the paradigmatic rebel fighting against the tyrannical power and authority of God. What is really important is the have a place where “At least we shall be free” says Satan, even if that place is the dark Hell.

In the following lines Satan shows all his ambition to have a reign somewhere, once again, no matter if that place is gloomy and horrible (“to reign is worth ambition though in Hells”).

In the conclusive lines, Satan reflects on the chance to gather those who took part of the downfall, the allies, to share with them the new dwelling. And finally he reveals his hidden and desired purpose to arm themselves against God’s forces and to take revenge on him.

In conclusion, Satan is the real hero of Paradise Lost; he shows all the characteristics of the paradigmatic epic hero: courage, pride, oratorical power, self-confidence and ambition. In other words, heembodies Milton’s Puritan ideals of independence and liberty: as Satan fights against the absolute power of a tyrannical God, Milton, defender of liberties, struggles his battle against a despotic king.