Jane Lindroos

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ENGL 369: Milton

Satan’s Conflicts of Pleasure and Pain

in John Milton’s Paradise Lost

Jane Lindroos

ENGL 369: Milton

December 3, 2017

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ENGL 369: Milton

SATAN’S CONFLICTS OF PLEASURE AND PAIN

The power of pleasure and of pain are associated with most emotions experienced

by both those in good graces and those who have fallen. In order to experience pain, one

must also experience true pleasure; neither can be appreciated without the other. In

relation to Satan, all his pain is also pleasure and all of his pleasure is pain (9.119-123).

Satan throughout “Paradise Lost” is one of the characters the readers spend the most

time with and, as an outcome of this, learn some of his innermost workings. His

interactions and influence over other characters in the epic, particularly Eve, reflect

negative aspects of character which have not been exposed to Heaven or Paradise. His

character struggles to come to terms with his emotions, both good and bad, as he

explores his fallen state. The fate or ‘doom’ of Satan is described as “reserv’d him to

more wrath; for now the thought both of lost happiness and lasting pain torments him”

(1.53-56). This paper will investigate how Satan, of John Milton’s “Paradise Lost”,

invents the seven deadly sins based off of the emotions of the human experience through

his discoveries of different forms of pleasure and pain.

Milton begins the epic in Hell because we, as fallen beings, through the sin and

state of confusion we possess. In a literal sense, Satan is the father of Sin itself.

Throughout the epic he is not only the creator of the seven deadly sins, but

metaphorically, the father of lies. As the creator of the sins, Satan is a master in his own

regard to all things evil. Negative emotions and evil are often not far off from each other,

whether that be self-inflicting or inflicting said evil on others. An example of such a

negative emotion is self-doubt. Self-doubt is seen throughout the epic across various

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characters when questioning the reasons behind their own thoughts and actions

compared to what God intends of them. Satan feels self-doubt, “upon himself; horror

and doubt distract his troubl’d thoughts, and from the bottom stir the Hell within him”

(4.18-21). Although self-doubt is not a deadly sin, it is a negative emotion that brings out

the Hell from within him similarly to a sin. This disobedience of God or perhaps of one’s

own intuition reflect the seven deadly sins; gluttony, lust, envy, wrath, sloth, pride, and

greed which all involve one ignoring the more selfless choice

A component of the fallen state is the amount of time one spends thinking about

oneself. The egotistical, navel gazing is the sadomasochism invented by Satan. An

example that pairs well with and reflects sadomasochism is the soliloquy. This

particularly style of navel gazing is practiced by Satan multiple times throughout the

epic and could be considered a condition of being a fallen soul. A soliloquy is viewed as a

fallen form throughout the epic because it is cast inwards as opposed to outwards,

therefore, creating an absence of God. This gluttonous selfishness, which is a public,

singular discourse, is not isolated in actions. It is true that misery loves company:

however, Satan does not have any company. Even when he is surrounded by other

beings, he still feels alone. Satan explains the pleasure in his own suffering “Which way I

flie is Hell; my self am Hell; and in the lowest deep a lower deep still threatning to

devour me opens wide to which the Hell I suffer seems a Heav’n” (4.75-78). Satan is full

of gluttony as he travels through the epic, particularly, in his soliloquies in key periods

of the plot. During his soliloquies, he reflects on his own feelings and how he feels

towards other and their actions. Selfishly he generally only reflects on his own actions

when they are creating cause and effect for someone else. While in the middle of a

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soliloquy, he discusses both his and God’s actions expressing, “permitting him the while

venial discourse unblam’d: I now must change these notes to Tragic; foul distrust, and

breach Disloyal on the part of Man, revolt, and disobedience” (9.4-8). The

encouragement of disobedience through his own actions while having the support of the

fallen angels during his venture only brings him motivation, not companionship. To a

sadomasochist, anti-social feelings are delightful when thinking about one’s self and the

delight that comes from one’s own company.

Satan, though he is the inventor of sadomasochism, is not a full sadomasochist

himself. If he were fully sadomasochistic then he would feel delight from suffering. He

understands pleasure and feels it deeply, although, it causes him pain. When he is sent

to make Adam and Eve fall and become disobedient, he feels no delight in the task.

Although, it has to come from the fall of Adam and Eve, Satan wants to get revenge on

God, he does not want to hurt Adam or Eve. His focus remains on God and taking

Paradise away from him, “For onely in destroying I find ease to my relentless thoughts;

and him destroyd, or won to what may work his utter loss, for whom all this was made”

(9.129-132). This obsession that Satan has to have revenge against God is toxic in itself,

though not surprising given that it is an obsession held by Satan. Due to the fact that

Satan is a representation of Hell itself, does this give him the advantage or disadvantage

of feeling such a negative mental state? It could be argued that God took away various

emotions and experience from Satan forcing him to find new ways of representation

through which he created the seven deadly sins. For example, Satan is robbed of delight

when he is in Hell, “the hot Hell that always in him burnes, though in mid Heav’n, soon

ended his delight, and tortures him now more” (9. 467-470). Hell is expressed as a

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physical location as well as a state of being that is represented through Satan’s

character. The torture felt by Satan is not limited to his missing of delight, but is spread

through all emotions that he feels creating even greater torture. The thief of delight,

though an ironically sinful statement in itself, is God which further enrages Satan as he

descends towards to his goal of getting revenge through Eve eating the apple.

God had taken away the experience of pleasure from Satan by not allowing him to

feel it to its full capacity leaving him with only temptation. The character of Satan, also

known as the Tempter, is in himself a temptation for the reader. For almost the entire

epic all of the characters, even the fallen angels, have godly or angelic qualities about

them. Satan is the character most relatable to humans and in a lot of aspects represents

the largest range of human qualities, both good and bad. The theme of the epic truly is

the inherent human tendency towards disobedience. As Milton justifies the ways of God

to man, it is ironic that the character specifically made to represent evil and Hell is one

of the most likeable and relatable. This irony of tempting the fallen readers to connect

with Satan more than the other characters is itself a reflection of man’s disobedience

towards God. Satan is tempting to the readers and to Eve before she falls. Eve is

enchanted by Satan in his concealed identity of the serpent as “his fraudulent

temptation thus began” in convincing her to eat the forbidden fruit (9.532). Temptation

is not a sin, yet can lead to any number of sins because of its influence over one’s actions

and choices. In this scene in particular, Eve is gluttonous, wanting some of the

forbidden fruit knowing full well that she is not allowed, yet is tempted because of the

power it has supposedly given the serpent. Adam is outwardly aware of the potential

that temptation has which he warns Eve saying, “for hee who tempts, though in vain, at

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least asperses the tempted with dishonor foul, suppos’d not incorruptible of Faith, not

prooff against temptation” (9.296-299). It could be argued that, metaphorically

speaking, temptation is the gateway to Sin. Temptation acts as the slippery slope

between innocent human imperfection and immoral acts of sinning. Due to the fact that

Satan is presented as the ultimate tempter, it is ironic to see his role reversed as he is

being tempted by Eve and is challenged to balance his pleasure and pain.

Although, Satan tempts Eve into eating the fruit, she is also a temptation to him.

Eve hold a special kind of pleasure that causes him pain. This torture experienced by

Satan doubles in a single moment in book nine when he experiences his greatest pain.

The greatest pain that Satan feels is “stupidly good” as he is watching Eve in Paradise.

His evil is petrified by the sight of her: “that space the Evil one abstracted stood from his

own evil, and for the time remaind Stupidly good, of enmitie disarm’d of guile, of hate,

of envie, of revenge” (9.463-466). This raw experience felt by Satan leaves the entire

scene open and up in the air as he is momentarily elevated and caught in a sense of bliss.

Both on a physical and spiritual level, Satan is suspended in time and space losing focus

of his “fierce intent” (9.462). The fierce intent he has of forcing Adam and Eve to fall

runs parallel to his fierce desire of Eve herself. He is infatuated with her multiple times

and each time is bewildered as to the lust he feels for her. Satan has sexual desire while

watching Adam and Eve make love and lusts after them, however, has no capacity for it

since being sent to Hell. Sex is one of the greatest forms of pleasure, particularly for the

angels before they fall and it is one that Satan is no longer able to experience or rejoice

in. He invents lust as he can only desire sexual action and be tempted by it. Lust is an

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outcome of the fallen state and is experienced after eating the forbidden fruit by Adam

and Eve.

Adam and Eve inspire the creation of not only lust, but also envy. Envy is never

an attractive quality in a character and is invented by Satan out of more of what he

cannot have. Milton turns the relationship between Adam, Eve, and Satan into a love

triangle. Adam’s character is aware of temptation and of envy. Adam describes the

possibilities of envy and their potential danger as “what malicious Foe, envying our

happiness, nad of his own despairing, seeks to work us woe and shame by sly assault” (9.

253-256). He is aware that the “foe” he speaks of is just as envious of their happiness as

he is of their entire situation; unfallen, in paradise, in love, experiencing company and

pleasure without pain. It is difficult to say whether or not Satan is more envious of Adam

and Eve’s relationship or of the Son of God. The initial intention of his mission and the

start of his rebellion is because God reinvents the hierarchy putting his Son above Satan.

The Tempter links his emotions together, “he it was, whose guile stird up with Envy and

Revenge, deceiv’d The Mother of Mankind, what time his Pride had cast him out of

Heav’n” (1.34-37). Both his envy and revenge have put him in his current position of a

fallen angel and continue to influence him through his quest.

The envy he has towards the Son of God when the hierarchy is shifted under

God’s command motivates Satan to challenge him. Satan’s quest towards getting

revenge on God creates new conceptions of sin; wrath, sloth, and pride. The amount of

anger Satan possesses towards God drives his actions in wanting to ruin the perfect

paradise that God has produced. He attempts to share this anger with his followers,

giving them hope that, “All is not lost; the unconquerable Will, and study of revenge,

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immortal hate, and courage never to submit or yield: and what is else not to be

overcome? That glory never shall his wrath or might extort from me” (1.106-111). The

revenge that Satan wishes to achieve before God is a direct disobedience and

representation of the sin, sloth. By challenging God, he is going against the will of God,

and in a rather gluttonous, wrathful fashion. One of the first moment of sin is at the very

beginning when Satan does not agree with the change of hierarchy and the exaltation of

the Son of God. Satan’s belief that he can challenge God and come out as a potential

hero is an elevated level of pride. Through Satan’s expressed emotions about God and

his lack of claimed responsibility, it is easy to believe that Satan considers them equal in

power. This belief could even be stretched as far to say that Satan believes that he is

better than God. Satan explains good and evil to his supporters of the rebellion, “out of

our evil seek to bring forth good, our labour must be to pervert that end, and out of good

still to find means of evil” (1.163-167). The pain inflicted on Satan is at the hands of God

making him the ideal torturer bringing into question who represents the good and the

evil in the epic. When seeing this perspective, it also begs the question that if deciding

between God and Satan, which one is the real hero of the epic? The question of hero is

tied back into the one of the sin, wrath, when talking about Satan’s “sad task, yet

argument not less but more heroic then the wrauth of stern Achilles on his Foe” (9.13-

15). With a bundle of sin put together including wrath, sloth, and pride, it is hard not to

analyze where these deep-rooted feelings of anger come from. The aggression Satan has

towards God and how he questions him steers the epic making Satan an even more

relatable character.

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The wrath Satan feels towards God puts forward a number of questions about

good, evil, and the motivation behind His actions. In questioning the ways of God and

his motivations, it is a wonder as to how Satan can see paradise for what it is, a paradise.

It is also funny that Satan believes Paradise to be better than Heaven, “O Earth, how like

to Heav’n, if not preferr’d more justly, seat worthier of Gods, as built with second

thoughts, reforming what was old!” (9.99-101). It is debated if Satan being able to see

and appreciate Paradise is a form of torture being performed by God. Due to the fact

that he can see Paradise, it gives him a new extension of pleasure and therefore a new

pain. The torment Satan feels as he goes through Paradise is epitomized through the

passage stating: “the more I see pleasures about me, so much more I feel torment within

me, as from the hateful siege of contraries” (9.119-22). Though it is clear that if this was

God’s intention, he succeeded; in a sense, it backfired because out of it Satan creates the

last of the deadly sins, greed. The more Satan sees of Paradise, the more he longs for it

which in turn causes him more desire, and consequently, more pain. The pain Satan

feels in relation to Paradise is because Paradise confirms the Hell within him. Satan in

the epic has always been a representation of hell. In Paradise, Satan clarifies by saying

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n."

(1.254-255). Paradise, though beautiful, is similar to Hell in that it is not about the place,

but about the state of the mind and being. Paradise was a paradise for Adam and Eve

because they were in love. Their love was the state of mind that kept them in paradise

even after they had fallen. The physical locations do not define beings because

habitation is not physical. Habitation is a spiritual, personal, and individual sense of the

self.

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Throughout Paradise Lost, the reader is exposed to an often-underdeveloped side

of Satan. His character goes beyond the usual folkloric tales of an evil hooved fallen

angel, and instead paints him as vulnerable, relatable, and most unsettling of all,

humanlike. His experiences wrestling with the deep emotions of pleasure and pain lead

to his creation of the seven deadly sins. He is inspired by both his own turmoil and his

internal conflicts surrounding his relationships with other characters such as Eve and of

course, God. The seven deadly sins were argued in this paper to clearly be a reflection of

Satan’s anguish turned outward. The inner-conflict that Satan experiences is verbalized

through his soliloquies in the epic which demonstrate the various types of pleasure and

pain he feels. After all, what greater torture is there than to grapple with every new

pleasure coming with a new source of pain inevitably being created.

Word Count: approximately 2460 excluding quotations

Works Cited

Milton, John. "Paradise Lost." The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton.

Ed. William Kerrigan, John Rumrich and Stephen Fallon. New York: The Modern

Library, 2007. 283-630.

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