The Nature of Evil

Both of the villains we have studied so far have something interesting in common. When Iago's machinations are finally uncovered, we takes a vow of silence and basically disappears form the play. Similarly, when Satan completes his evil mission, he slinks into the bushes and vanishes. What does this say about the nature of evil? Does evil only exist so long as it has a purpose and then fades away?

Confusion

Throughout the poem Satan talks about Hell as a terrible, awful, bad place compared to Heaven. He keeps talking about "how far we've fallen" and how its such a shame that they're not in Heaven anymore. I don't understand how Satan can be happy with what he has done if he keeps complaining about his situation. I figured that because Satan is so evil that he would consider what we consider bad to be good. But strangely my opinion of Hell seems to be his opinion: bad.

Satan and his demons are aware that what they are doing is evil, they even call it evil. I would have thought that evil would become good and good would become evil.

I think Coach Crook, you said something about Hell not being the opposite of Heaven but an inverse of it? Is this what that means? Or is this just Satan knowing what is evil and liking it? Or if not liking it, at least tolerating it.

Satan's Power

Satan's last speech is to Eve, trying to convince her to eat the apple. His first speech was to Beelzebub trying to convince him to never return to God in Heaven. I think this just shows that the only real power that Satan has is his power of deceit and temptation which are both very powerful and very effective. While God has many more powers than Satan has, he doesn't appear to have, or just wouldn't ever use, the power of deceit.

The Son of God

In the beginning, there was only God, who created all life, correct? If so, everything that God created would be, in essence, his (sorry, his/her/its) child. If this is true, how can "The Son of God" be more of God than Satan. They were both born from God, so they should both be God's sons, and there for equal, but clearly, it is not so. Does anyone have a solution to this conundrum?

Free Will

I talked to Coach Crook about a question that arose in class one day. Why doesn't God just kill off Satan if he knew that Satan was going to rebel against him? Since we have free will, we have the ability to choose between God and Satan. We are his children, and he wants us to have a good life. But, he can't force his love upon his children. Everyone has a choice. If one turns towards God, then that exemplifies God's glory, good triumphing over evil.

2nd in Command

I know this is a little late and not what we're reading right now.

Before Satan fell, he was the "right-hand man" to God. But once God created the Son of God, Jesus, the Messiah, ect, he was demoted to his "left-hand man." Once in Hell, Satan told Beezlebub that he was 2nd in command. Wouldn't you think that Satan would realize what a risk you run when naming someone your "right-hand man" or 2nd in command? He is his own case in point: when Satan was God's 2nd in command he began to feel that he was better than God and that his true deserved position was head honcho. Couldn't this same jealousy and resentment grow in Beezlebub? What is it with these powerful, smart people creating problems for themselves??

Vito is God

If Vito from The Godfather was literally God; that would make Micheal, Satan. Think about it. I assume "Vito" means life, like in vitality or Spanish "viva", and Micheal was the favorite son. Although both Micheal and Satan begin their live following their fathers' wishes, they soon revolt and all things of goodness are taken out of their lives. In Satan's case, he is banished from heaven to hell, and in Micheal's case, he looses his family and is forced into solitude. Although I can't know this for sure, even though Micheal makes a lot of decisions that Vito wouldn't have approved of, I still feel that Vito loves him in the same way that God still loves Satan after his rebellion.

Jewish View on the Devil

So after our discussion in class today I started to wonder what the Jews believe about the devil. So after looking around chabad.org i came across some interesting points in this article: http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1093498/jewish/Can-You-Sell-Your-Soul-to-the-Devil.htm

"we see that G‑d created an angel to play the role of provocateur; that he is a messenger of, and subservient to, G‑d. He was not a fallen angel or sent to Hell, where he began fighting G‑d; he was created to be Satan. Neither does Satan spend his days stoking the flames of hell with his pitchfork. He is a presence on earth with a mission: to provoke people to disobey G‑d's will."

"There is no power of evil independent of G‑d; otherwise this would imply a lack of G‑d's all-inclusive control and power. To quote the Book of Isaiah:

"…from the place where the sun rises until the place where it sets, there is nothing but Me. I am G‑d, there is nothing else. [I am He] Who forms light and creates darkness, Who makes peace and creates evil; I am G‑d Who makes all these."3

Obviously then, the satan is not an autonomous force who opposes G‑d and recruits people to his militia. Rather, the satan is a spiritual entity that is completely faithful to its maker"

We were discussing today in class that everything God creates is good. However, God was the creator of hell and of Satan. I think some of the points I pulled from the article help answer our questions.

"Brave" Satan

In class today we talked about why Satan rebelled against God. And, we touched on the word brave. I believe that when someone is brave, or has courage, he takes a stand against a being who has been doing something wrathful. From that, I think of Robin Hood. And, I don't think this applies to Satan because God was never acting badly. God is the essence of good, so Satan wasn't brave.

brilliant

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Satan's temptation

satan tempts eve with comments of flattery which she resists thenhe movs to more theological attempts explainingthat if she eats the fruit she will "die" in the sense of becoming divine with the attainment of knowledge ass he the snake became human by eating the fruit and by attaining knowwledge she would  know hoow to be good and how to avoid evil which eve simply repeats in  her  justification which shows eve to be easily manipulatible

Satan Tempts Eve

The serpent's persuasion is very traditional. Praise the subject and entice them. But Eve is completely oblivious to his comments that "all that fair and good in thy Divine/ Semblance" (606-7).  He constantly addresses her as "the sovran mistress" and "resplendent Eve" (532 and 568). To the reader all this praise appears to be useless on Eve because she gives no hint to being flattered by Satan's words, but Milton mentions "Into the Heart of Eve his words made way" (550). Milton emphasizes this fact by his punctuation and italics in this quote. However on the surface Eve is amazed with his ability to speak. Satan's story is flawed. He was the ONLY one that could climb the tree and eat the fruit? What about the birds, the giraffes, the fallen fruit? Eve is just a complete novice in this world if she didn't think about these possibilities. Satan plays an excellent game though because the fruit apparently just made him think of Eve. How romantic!

Milton mentions that the serpent made the "intricate [path] seem strait" (632). This line obviously not only talks about Satan physically guiding Eve to the Tree of Knowledge, but also making his point obvious and easy to accept in Eve's mind. This resembles the persuasions of Screwtape this summer. They always wanted to make their twisted and sinful ways seem like the road straight to heaven. Go to church but do it because a woman is there. I really liked Milton's simile here to the flames in the Dead Marsh in The Lord of the Rings. It is the same idea that if you follow the wrong light during the night, the traveler will end up at the wrong place.

Rding 10 Milton's descriptions of Eve vs. Adam

In this reading, Satan is waiting for his prey in the garden. He hopes to find Eve alone instead of with Adam. Eve is among the flowers. Milton describes her as "though fairest unsupported Flour" (IX. 432). To me, it seems as though Eve is beautiful like a flower, but drooping or not strong enough to think and defend herself. Later, Satan thinks or says, "The Woman, opportune to all attempts,/ Her Husband, for I view far round, not nigh,/ Whose higher intellectual more I shun,/ And strength, of courage hautie, ..." (IV. 481-4). Here, Milton seems to believe that men are a step or several steps above women in strength, knowledge, and instinct. A woman tends to be more gullible and willing to do whatever anyone tells her. Thus making Eve the more attractive prey or fawn to tempt.

Rding 8 Where is Hell?

In this reading Satan is talking about why he felt the need to overthrow God in Heaven. He goes on explaining how miserable he is where ever he flies. "Which way I flie is Hell; my self am Hell" (IV. 75.). This reminds me of the idea that Hell is everywhere an archangel goes because Hell is in the mind.

Jealous?

Satan finally makes it to the Garden and upon witnessing it feels sad. He doesn't seem to like the fact that Humans were given a Heaven on Earth, and in vengeance seeks to cast them out of it. I think that Satan feels jealous of the first humans. For one, they have access to Paradise, while he's stuck in the Pit. Also, God made them in his own likeness, which means they must be more beautiful than Satan himself. Furthermore, I think he's jealous of their weakness and stupidity. Satan's already lamented being a spirit with power- he partially believes that the rebellion was due to his own power. Furthermore, he wants to feed the humans fruit from the tree of knowledge. It's assumed right now that the humans are stupid; they do not have knowledge of either right or wrong. Without that knowledge, they cant have free will. They can't choose between good and evil because they don't have any idea of what good or evil is. Satan's problem is that he was given the choice between rebelling and keeping the peace, and he chose wrongly. Because the humans don't have choice, Satan must be jealous that they can do no wrong and is thus dedicated to bringing them down. Ultimately, by making humans eat of the fruit of knowledge, it seems to be Satan, not God, who gave humans free will. He's pretty much a twisted version of Prometheus from mythology; his gift didn't make humans better off, it damned them.

Satan's thoughts

In book four Satan talks about how the sun reminds him of Heaven and then seems to express regret for his rebellion against God saying that praising God was the easiest way to repay his gratitude.  However, his ambition to want to become the highest caused him to only repay God in malice which then led to his downfall.  Also Satan confesses that God is invincible "Till Pride and worse Ambition threw me down/ Warring in Heav'n against Heav'ns matchless King" (4:40-41).  Satan claims that even if he was to submit to God and return to Heaven, he would soon rebel against God again because of  his ambition; however, after this time, Satan claims that he would fall to a different Hell that is even lower and worse than the one he is currently in which I find interesting.  Satan also calls himself Hell which can bring up many questions concerning if God is omnipresent and if Hell is just made by our minds.  At the end of the speech, however, is a particularly intersting part because Satan dismisses (says farewell) to all good and fully adopts evil just like Othello did.

Hanky-Pankage

Satan has a very interesting set of family members. From my interpretation, Sin was born of Satan's mind which makes sense. The best part is that Sin came from Satan's mind and is technically not one of God's creations, merely a by-product. Sin is Satan's Idea and child. Even more interesting, Death itself is born from Satan and Sin.  The bible says that Sin and Death came into the world after Adam and Eve ate the apple, but it never says from where they originally came from. On top of that, Death and Sin create monsters together, so Milton tries to say that Satan, Sin, and Death created everything evil and terrible in the world.

Worshipping Satan?

While I was reading about Satan’s daughter, Sin, it feels as if she is suffering much more than Satan and she is in Hell because of his war. She was punished to be the key holder of the gates of Hell for her father’s crime.  She was raped twice and then forced to live with “…These yelling Monsters that with ceaseless cry/Surround me…hourly conceiv’d/ And hourly born, with sorrow infinite…”(Book II, Lines 794-796). It seems as if everyone’s suffering is due to Satan’s idea for war and yet they are all praising him as if he is their savior. Even though Sin has suffered throughout her time in Hell, she believes , [Satan] wilt bring  [her] soon/ To that new world of light and bliss, among/ The Gods who live a life of ease…(Book II, Line 866-868). She immediately trusts his plan though she has suffered because of him.

Reading 5 Satan = corrupt politicians?

I cannot help but think of Satan as a politician fighting to win the most praise, honor, glory, and respect from all the angels imprisoned by God in order to keep his reign. After the speeches by the top angels, Satan rises to take the challenge to find Earth and start corrupting human kind for everyone's benefit in Hell against God. Satan says that he should take on the travel full of misery because he is the highest in rank and with rank comes more responcibility. So, that makes sense. But then he tells his followers to "Go therfore mighty powers,/ Terror of Heav'n, though fall'n; intend at home,/ While here shall be our home, what best may ease/ The present misery, and render Hell/ More tollerable...While I abroad/ Through all the coasts of dark destruction seek/ Deliverance for us all..." (II.457-467).  Basically, everyone chill and find out ways to ease your pain while Satan suffers terribley for you and our goals to seek revenge on God is what he's saying. By putting all of the hardship on himself, a ONE MAN JOB, the angels in Hell cannot help him and feel the need to praise him. Satan wins. I bet Moloch, Baliel, Mammon, and Beez are rolling their eyes and wishing they stood up to the challenge first like someone else mentioned. I noticed also that Satan still referes to everyone in Hell as princes of heaven. "Oh Progeny of Heav'n, Empyreal Thrones" (II.430). Even though Beezlebub just spoke about why they should find a different name, Satan still calls his "friends" his "peers" worthy of heaven or greatness. Satan is only appealing to everyone well beneath him (not so much Beezlebub, Moloch, Beliel, or Mammon) in order to be "re-elected".

Looking Back and epic Hero Satan

One thing that I noticed when looking back over the readings that I had skipped over previously is that Satan does not claim to be the creator of Hell when he first arrives "and thou profoundest Hell/ Rceive they new Possessor" (1:251-252).  This explains how God is still omnipotent even though Satan "creates" Hell: God had already made Hell.  But then why would God make a Hell if there had been no reason before?  The answer to this could justfy how God is still all-knowing even though Satan "betrayed" him: God already knew that Satan would betray him and created Hell, a place of torture, in preparation for Satan's "betrayal".  Then in our current reading I noticed that Satan is described similarly to an epic hero.  Satan will endure the pain and hardships of being the king of Hell for the other demons, and he offers to go out and find man fr the other demons.  Satan stands courageous while defying God and never backs down like an epic hero.