Can Satan be said to have self-knowledge, as he seems to in Book IV? Is it possible for one to know oneself when one has rejected God and one's own creatureliness?
If we are to accept that Satan "has self knowledge," we must define this self- knowledge: what does is mean to know one's self? By knowing one's self, does one better understand one's essence, or does one better understand one's emotions and the causes of one's state? In short, is Satan's self-knowledge of his emotions and responses, or of his actual situation?
In Book IV, Satan, in his soliloquy, is, as The Argument phrases "in many doubts with himself, and many passions...." This "passion" and doubt was not produced by the fall, though the latter did exacerbate it, but was part …show more content…
His looking within reveals his emotions, but the deeper he searches the more "perverted" or "lost" he becomes.
I think "perverted" is a perfect word for Satan, not only does it suggest an inward corruption, but, in its purest meaning, that is, its Latin form perverto, pervertere, it means, in addition to perversion, inversion, and destruction, an overthrowal or putting down; a subversion. As we'll discover later, the relationship between subordination and superordination, and Satan's thoughts thereabout, is important.
Now, his damning is neither revocable nor indefinite, both he and God know well the conditions of his damning ( he and company receive "torture without end” and habit with "ever-burning Sulfur unconsum'd (1.67)). Thus, one may ask " how can Satan's "woes" be worsened still more if he has been damned to eternal suffering? Perhaps, although this may be suppositious, we may call Satan's punishment one "from without," that is, God does not damn Satans's free will (he may still plot, still be hypocritical (under God's "permissive will," and indulge in other evil things). While Satan certainly can never reascend into Heaven, his Hell is not exactly bounded, he may still plummet lower into Hell, he may fall deeper, as may Adam …show more content…
Is Christ the light in Paradise Lost? as he is in John? It seems that God is rather-- the origin of Empyreal light but himself invisible.
Perhaps, though we digress, this “sun” isn’t dissimilar to the Sun Woman in Revelation 12. Milton does invoke the Sun Woman in the first few lines of Book IV (by alluding to Revelation), whose presence angers the dragon, and who receives help from the Earth (ἐβοήθησεν ἡ γῆ τῇ γυναικί), which swallows the his (ὁ δράκων) “river.”
We should remember the Sun's role in Matthew 13:6-- it burns "the unrooted," who ultimately whither (ῥίζαν ἐξηράνθη).
Since the sun cannot be seen from Hell, and because it is a heavenly icon, thus reminding him of his fallenness (perhaps this is the first object directly reminiscent of Heaven that he's seen since his fall) Satan it curses; the sun recants the trauma of his fall.
The sun taunts Satan by reminding him of his
If we are to accept that Satan "has self knowledge," we must define this self- knowledge: what does is mean to know one's self? By knowing one's self, does one better understand one's essence, or does one better understand one's emotions and the causes of one's state? In short, is Satan's self-knowledge of his emotions and responses, or of his actual situation?
In Book IV, Satan, in his soliloquy, is, as The Argument phrases "in many doubts with himself, and many passions...." This "passion" and doubt was not produced by the fall, though the latter did exacerbate it, but was part …show more content…
His looking within reveals his emotions, but the deeper he searches the more "perverted" or "lost" he becomes.
I think "perverted" is a perfect word for Satan, not only does it suggest an inward corruption, but, in its purest meaning, that is, its Latin form perverto, pervertere, it means, in addition to perversion, inversion, and destruction, an overthrowal or putting down; a subversion. As we'll discover later, the relationship between subordination and superordination, and Satan's thoughts thereabout, is important.
Now, his damning is neither revocable nor indefinite, both he and God know well the conditions of his damning ( he and company receive "torture without end” and habit with "ever-burning Sulfur unconsum'd (1.67)). Thus, one may ask " how can Satan's "woes" be worsened still more if he has been damned to eternal suffering? Perhaps, although this may be suppositious, we may call Satan's punishment one "from without," that is, God does not damn Satans's free will (he may still plot, still be hypocritical (under God's "permissive will," and indulge in other evil things). While Satan certainly can never reascend into Heaven, his Hell is not exactly bounded, he may still plummet lower into Hell, he may fall deeper, as may Adam …show more content…
Is Christ the light in Paradise Lost? as he is in John? It seems that God is rather-- the origin of Empyreal light but himself invisible.
Perhaps, though we digress, this “sun” isn’t dissimilar to the Sun Woman in Revelation 12. Milton does invoke the Sun Woman in the first few lines of Book IV (by alluding to Revelation), whose presence angers the dragon, and who receives help from the Earth (ἐβοήθησεν ἡ γῆ τῇ γυναικί), which swallows the his (ὁ δράκων) “river.”
We should remember the Sun's role in Matthew 13:6-- it burns "the unrooted," who ultimately whither (ῥίζαν ἐξηράνθη).
Since the sun cannot be seen from Hell, and because it is a heavenly icon, thus reminding him of his fallenness (perhaps this is the first object directly reminiscent of Heaven that he's seen since his fall) Satan it curses; the sun recants the trauma of his fall.
The sun taunts Satan by reminding him of his