How Is Satans Portrayed As An Anti Hero

This portrayal of Satan as someone who has many layers and complexities is further shown through his entrance into the poem. He is seen crying for his fallen angels. This can be taken as another humanlike quality assigned to Satan. It seems to be a genuine emotion from the fallen angel. The Anti-Satanist argument against this passage is that angels were not supposed to cry (Danielson 167). This seems like a rather weak argument, it begs the question why should crying be seen in a negative light? Why shouldn’t angels cry? Weeping for his fallen angels shows a level of remorse and compassion, which seem to be rather good emotions to have. It also makes him relatable to reader instead of someone completely devoid of any emotion. Satan is shown as having passion and the ability to cry. It almost adds a vulnerability to Satan’s character because he is able to display those emotions openly. Satan was also portrayed as a military leader, another literary convention that was popular when writing about him and the fall at the time. The reasoning behind this was that military ambition was admired by many, or at least it is an understandable justification (Revard 203). The military aspect of Satan humanizes him in …show more content…
In today’s society the anti-hero, or tragic hero, is becoming increasingly popular. Not only does Milton write Satan in a way that fits the tragic hero mold of Aristotle and the Renaissance, but Satan can also be applied to the modern anti-hero. Most movies have a villain with some tragic backstory that makes the viewer sympathize with them. The same could be said for Milton’s Satan. As times change, people are drawn to the more complex characters and Milton’s Satan is certainly complex. A seemingly adept definition of an anti-hero that could be applied to Satan is given by Robert