Two players, two sides. One is light, one is dark.

Milton opens up his poem with the first act of disobedience towards God, which is Adam and Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit. In my opinion Milton writes about his writing as if it is superior to other writing. He writes about truth and dealing with matters that are more essential to human beings. However, he acts quite humble while stating this and while discussing why his poem will be greater than the others. He planned to explain God’s mysterious plan for humankind and the greatest battle of all time, the battle between God and Satan.

            I like that Milton goes under the text of stories such as Adam and Eve and asks questions that weren’t really asked before. Milton discusses in the battle of God and Satan that God intends to turn Satan’s evil deeds toward the good and turn them into something good. Milton portrays Satan as an almost hero in Paradise Lost. This is mostly because the focus of the poem in that section is on Satan, but the fact that Milton makes him the prime subject, and not necessarily the evil enemy, is very intriguing. Instead of writing about a hero or protagonist as someone who struggles to accomplish something, Milton speaks about the Antagonist and how the Antagonist influences Adam and Eve and exactly why they were so easily fooled. Milton portrays these enemies as heroes, even though they lose every battle they fight in.

            Milton presents Satan as a military hero like in earlier epics, where they center on military heroes and their exploits. At the same time, Milton criticizes that literary culture and the later epics that were written. Milton gives Satan the characteristics of Odysseus and other epic heroes. He is courageous and unwilling to yield to anything. Milton makes Satan appealing which I really like. It’s nice to read a story that doesn’t have the same cliché Protagonist running around trying to save the world. It’s nice to see the other side, the villain’s side.