Paradise lost: commentary

In “Paradise Lost”, John Milton creates very realistic characters even if the story tells about a biblical event: Satan’s fall through the Hell. This epic plot made Milton use a very rich vocabulary, full of metaphors and images. Because of the elevated topic, Milton used also the Latin syntax of the sentences. The characters of this work are taken from the Bible and are reminiscent of the several warriors and heroes created by Homes in his epic poems. For example, the most important, Satan himself, can be considered as an epic hero because of his characteristics: he’s a leader, he’s courageous and has a strong thirst of power. Satan’s not willing to serve in Heaven because he knows he’s equal to God: he’s really strong and ready to fight against Him. In fact he accept his punishment and sees it as a prize, not as a punishment at all. He says “It’s better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n”. These words let us understand how Satan feels about his situation and about God.