Paradise Lost – “Satan” Essay, Research Paper

How does john Milton make Satan the most appealing and compelling character within the poem Paradise Lost. Offer your very own explanation for this ?fascination? with the devil. Can you parallel Handels? music Messiah with Miltons? poetry Paradise Lost? And, how might the music and poetry be aligned to the visual graphic art of Rembrandt?

- John Milton, Paradise Lost, (reading #4.7)

- Rembrandt van Rijn, The Hundred-Guilder, (fig#21.6)

- G.F. Handel, The Messiah, (cassette II selection 3)

In the poem Paradise Lost, John Milton makes Satan appealing and compelling simply by describing him. In his introduction of Satan, Milton says ?His mighty stature; on each hand the flames Driv?n backward slope their pointing spires, and rolled In billows, leave I? th? midst a horrid vale?. That little excerpt about Satan is enough for him to appeal to the reader. In the poem John Milton makes Satan out to be bigger than God when he said the almighty was envious of Satan. I feel that John Milton did not have a fascination with Satan, but he used Satan as a metaphor for his puritan conception of evil in the world. By John Milton being a protestant there is no way that he would write an epic poem and it not have some ties to religion.

In the Oratorio, Samson, G.F. Handel like the greats John Milton, and Rembrandt he brought words to life. In the oratorio he also used verses from both Milton and Rembrandt to write it. Also all three men were great achievers in their own fields, they were also all protestants. Handel like Milton and Rembrandt has

left a legacy. Handel created one of the most moving pieces of choral music in the ?Messiah?. In this piece it celebrates the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ. As is the work of John Milton in being of baroque style, so is the oratorio of Handel.

As in his counterpart?s great work of art, Rembrandt to used his puritan lifestyle in his work and the world loved him for it. In the print ?The Hundred-Guilder Print?, Rembrandt depicts Jesus speaking to people from all walks of life. Jesus speaks to the children, adults, ill and infirm and an assembly of Pharisees. I feel that one of the points that Rembrandt was trying to get across was that no matter who you are and where you come from God loves everyone, and he accomplished it in ?The Hundred-Guilder Print?. John Milton, Rembrandt, and Handel might have worked at different times and in different places but all of them worked to achieve the same goals, which were to let everyone know about their God. In a way all three were an evangelist for God. The things that ?The Hundred-Guilder Print?, the ?Messiah?, and ?Paradise Lost? all have in common was the baroque style that they were produced in.