And Betrayed Him Counterfeit

Since my first reading of Paradise Lost, I've wondered about the strangeness of Satan's momentarily ineffable soliloquy in Book IV. Upon seeing the first couple surrounded by frisking beasts and the heavy scents of perfect fruit, Satan is riveted and rendered speechless--this latter result is, as we've remarked upon in class, an unusual state of being for the fiendish superstar. Finally recollecting himself he proclaims the new beings "[l]ittle inferior; whom my thoughts pursue / With wonder, and could love, so lively shines / In them divine resemblance" (IV.362-63). It was over Satan's meditation on his ability to love that I initially stumbled, not expecting such an oddly shaped pebble to dwell on the road through Paradise Lost.

Now, it is in fact possible--indeed, quite probable--that Satan's love for the first pair is only another incarnation of his own narcissism, another manifestation of his lust for the holy glowy fairy dust once present in/on himself, but is now, as the heavenly host repeatedly remarks, sadly and hideously faded. Such a love, such a wonder, appears to be yet another perversion of God's authentic version, though Satan's experience of love does indeed seem to have its own generative properties, as we have seen in the birth of Sin. It is of note that we also see this satanic narcissism in Eve's estimation of Adam's appearance as "less fair, / Less winning soft, / less amiably mild, / That that smooth wat'ry image" (477-80) of her own face. This narcissism does not produce anything, however, for Eve is a derived creature--a character rather than an author--called into being by the flesh and bone of another, "lent," possessed, and recalled by Adam (482-483).

Returning to Satan, one could therefore argue that there is nothing strange here, nothing out of character in Satan's adoration not of Adam and Eve but of the "divine resemblance" permeating their being. I find this a bit too clean for the complexities I see occurring, however, for if we were to consider that Satan's treachery was in fact the result of love and, as we hear a bit later in Paradise Lost, the desire to liberate from tyranny, I think it would trouble not only our reception of the entirety of Paradise Lost, but of the Judeo-Christian master narrative.

The Fall would then be conceived of as Satan's intent not to destroy humanity but, as he states, to seek league and "mutual amity so strait, so close, / That I with you must dwell, or you with me" (376-377). As he cannot stay in Eden, he must bring humanity to hell "[w]hich I as freely give; hell shall unfold, / To entertain you two" (380-382). (Of course, it's another Satanic delusion, his belief that he owns hell, that somehow God bequeathed it to his rebels. But let's suspend disbelief for just a moment.) When the class of ENGL 195 read Milton's text, the great majority of us took no account of this troubling and troubled kidnapping/love of Satan, preferring to stick to the expected storyline: hatred and jealousy motivate the Fiend, not love or caring of any kind. I would, for the most part, agree, while adding that Satan is depicted as the father of lies, and so we as wise readers should distrust everything that he says, thinks, and does.

However, I would also note that in the retelling of his triumphant temptation, Satan "edits" out this aspect of his story, suggesting that he experienced something troubling to himself as well as to us, something strange and paralysing and potentially transformative. It's hard to tell, however, and this is the risk one takes in being a devil's advocate.