Paradise lost is a poem which John Milton wrote to narrates the genesis story. Milton portrays Satan as a hero in this poem. He goes to the story of creation and fall of man and emphasizes more on the actions of Satan rather than the role of God or Adam and Eve. Ironically Milton argues on defense of God, but portrays Satan so vivid thus attracting attention of the reader. Throughout the poem Satan is depicted with traits trappings relating with the conventional poem, where Satan is heroic or military figure if conquered.
Increasing this problem is the reader's prospect of how an epic poem works. The hero is the attribute mainly aimed at drawing reader's attention, and Milton positioned his Satan right in front of his readers and straight in their imaginations.
Although he follows it closely, Milton changes the epic custom on its head in one respect: he initiated Satan himself, the old enemy, the hero, or at least candidate for hero, of his poem: his is the main point of view from which we experience the action, at least at the beginning.
With the command of Milton's portrayal, Satan is perhaps the hero of his epic poem and that seems to be Milton's intent. However it is near to the point of calling call him a travesty of the epic hero, as most reputable critics have done for over a century, but if so, one should be keen to avoid withholding the appropriate measure of appreciation that would accrue an epic hero attaining the kinds of exploits Satan does.
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Milton wrote Paradise Lost as a reversed epic or anti-epic. Throughout the poem he has perverted and changed the epic principles to fit them to his retelling of the Biblical description of Creation and the fall as given in book Genesis. The main aim of Milton is to give his own understanding and view to Christianity. The approach he employs depicts Satan be a hero or more accurately, the anti-hero. Like the idol gods, Milton made Satan as a catastrophic hero in order to devastate him. For all his magnificence, Satan undergoes the ultimate fatal flaw, at least Milton's approach of Christianity: his lack of ability to recognize both his sinful nature and to allow the forgiveness God makes readily available. Thus, Milton twists Satan into a metaphor for the decisive sinner; that is, the human being who follows his own will alone and obdurately ignores God's readily available offer of forgiveness and salvation. Milton explains such a person, to be repeating Satan's error and willfully and foolishly giving up God's promise to his creatures, the promise of eternal life in the heaven of the Creator's presence. According to Milton, such a person deserves Satan's destiny.
In conclusion we can generally agree that, the ultimate failure of the free will defense is due to the fact that God made everything that exists, and everything exists as it does just because God designed it so.
God with full understanding of the nature created all that exists, and knows the ultimate fate of all His creations. Even though sometimes we allow knowledge and choice within sentient beings and holds them responsible for their decisions, the decision to exist in the first place was never theirs. That decision comes from God alone, and free will is a doubtful point without it.