ABSTRACT
John Milton’s Paradise Lost does more than tell the story of humankind’s fall and
Christ’s acceptance of the task of redeeming his human brothers and sisters. In his
first great epic Milton details the downfall of Satan, the fall that preceded Adam and
Eve’s fatal error; unlike the First Parents, however, the perpetrator had no possibility
of achieving redemption through the Son’s sacrifice. The rebellion of one third of
heaven’s angels under the leadership of Satan was, according to commonly accepted
Christian chronology, the origin of sin in the universe; this fall was then replicated in
Adam and Eve’s disobedience. Denied the option of achieving redemption, Milton’s
Satan character subsequently took on a number of the defining characteristics of the
human. By following the process of Satan’s downfall in Paradise Lost we can trace
a Satan character who grows into humanity as he grows into evil.
