Milton’s Paradise Lost is practically based upon good and evil. The concepts of good and evil are tied to Christianity. Milton divided his characters into two sides. One side was under God, representing good, and the other being under Satan, representing evil. This levy of good vs. evil were carried on throughout the poem with the interaction of Satan and his fallen angels in hell with God and his son in Heaven.
Milton first introduced Satan, the representative of all evil, and his allegiance of fallen angels that aided in his revolt against God. Only later did Milton introduce God, the representation of all good. The introduction of Satan first led to the beliefs that acts of sin were good, just like Eve felt in the Garden of Eden when she was enticed by Satan to eat the fruit off of the Tree of Knowledge. The later introduction of God had changed the feeling towards sin. As the ways of God were introduced to the readers, these ways were shown to be bad.
The common representation of sin and evil came from the lead character in the battle against God, Satan. His name means ‘enemy of God.’ He was a former high angel from Heaven named Lucifer, meaning, ‘light bringing'(Collins Dictionary). Satan became jealous in Heaven of God’s son and formed an alliance of angels to battle against God, only for God to cast them out of Heaven into Hell (Paradise Lost 35). This did not bother Satan at first since he became the leader in Hell rather than a servant in Heaven. Satan believed that it was, ‘Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven’ (Paradise Lost 263).
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Much of Satan’s ability of getting things accomplished came from his ability to lie and deceive. He lied to the fallen angels about the Son and his ‘vice-regency’ in Heaven in order for them to follow him instead of The Son . He also concealed his true self by hiding in the body of a serpent when presenting himself to Eve in the Garden of Eden. She would not have been as easily tempted into sin had he not concealed his true form.
In addition, Satan shows a large amount of anger and destructiveness when he planned his revenge on God. “He views the dismal situation waste and wild, a dungeon horrible…where peace and rest can never dwell, hope never comes.”(Paradise Lost 59). Satan even found pleasure in the pain and destruction of other people and things, ‘To do aught good never will be our task, / But ever to do ill our soul delight'(Paradise Lost 160). Satan chooses to be evil on his own.
