Irrepressible Desire and Evil in Milton’s Paradise Lost

• Main Authors: Han-ChingChang, 張涵晴
• Other Authors: Yuan-Guey Chiou
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/k99pg9

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 外國語文學系在職專班 === 101 === Abstract Milton’s Paradise Lost is an epic about justice and evil. Satan’s rebel against God causes disasters on Earth. After falling into Hell, Satan first excites his followers with a passionate speech, claiming to be Emperor of Pandemonium, and then he attempts to capture the Eden as his revenge on God. Indeed, Milton transforms his great concerns of English people, his disgusted attitude toward politicians and authorities into his sublime talent and timeless Paradise Lost. Criticism of this epic includes a large variety of topics, such as myth, history, theology, ethic, politics, the author’s autobiographical elements, colonialism, and feminism on this epic. This paper expands on the topic of Satan’s position and the meaning of evil as it emerges from the poem. I maintain that in Paradise Lost the essence of evil is presented as Satan’s diabolical desire to subdue and destroy both human beings and the World. In Chapter One, I want to explain that Satan is a fake hero by discovering Satan’s evil intentions which are under the mask of his eloquence. In Chapter Two, I want to focus on the diabolical desire which is presented and discussed by Arnold Toynbee and Daisaku Ikeda. They think the diabolical desire is one of human beings’ desires, it cannot be suppressed and eliminated—it is the irrepressible desire. But, differing from the loving desire, its essence is to restrain the possibility of good. In Paradise Lost, the representation of the diabolical desire is Satan while his intent is to destroy the world and human beings. In Chapter Three, I want to explain that the causes of the Fall of Satan, men and angels are they cannot speak out against the evil and can not restrain the diabolical desire in their minds.