[Milton-L] Where does Satan's passion originate?

[Josh Fischer]

In all my research I am not finding a good answer to the question: Where does Satan's passion originate? Rather, how does it rise up in him so uniquely and with such abundance? 

I am writing: Milton does not give the reader a good reason for Lucifer’s increased passion in the text of Paradise Lost, it is left as a necessary characteristic of the work’s most important character, and a lingering issue that appears to have no textual, critical or theological explanation. John Carey, in his essay Milton’s Satan, believes the author “sets aside the problem of showing perfect intelligence operating imperfectly” (165). (Werblowsky, which Carey cites, does not talk about this either, that I have been able to ascertain I should say.)

Before I make such a statement, I wanted to check on this list as it is not only germane to my article, but also this issue jabs at my curiosity and understanding of the poem and its theological suppositions.

Thank you and please enjoy your holiday,

Joshua Fischer
Senior, Engish Literature
University of Louisville



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