Said the lost Archangel, this the seat
That we must change for Heaven; this mournful gloom
For that celestial light? Be it so, since he
Who now is Sovereign, can dispose and bid
What shall be right; furtherest from him is best,
Whom reason hath equal'd, force hath made supreme
Above his equals. Farewell happy fields,
Where joy forever dwells! Hail horrors! hail,
Infernal world! And thou, profoundest Hell,
receive thy new possessor! one who brings
A mind not to be changed by place or time.
A mind in its own place and in itself
can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven."
(Paradise Lost, Book 1-- John Milton)
To continue the English trend, here is Milton's Satan right before he utters his famous mantra, "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven." The above excerpt is one of the many views we get into Satan's mind-- in the case of this particular one, it is a view into the mind of a fallen angel as he finds a new space in which to exist. While Satan's moral outlook, his approach towards the supremacy as established by God, and his quest to be more than just a being has been discussed enough times, I want to use this post to briefly examine what it means to establish another space, and whether Hell is truly a place that can exist free of Heaven.
Satan very clearly hesitates upon arriving in this new geography-- one that clearly lacks the elements that we now use to define God--light being the foremost among them. Where he is now is lightless and therefore God-less. Yet, it is the space where all who dwell shall be equal, and share equally in what is "infernal" and "joyless." At the same time, this new Hell is given a changeability that depends not upon its maker but upon its occupier. Whosoever happens to be in Hell can imagine it as a Heaven in itself-- for Satan's Heaven is a changing place, it is also a place that is inconstant for it is Heaven at the very same moment that it is Hell.
While Dante, Homer, and Virgil have all given their Underworlds a powerful sense of nationality by their use of geography and identity-- Milton's Satan comes of as the ruler of a homeless people with no particular promised land in mind. Hell is where God isn't. It is a place that can be Heavenly if seen that way. It questions what constant is-- is it the God who refuses to share his divinity with one of his creation, or is it a Satanic mind so persistent that it impoverishes the body in order for its desires to be satisfied? In other words, does Hell really exist outside of the mind? To take this notion a little further-- does being in Hell mean having only one's mind as a supreme figure, as solace, as a friend, a space, a family?
Satan very clearly hesitates upon arriving in this new geography-- one that clearly lacks the elements that we now use to define God--light being the foremost among them. Where he is now is lightless and therefore God-less. Yet, it is the space where all who dwell shall be equal, and share equally in what is "infernal" and "joyless." At the same time, this new Hell is given a changeability that depends not upon its maker but upon its occupier. Whosoever happens to be in Hell can imagine it as a Heaven in itself-- for Satan's Heaven is a changing place, it is also a place that is inconstant for it is Heaven at the very same moment that it is Hell.
While Dante, Homer, and Virgil have all given their Underworlds a powerful sense of nationality by their use of geography and identity-- Milton's Satan comes of as the ruler of a homeless people with no particular promised land in mind. Hell is where God isn't. It is a place that can be Heavenly if seen that way. It questions what constant is-- is it the God who refuses to share his divinity with one of his creation, or is it a Satanic mind so persistent that it impoverishes the body in order for its desires to be satisfied? In other words, does Hell really exist outside of the mind? To take this notion a little further-- does being in Hell mean having only one's mind as a supreme figure, as solace, as a friend, a space, a family?
What Satan wants, then, is to define himself against God-- he really wants to become an "other." Perhaps one could argue that the very figure of the divine insists on others, yet the divine can also be read as being the anti-other or the embracer. If we stick with the latter, then Satan is possibly trying to achieve the impossible: define himself and his kingdom against a figure that constantly absorbs and grows and thus resists the possibility of having an other to itself.
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