Volume 7, issue 4 of the Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences includes an article by Tingting Wei, "A Bounded Satan vs. A Satan Unbound: a comparative study on Satanism between William Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell and John Milton’s Paradise Lost":
John Milton and William Blake are excellent poets of their time who have keen
insight about humanities. Under their portrays, Satan image came alive and carries
multiple connotations more than an evil incarnation. Satan, originated from Bible,
is not just an allegorical figure, but also a carrier of ideology that reflects the sta-
tus of the author as well as the society of the time. Milton’s Satan is an adapted
Biblical Satan while Blake’s Satan is a Dionysian Satan, yet they are both the
agent of free will. In this essay, the image of Satan in John Milton’s Paradise Lost
and the Devil in William Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell will be closely
examined and their similarities and differences will be explored. Through probing
into the characterization of the two figures of Satan, this essay will dig into the
background of such differences and try to find the reasons behind.
Tingting Wei is a member of faculty at Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
This paper is available at the Hill Publishing web site. (Open Access.)