Date of Award
1966
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
English
Abstract
By 1641 John Milton had prepared a rather detailed outline for a tragic drama, Adam Unparadised. The design was to take form and grow, not as a religious drama, but as a magnificent epic poem which would "assert Eternal Providence,/And justify the ways of God to men" (I.25-26). In the original design for the drama the character and person of Satan did not constitute a basis for sustained interest. However, when Paradise Lost was finished in 1665, this was no longer the case; Satan, as an historical figure treated by the poetic and religious imagination of Milton, emerged as one of the major characters in the poem.
Recommended Citation
Saunders, Jeanne, "The problem of Satan in Milton's Paradise lost" (1966). Master's Theses. 926.
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/masters-theses/926