Friday, October 16, 2009

To which two characters from Paradise Lost does the creature compare himself?

The creature compares himself to Adam as well as Satan from John Milton's epic poem, Paradise Lost, a text that he read (at first) as factual, a real history of the world's birth. He compares himself to Adam because he was created without a tie to any other human being; like Adam, he is the first of his kind. However, he feels his creator's cruelty when he makes this comparison because, unlike Adam, who was "a perfect creature," joyful and content, and especially close to his creator, the monster is miserable and lonely and spurned by his creator. At the same time, he feels more like Satan because, as he says, "like him, when I viewed the bliss of my protectors, the bitter gall of envy rose within me." In other words, when he sees the happiness of others, he is extremely jealous, and he feels bitterly toward those who are allotted this happiness when he is denied it through no fault of his own. For these reasons, he feels that he should be more like Adam, but due to his creator's errors, he is actually more like Satan.

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