Satan: The First Antihero?

Depicted as the vengeful, controlling master of Hell in John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost, Lucifer, the fallen angel who seeks vengeance against those who have cast him from the sacred ranks in Heaven, is one of the most significant characters and arguably one of the most definitive antiheros in all of literary history. After the catastrophic conclusion of events between Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Lucifer, blamed for the wrongs and sins the couple committed, is thrown down from the divine paradise, never to return again. Here, Milton begins his poem, narrating the plans of Lucifer and his exchanges with the other demons in Hell as he schemes to extract revenge against those who have wrongfully convicted and punished him. Through various monologues, conversations, and descriptions, Lucifer is illustrated rather positively throughout Book I of the epic poem, creating a character who despite his dreary predicament, displays extreme confidence and self-assurance, someone who possesses enough gusto to express, “better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven” (Milton 1.263). This confidence, along with Lucifer’s supposed innocence and wrongful conviction, allow the reader to easily sympathize, and at the same time, remain in awe of Lucifer’s untouchable response to such a catastrophe. Thus, Lucifer follows a typical pattern that countless literary antiheros also produce, in which the reader is at first turned away by the character’s “bad boy” qualities, but then later responds with a spellbound obsession, following this antihero and secretly hoping that they prevail in the end. In fact, Milton’s Lucifer may have been the first definitive antihero, possessing many of the characteristics that readers do not find “good”, but still having a distinctive set of qualities and a distinctive manner that readers find enthralling. Lucifer’s temperament, his adaptive abilities to make “a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven”, and a kingdom of his own, are all characteristics readers find appealing and make him as the first antihero in all of literature, leading the way for thousands of others to follow (Milton 1.255)

The Tempest

Miranda:
 I pitied thee,
Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour
One thing or other: when thou didst not, savage,
Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like
A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes
With words that made them known. But thy vile race,
Though thou didst learn, had that in't which good natures
Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou
Deservedly confined into this rock,
Who hadst deserved more than a prison. (Act 1, Scene 2)

In The Tempest, one of the last published plays of famous poet and playwright William Shakespeare, main character Prospero avenges his right on the political throne by drawing a host of rambunctious sailors, along with his brother Antonio, to his remote island. As the action unfolds between the players, relationships and deep conflicts are revealed, ultimately leading to a fantastic conclusion for one of literature's most celebrated plays. Caliban, the only true native to Prospero's isolated island, is a truly conflicted man, caught in a life where he doubles as the mistreated slave, as well as a callous and savage monster that acts purely out of an animistic instinct. First "rescued" by Prospero, this son of the witch Sycorax appears as a half-witted, almost feral creature that is taught by both Prospero and Miranda to speak and act accordingly as a human being. Caliban's quest for acceptance and transformation into a sensible being, however, is hindered when he attempts to rape Miranda in order to further populate Prospero's remote island. From this point onwards, the father and daughter loose all respect for Caliban, regarding him as a fierce brute and their slave. In the passage above, Miranda openly expresses her attitude towards Caliban, and her failed attempt to teach him the virtues of human life, to which he turned away from and instead crawled back towards his monstrous origins. Shakespeare's use of certain adjectives and verbs in describing Caliban's learning process not only exhibits Miranda's lost faith and negative opinion of Caliban, but also develops Caliban's dual character as the violent, instinctual monster. Words such as "savage", "brutish", "vile", and even the verb "gabble", paint an extremely dissenting picture of his character, portraying him as a true fiend and turning readers away from Caliban's other side of the mistreated slave. Readers, and the audience, are less likely to sympathize with Caliban and pity him for having lost almost everything, and instead take Miranda's opinion that he is in fact a barbarian. Furthermore, the tone created in the passage and the degrading insults given by Miranda to Caliban show the strained relationships between the characters. Miranda's disapproving, almost hateful tone displays the change in their relationship before Caliban attempted to rape her and expose his side as a true monster, and as a consequence, her cold, distrust behavior afterwards. In the beginning, both father and daughter aide Caliban in his transformation from fiend to human individual, however, this attitude changes completely after his attempt. Thus, Miranda has lost all respect for Caliban, exclaiming that he is "deservedly confined to this rock...more than a prison", and expressing the broken relationship between the two. Caliban, a controversial character, clashes between character archetypes and defies reader's expectations, creating a place among Shakepeare's stage creations.