Paradise Lost Intro Paragraph
After being thrown from Heaven, Satan feels betrayed by God and feels the need to satisfy his rebel angels. Satan’s heart of stone was cold toward God. His purpose in the speech is to motivate his followers and give them hope for revenge. He understands God’s power is much mightier than that of his own. Although Satan lost his battle against God, he begins to see Hell as a place where he can rule without interference from God. As Satan says, “All is not lost; the unconquerable Will, and study of revenge, immortal hate, and courage never to submit or yield” (106-108). He describes his hopefulness though for his newly found world. Because of his exile Satan believes that him and his rebel angels can overcome their loss against God and become more powerful.
Was the attack against God worth the hellish misery? Beelzebub is questioning the devil and his follower’s rash attempt to conquer Heaven that ended “with a sad overthrow and foul defeat” (135). Due to the amount of strength and desire to take over Heaven, Beelzebub does not understand how the fallen angel and his followers were defeated. Beelzebub speaks for all when he confesses his feelings of hopelessness to the “endless misery” (142) of Hell. He seeks for a consultant in Satan to help him though the mourning process of what he has forever lost as a result of their rebellion against God. He states all of his concerns as well as his unwavering fear of this unknown world that he has been exiled to.
Satan has listened to Beelzebub's concerns and is still trying to get Beelzebub on his side to attack Heaven for the second time. He rhetorically asks Beelzebub if he wishes to continuously suffer. Furthermore, he refers to Beelzebub as the Fall’n Cherube and defines “to be weak is miserable,” (157) in order to reiterate the fact that all of the rebel angels are grieving, showing inferiority. In doing so Satan hopes for Beelzebub to change course of action and side with him in his new revenge plot against God. He wishes that Beelzebub would “not slip th’ occasion, whether scorn, or satiate fury yield it from our Foe” (178-179). By this he asks Beelzebub not to pass up this opportunity to strike back