Title: Milton’s “Critical Allusion”: On Satan in Paradise Lost and the Heroes in Western Classical Epics

Abstract: One of the most distinctive techniques of Paradise Lost, allusion, provides an interpretive approach to the nature of Satan. Milton alludes to the language, actions, and situations of heroes in Western classical epics, associating Satan with them. These associations, however, do not place Satan in the position of the hero in Paradise Lost. Rather, they set the traditional heroes as the standard against which Satan’s nature is measured. This article, therefore, reviews Milton’s “critical allusion” in Paradise Lost and how it sheds light upon the interpretation of the pseudo-heroic nature of Satan. This approach has not been systematically studied in domestic academic circles. The present article first introduces the concept and function of “critical allusion.” Then it points out that Milton’s relation of Satan to such archetypal epic heroes as Achilles, Aeneas, and Odysseus is intended to expose by contrast Satan’s evil motive and destructive nature revealed by his own admission: “［T］o do ill our sole delight.” Taking “critical allusion” as an approach to interpreting Milton’s Satan therefore provides an additional perspective for the long-standing debate of Milton’s Satan as a hero or pseudo-hero in Miltonic scholarship.

Keywords: Milton, Paradise Lost, critical allusion, Satan, heroes

Author: Yining Ma, College of Foreign Languages, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian, China; Yuxiao Su, College of Foreign Languages, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian, China.

DOI: 10.19967/j.cnki.flc.2021.04.006