Name: FERNANDA TEIXEIRA BRAGANÇA

Publication date: 05/06/2023
Advisor:

Name	Role
LENI RIBEIRO LEITE	Advisor *

Examining board:

Name	Role
LENI RIBEIRO LEITE	Advisor *
MARCUS DE MARTINI	External Alternate *
RAIMUNDO NONATO BARBOSA DE CARVALHO	Internal Alternate *

Summary: Paradise Lost (1667) is a biblical epic written by the poet and political activist John Milton,
which provides a wide arena to question and discuss theological, philosophical and political
issues present in literary works of the 17th century Early Modern period. This dissertation looks
into certain attributes commonly associated with the representation of virtue and vice through
Satan’s heroism. It takes into account which aspects traditionally employed in the formation of
classical heroism, as given by Nagy (2017), Curtius (1979) and Toohey (2004), are used in the
construction of Satan’s character. It also analyses how this idea of heroism is undermined in
face of the theme of the poem and the qualities of a Christian hero, as they are described by
Lewalski (1966). A focus is given to books I and II, which a paramount in first establishing the
dynamics between Satan and the narrator with regards to the formation of Satan’s character.
Certain lines are pointed out that indicate the kind of narrative and interpretation of Satan’s
character that the narrator promotes, as well as the speeches 1.84-124 & 2.430-466 as examples
of the kind of éthos that Satan promotes. It is noted that Satan’s character is built via a complex
combination of mechanisms seen in forming a specific kind of éthos through speech, but also
through interventions from the narrator that destabilise the impression of heroism and
leadership put upheld by Satan. In this dynamic, both Satan and the narrator have uneven access
to certain stages of discourse organisation: Satan tends more towards mechanisms found in
inventio, disposition and elocutio, WHEREas the narrator dominates actio. The rhetorical devices
that pertain to each of those stages are described in epideictic manuals such as Menander’s Peri
epideiktikon, Hermogenes’ Peri ideon, and Fraunce’s The Arcadian Rhetorike, which accounts
for the proper use of voice and action in speech. This work finds that the presence of heroic
qualities in the formation of Satan’s character allows the reader to question certain attributes
which are generally seen as virtuous; it also enables different types of approach to the Miltonian
poem and to Satan’s role therein, both of which enrich the reading experience.
Key-words: Satan. John Milton. Paradise Lost. Éthos. Epideictic rhetoric.

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