Being nearly done with
Paradise Lost (book XI out of XII, the second edition (?) way of dividing the books), I must say I find
Christ nearly as interesting a character as
Satan, if not more so. Christ is the
noble one, the might
King of Kings, who
sacrifices himself for the poor and weak
humans, giving up his
throne to become, for our
salvation, one of us. However, Satan has two advantages as a
literary character that Christ does not. The first, less important one, is that he gets much more
screen time. He gets a lot more time to present his side of the case. And he is quite the character, with his noble, never-give-up fight for a
lost cause. The other advantage Satan has over Christ is
novelty. Satan is a
new character. The noble
rebel against
God is a much newer idea than the
humble servant who
submits himself to
God's will. Christ is
fascinating, but the idea of him has been beaten into our
culture for over 2000 years and beyond. The
god who gives his
life for our
salvation is an old, old idea.
Osiris and
Mithras did it long before Christ, and since Christ it has been the central
mythos of
Western culture. Satan gets our
attention more than Christ by his pure newness. We see him and say, "whoa, cool idea." We see Christ and say "
Been there, done that." In the end, it is Satan, and not Christ, who holds our attention.
In closing, I think it would be amazing to see a rewritten Paradise Lost, done by a modern author with Milton's literary and poetic gift. It would be cool to see a more balanced version, playing heavily on the contrast between the two characters. Both have their amazing strengths, but Milton's cultural background and literary focus on the Fall of Man prevented him from letting Christ come into full bloom as the antithesis of Satan. A more balanced work, allowing both characters to argue, through both words and actions, their respective positions of humility and determination could be one of the greatest pieces of writing of all time.