earticle

영어

There have been constant arguments about the character of Milton's Satan. But most of the criticisms implied the duality of Satan. It was because we feel the contradicting feeling towards Satan. The purpose of this paper is to cast a new light upon the character of Satan through anxiety and defense mechanisms, the technical terms of Freud. According to Freud, the conflicts which exist between the id, ego, and superego undoubtedly result in some degree of anxiety or stress. To deal with anxiety, the ego employs what are known as defense mechanisms. We often usually use these mechanisms subconsciously in our lives. Satan felt anxious after falling into the hell. He revealed a threat to mental health and stability. He got furious with his circumstance, so he became verbally and physically abusive. All these proved he was upset. Forgetting, denial, displacement, rationalization, regression and repression are used for defense mechanism to protect the self from consciously dealing with painful circumstances and events. So Satan denied his reality, abused his opponent, god, and fabricated a information as opposed to facing reality of a situation. And his behavior was sometimes childish, immature and inappropriate. As a result, he turned out to be malicious, foolish, doubtful, miserable and lustful. In these ways human beings are similar to a fallen angel, Satan. It is why we cannot just laugh at Satan's folly. Therefore “the satan in Milton enables him to draw the character well just as the satan in us enables us to receive it.”