Satan, hero Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Satan, hero - Essay Example This paper is a critical review of the character the devil and some of the ways in which he is made different from what we would expect. Milton clearly brings out some artistic styles can be of great use in analyzing this topic and coming up with a clear conclusion. Is Satan the hero of the epic poem paradise lost and does he shows signs of a likeable and sympathetic hero from the story? Milton starts by taking us to the creation story. However, his main interest is not about God, Adam or eve. He is more concerned with the challenges that face Satan: â€Å"F Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast Brought Death into the World, and all our woe With loss of Eden, till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat† (Milton 1) He starts by explaining some of the challenges that Satan underwent during the creation period and why he was to resist all these challenges and become Gods worst enemy. He starts the poem by saying that in the beginning all humans are oppressed by one ruler who he says is God until one-man (Satan) come and sets us free. This is a clear indication that Milton loves Satan and would follow him all the way to the gates of hell if given a chance. He sees the life that Adam and eve lived and link it to that of dictatorship. It is for this reason that Satan come out and convinces man to eat the forbidden fruit and be like God. This is a clear epic story told by an expert who knows how to involve his character and makes people love his character. From this statement, it is easy and normal for the reader to start hating God and at the same time start loving Satan. It is normal for one to start realizing the dictatorship of god and start seeing the deliverance of Satan. The other point that shows the devil as a hero is the fact that Satan realizing the oppression and dictatorship that God has, decides t fight all these with just a group of his loyal angels. This shows that the devil is not jus t ready to reveal the dictatorship of God rather he is also ready to fight for it just to see that man is finally free from the dictator. This puts Satan like a human rights activists who is ready to die just to ensure that other people are well and that people are delivered from the dictator. This is one of the most common forms of epic stories and poems and is a clear depiction of mastery of poetic strengths. Milton uses his skills not only to make one like Satan but to also make the reader to have some hatred of Gods view of the world and how he intended us to live. It also makes the reader have some sympathetic feelings for Satan and see him as a person who had a determination for the entire world population to be rescued from the dictatorship of God. This makes Satan likeable (Milton 6). With mastery of classical tragedy, Satan in paradise lost contains some elements of a hero. In a classical tragedy, a faithful man is put to many troubles and undergoes many problems just to sa ve his people or to fight the master who has all the power to control everything and therefore uses his powers to kill the dreams of the hero. In paradise lost, God is seen to have many supernatural powers, which he uses to his advantage. With all these resources, it is close to impossible for the devil to fight him and win. To start with, he has many angels who Milton considers his army and the devil only has a few of such angels who God refers to as demons. It is therefore close to impossib

Majority decision in a democracy Research Paper

Majority decision in a democracy - Research Paper Example This paper looks at how decisions are reached in a democratic state and argues that a decision by the majority does not necessarily always yield optimal results. This is because the majority of people may not have access to crucial information for making informed decisions. This conundrum of how best to govern people has confounded sages for ages going back to the times of the ancient Greek philosophers. Various types of government styles were tried in order to find the ideal and perfect form of governance that will give the best results in terms of stability, peace and contentment for all citizens. Governance can be considered as a social experiment in which various governance structures are tried to see which works best. Governmental forms are part of the larger political systems of a country. Among the various forms that were quite common before (with some still existing today in hybrid forms) are monarchy, oligarchy, plutocracy, timocracy, autocracy, anarchy, democracy, socialism and republicanism, among many others. The most common form of political system prevailing in the world today is democracy. However, its being common does not necessarily confer it is a superior political system; all that can be said about democracy is that it is the best option until a better alternative can be found that best fits the objectives of a country when it comes to the issue of governance. The ideal form of government must achieve the triple purposes of peace, stability and contentment where issues and concerns of all citizens are adequately answered. This paper attempts to point out the defects and deficiencies of a democracy and also offers an exciting alternative form of rule which is the elitist type of rule. The word elitist often invites a derisive connotation but it actually offers a better prospective form of governance. Elitism is not bad per se as it envisions a rule by people best qualified to govern the rest of the people. It does not imply exclusivity as any one who qualifies to be a member can become one. Discussion Plato (427-347 B.C.) during his time had already seen the weaknesses of democracy. This was the reason why he advocated for a different form of government – that of the rule by the chosen few, the aristocracy. His version of aristocracy is not what we think of it today that is based on owning vast tracts of land or being fabulously wealthy; rather, an aristocrat is the person who had been educated in philosophy and therefore knows a lot about virtues and in the exercise thereof, will lead people into wealth and happiness. The classical definition of the word aristocracy, as far as Plato was concerned, is a rule by the best persons of a society. This idealistic state of government is rather very utopian in aspirations, though. Plato had given up on democracy as virtually chaotic as he had seen some of its effects on Athenian society in his time, such as some occasions of mob rule and how the electorate or the general populace put into office during an election people who were not well qualified. A fairly strong dislike of democracy led to his criticisms that it will eventually lead to tyranny. In a sense, he was right on this aspect, as democracy can be considered as a form of tyranny, that is, tyranny by the majority on the minority. Further, Plato had only seen the nascent forms of democracy during his time in which it would still naturally and expectedly be chaotic. He had not seen how modern democracy works today in which safeguards are in place. He had regarded democracy as a poor form of government, much inferior than monarchy itself. What Plato instead argued for strongly was aristocracy, in order to put the best people into government positions and let them make all the important policy decisions. He thought that aristocrats are the best people to govern because they