Use Mind Over Passions to View Milton's Satan in Book Nine of Paradise Lost This was an essay included with an oral report.

Satan is not meant to be looked at as a hero or as sympathetic in Milton's Paradise Lost, as many critics like to argue. He symbolizes temptation in disguise, and seeks to destroy "The whole included race, his purposed prey" by implanting his offspring, evil, and cultivating its growth throughout mankind. Together Adam and Eve represent humankind in Paradise Lost. In life, they represent the whole of the human psyche, Adam is Reason and Eve, …

…inward causing confusion and disorder. The consequences thereafter contribute to mankind's constant internal struggle to bring assemblage to the soul. Milton makes use of Satan to point out that evil can be lurking in the subtlest forms and may look like a poor soul, or may even promise a better life, leading our unsuspecting Eve astray. We must use our reason to read between the lines so that we can protect our passions from temptation.