Milton's Satan: A Shakespearean Avenger

Spearheaded by the discovery of Milton’s annotated copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio in 2019, my doctoral project aims to further understand Milton’s engagement with literary and theological traditions associated with the Devil by analysing his Satan through the intertextual lens of Senecan avenger in Shakespeare and his contemporaries. More broadly, I aim to explore how Milton uses the literary tropes and conventions of revenge tragedy drama to showcase his theology. I am thus not interested in character criticism but am seeking to study intertextual connections centred on Milton’s Satan. Doing so will provide a better understanding of the ways in which Milton changed the Western representation of the Devil, turning the medieval dragon into a fallen archangel motivated to avenge an unjust God. I intend to showcase how, unlike the comic devil of medieval drama, Milton’s Satan is a tragic hero akin to the psychologically complex avengers of early modern Senecan drama. This endeavour will provide insight into how Milton, as an early modern poet, read and interacted with the literary and theological texts he encountered, thereby situating my research within the fields of the history of early modern reading and English Renaissance dramatic and epic poetry.