Via Purifico

Lucifer, the Fallen Angel
by Gustave Doré

My first post on this blog looks into the literature as a tool for better understanding the concept of loss and, by extension, redemption; also in a recent sonnet, I address more specifically the subject of Satan's redemption (or the impossibility of such), but in any case, this is a topic that I wanted to spiral back to in light of recent readings in Books V-VI and in various academic sources.

In Paradise Lost, Satan himself seems convinced that his damnation is final, the road to redemption being blocked not only by his own weakness but also by a spiteful god. In Book V, the apostate angel laments:

But say I could repent and could obtain
By act of grace my former state; how soon
Would highth recall high thoughts, how soon unsay
What feigned submission swore: ease would recant
Vows made in pain, as violent and void.
For never can true reconcilement grow
Where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep:
Which would but lead me to a worse relapse
And heavier fall: . . . .(5:93-101)