Learner Resource 2
Satan’s First Soliloquy
Key concepts: Soliloquy, Machiavellian Villain, Malcontent
Look at Book 9 lines 99- 178

In what ways do these lines resemble a soliloquy in a dramatic text?

Why do writers use soliloquies?

How do they shape our responses to characters?

Compare Milton’s use of soliloquy to other uses you have come across.
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A machiavellian villain is a particular kind of stage villain associated with Elizabethan and
Jacobean drama.

What are the typical features of a machiavellian villain?

Can you identify aspects of the way Milton presents Satan here that seem to you
machiavellian?
A malcontent is another type of character associated with Jacobean drama.

What are the typical features of the stage malcontent?

Can you identify aspects of the way Milton presents Satan here that seem to you
characteristic of a malcontent?
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The debate around how far we sympathise with Milton’s Satan is central to our understanding of
the poem.

Which aspects of his character draw our sympathies here?

Which aspects of his character make him less sympathetic?
Tragic hero or villain - how do you see Satan here?
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Extension work: Throughout the rest of the poem when Satan appears look for links and
contrasts to the way he thinks here.

Keep asking yourself how far is his behaviour heroic and how far villainous?
Extension work, A level: Compare this speech with a speech by a character from your drama
text.

Compare ways in which the characters are presented either positively or negatively.

Look closely at the language they use and the way the writers present their thoughts and
feelings.
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