Quotes about Pride:
- “What reinforcements we may gain from hope,/ If not what resolution from despair.” – shows Satan’s immense will to regain control and power by rallying his fellow fallen angels
- “To do aught good never will be our task,/ But ever to do ill our sole delight” – Satan’s pride was hurt, so he now seeks revenge on those who wronged him
- “here condemned/ To waste eternal days in woe and pain?” – link to Revelation Bible – ‘And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.’; more imagery of snakes!
- “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.” – cannot stand being inferior
- “We may be reading the words of a devil, but also of a self-conscious tragic hero.” – commentary on Paradise Lost from Forsyth
- “Stirred up with envy and revenge” – narrator’s depiction of Satan as he is first seen in Hell; clear link between the two Sins
- “his pride/ Had cast him out of Heav’n” – Pride seen as a vice
- “set himself in glory above his peers” – clear theme about Satan deeming himself superior
- “Yet not for [those dire arms],/ Nor what the potent victor in his rage/ Can else inflict, do I repent or change” – Pride refuses to bend under pressure from others/ no compromise
Quotes about Envy:
- “Balancing [Beelzebub’s] unbounded envy of God is his slavish, selfless devotion to his infernal chief, Satan.” – commentary on Paradise Lost from Baumlin
- “Of course, Satan’s and Beelzebub’s relationship has further allegorical significance: they are as close to each other as the vice Envy is to Pride.” – commentary on Paradise Lost from Baumlin
- “with iron scepter rule/ Us here, as with his golden those in Heav’n.” – emphasis on material; envy shown
- “Seduce them to our party, that their God/ May prove their foe, and with repenting hand/ Abolish his own works.” – (Beelzebub talking about humans) ambitious mentality; if they cannot be God’s favourites, nobody can
- “none higher sat” + “A pillar of state” + “Deliberation sat and public care” + “princely counsel” + “Majestic though in ruin” + “sage” + “With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear/ The weight of mightiest monarchies” – very attractive description of Beelzebub