By Jovan Stipić

For better or worse, it has become rather common for creatures of darkness, devourers of souls, and similar rays of sunshine to be depicted as handsome, tragic, and misunderstood bad boys, which can or could be cured of their misdeeds by the eyes of a lovestruck girl! While we will not go into the psychology of why you want your husband or boyfriend to have horns and a tail when alone, which I completely support, by the way, I think it would be an interesting dive into literature history to see when and how demons stopped being scary and instead preferring a look similar to a boyband-cover-pretty-boy yearning for love!

The answer, finally enough, is hidden in the very first evil being that most devoted, boring Christian Puritans think of! Lucifer!

Hurray!

Even now, as you're reading this, you're probably imagining one of two versions of him. Either that funny red-skinned, short demon with horns and a trident that pokes you in the bu-, or a handsome, beefcake Lucifer Morningstar with a chin that could cut glass and a forlorn, sad look in his eyes! For those who do not learn about history on TikTok, it might come as a surprise, but he wasn't always depicted as such. I will not go into a description of a biblically accurate Satan, but let's say that he is not someone you want your mom meeting, nor anyone else for that matter.

But he is also the very first demon or creature of horror to be depicted as a handsome, misunderstood angel that one might even call an anti-hero in the book, or rather poem we will talk about today. This brave deed was done by none other than John Milton in his (in)famous epic poem, Paradise Lost, published in 1667. The poem is strange, not only because he saw something that looked like a mole with legs and imagined it as a pretty boy, but because back then, writing fiction about the devil himself wasn't exactly good for your well-being. But Milton didn't stop there.

Oh no!

For the two of you who have actually read an epic poem, it comes as no surprise that he began the said poem by invoking a muse. All epic poems begin in such a way, and no poet with any self-respect would dare write a poem without invoking one such lady, yet Milton didn't evoke any old derelict muse from ancient Greece. No, no, he invoked the Holy Ghost herself as a muse before proceeding to write about Lucifer being misunderstood...while depicting him as someone every man, woman, and mermaid would sell their souls to. To give a clearer context to this.

Back when the witch trials were still happening, this humble poet called the Holy Ghost his muse. For those who forgot, a muse is a source of inspiration, and his inspiration for Satan was the Holy Ghost herself.

He would most probably be cancelled today for such a thing.

This version of Lucifer, though, ended up being beautiful, charismatic, and oh so terribly eager for someone to love him—Daddy dearest, that being God, most of all!

Even at the very beginning of the poem, Satan says, "It is better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven." Something which the romanticists of the coming centuries celebrated eagerly. More importantly, Lord Byron, William Blake, and the like claimed Lucifer was the absolute hero of the poem and that Milton wished for him to be depicted as a positive figure.

Others, like C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams, both of whom were devout Christians, mind you, argued that the devil himself was not a sympathetic hero. However, the poem is from Lucifer's POV, and he is only depicted as misunderstood.

Why? Because, well, the devil wants himself to appear sympathetic, of course! That is his whole spiel. This, of course, only improves the poem's quality as Milton manages to depict someone truly horrendous, the root of all evil in the world, as someone you can understand.

In my opinion, this is the greatest quality of his work—or, rather, the greatest quality of any author. To have enough understanding and empathy within yourself toward others that you can depict even the devil himself as someone who can be not only understood but empathized with, as someone utterly human.

Whether he's a positive or a negative figure in the poem, I believe, is something that should definitely be left to the reader to interpret. First of all because the poem is definitely worth reading and, second, because as much as the cliche of depicting evil characters as handsome is the norm today, those evil characters rarely do actual evil deeds. At most, they tell a puppy to "shoo," and we don't actually see them doing anything inherently bad.

However, "Paradise Lost" does not back down from the acts of evil depicted in the Bible, nor does it censor them, something that is also a very popular fad today. It only gives context to them so the reader is lured and seduced into thinking Lucifer, now both the beauty and the beast, can be understood and maybe even, let us say, saved from this path if only he had someone care for him. And who is it more dangerous to sympathize with than with the Devil himself?

To give an example, the poem begins in Hell, to shock and horror. Lucifer falls there just as God defeats him after he calls him out as a tyrannical ruler. Then, he begins a long, heartfelt monologue that melts the hearts of all of his followers, mortal and immortal alike.

Yet as heroic and inspiring as he is in the early parts of the poem, and even more so in the latter parts, we cannot forget one very important thing. Everything mentioned in the poem is said by Satan himself. The poem itself plays mind games with its reader throughout, showing acts done by Lucifer himself yet in such an understandable light that one cannot help but sympathize with him. This, in turn, perfectly depicts what Satan is.

Hell, no pun intended, Lucifer is even star-struck by the pure beauty of Eve later in the poem. And, for as long as he looks at her, he even forgets those pesky evil deeds that he has in store! Of course, any proud reader of Fae Smutt or similar works in modern literature knows that no bad boy is complete without at least flirting with the idea that love alone will fix him! Thankfully, Satan, being Satan, doesn't fall for this trope and lets his evil nature prevail, instantly springing his plan into motion.

Oh no!

To lure Eve out of a boring relationship and into an exciting new adventure of biting forbidden apples!

Oh... yes?

In the end, whether he's a hero or not, the story isn't important; the fact that every verse of the poem exists to coax you to his side is while he's going from one truly evil deed to the next. Which, again, aside from the simple attraction factor, is something modern fictional bad boys lack.

What is the moral of the story for bad boys?

Be more like Satan!

What's the moral of the story for the rest? Read Paradise Lost. It's an exhilarating read about rebellion, freedom, different points of view, and sin. And I know you like at least two of those things!

Go away now; I need to find something more important to write about now.