The Romantic Satanic Hero: The Miltonic Origins of the Antihero

John Milton’s characterisation of the Christian devil in Paradise Lost (1667) established a turning point for representation of “dark” and alternative heroism. Milton produced the modern exemplar of sustained anti-heroic characterisation through Satan’s proud rebellious rhetoric, psychological degradation, and sublime experience of abjection. This thesis argues that second-generation Romantic authors adopted the Miltonic Satanic for their own purposes and transformed it into the distinct archetype of the Romantic Satanic Hero through experimental characterisation that has influenced anti-heroic characterisation since.