Satan speaks mostly in iambic pentameter, however Milton has used disruptions in the rhythm to emphasise certain themes within the poem. For example Satan’s spoken line is “If thou beest he; but O how fallen! How changed” is an eleven syllable line, here used to show that he (Satan) is in great pain. Also, there is the idea that he cannot think logically, “but O how fallen” shows his despair and it is an aside thought rather than an actual part of his speech to Beëlzebub. Also, the epic similes used to describe Satan are very powerful, showing he has the size and power of a “Leviathan”; and describing him as “a tower” who can create a “dim eclipse”.
God is presented as a “tyrant” who only wants servants and has acted out of some wicked spite towards the angels. Satan’s representation of God as an evil character is very poignant to the reader, and there is reason to speculate that perhaps Milton truly believes that war on heaven was a “glorious enterprise”. And this creates an idea that Satan’s “courage never to submit or yield” is a noble feature that we expect to see in a champion of a people. It is undeniable that Satan is a brave angel; his journey to Earth would mean his having to cross Chaos which is described as “no narrow frith” and a “wild abyss” where there are “endless wards”. Milton describes chaos without the normal iambic pentameter that he has used during the previous sections of the poem. When he breaks this pattern, it is for dramatic effect; for example in chaos the use of lines such as “Without dimension, where length, breath, and highth,/And time and place are lost” where he changes the stresses on syllables. The use of spondees create a completely unnatural way of speaking, with more than two or more sequentially stressed syllables.
However, this is not to say that Milton does not show Satan in a negative light. He opens with a request to God that he may be given a muse to aid him in his work to “justify the ways of God to men” and first describes him as He does not set out with the intention to create a role reversal from the traditions of good and evil. And he does describe Satan as having “steadfast hate” and shows us that all he wants is his “revenge” with no consideration that what he has done may be wrong. When considering the contemporary audience, it is perhaps the shocking nature of it almost seeming condonable to seek “vengeance” on God that enforces Miltons true belief that he serves “Eternal Justice”.
There is however a secondary interpretation to be considered. Milton produced a series of anti-royalist pamphlets, and it is possible to see “Paradise Lost” as another way that he enforced his believe in have a republic not a monarchy. The king being God’s representative on earth and as such takes the persona of God in the text. Satan and the Fallen Angels then take the role of the revolutionaries; here, there is a strong case for what Blake has said. Milton has created a heroic notion from the rebellion in heaven. It brings the audience back to the “glorious enterprise” that came with deposing (or in the case of Satan, trying to depose) a dominant monarch who demanded subservient behaviour from his people. Satan’s sentiments that it is “better to rule in hell than serve in heaven” would have been a view that much of the audience agreed with (in as far as the usurpation of monarchical rights are concerned).
Was Milton of the devil’s party? It is hard to say for certain however there is a significant amount of evidence in the first two books that would suggest he was. Or perhaps it was more that he was sympathetic to their cause, and the actions, right or wrong justified the ends. Milton’s distortion of the classic moral roles caused the audience to think in an unconventional way for the period. It was a natural progression from being unordinary to being a heretic during this period.