Paradise Lost Book I: In Which We Learn Satan is a Bad Boy

Here we may reign secure; and in my choice
to reign is worth ambition, though in hell:
better to reign in hell than serve in heaven (261-264)

Despite the title of this post I am not going to make an Umbrella Academy reference no matter how tempting it is. (Luther sucks, Five for Number One!)

The story trope of the son longing to take reign over his father is pretty old. For the Greeks it started prior to humankind with Kronos and Jupiter. For Milton is just so happens to be an allegory for his feelings towards the Crown. But let's focus on Satan here. He says, /in my choice/ to reign is worth ambition/ the syntax makes the reader question if the meaning a bit more than might be considered necessary. The hang up is how he says that he chooses to reign and he paid for that with ambition. This seems a bit awkward to say but Milton is using it to stress a point. We America's clearly think of being in charge as something you HAVE to aspire to and earn with a heck (hehe) of a lot of ambition. For Milton, he gets a monarch who needs nothing more than the right birth certificate. The pointed idea that it is "evil" to go against the divinely appointed leader/"God" comes across clearly when taking in the context. 

Milton's power move of re-imaging all the characters of the bible is unmatched. Anyone making that move today just looks like a knock off. Perhaps the most interesting move Milton's allegory of the Crown makes is wrapping it under the layer of religion. It pointedly judges but cleverly hides behind religion's big power of uncontested righteousness. To question God and religion is dangerous in any era, so it seems like the right way to hide your intentions. Ask the question: Did Satan win? Just do not ask the Christians or the Crown.