The Fallen Self

Coping With the Fall How does an individual cope with the fall from grace? The fallen angels in Milton’s Paradise Lost use a variety of techniques to come to terms with their fate and the eternal despair it brings. For Satan, the task of coping is less involved with accepting one’s desolate fate than embracing the pain that comes with it. The most vivid account of the fallen angels various means of coping …

…abyss of his sorrow. He is overcome with sadness, and his only resolve is to spend eternity creating the same emotions for mankind: “So farewel Hope, and with Hope farewel Fear,/Farewel Remourse: all Good to me is lost;/Evil be thou my Good;” (5.107-9). While Satan and the other fallen angels cope differently with their fall from Heaven, they all must deal, in some way, with an eternity filled only with pain and despair.