In this sort of retelling, however, Eve seems much more at fault in the Fall, since Satan has flames spurting from his face, and looks somewhere between snake and human. This is intended as a focus on Satan's character, so it is not a large issue for the interpretation. More worryingly, this work uses a human shape as the basis for the transformation, and identifies Satan's serpent as somewhere between snake and human, rather than as somewhere between snake and some more otherworldly being. After being covered with layers of scales, however, this does not play into much of the actual work, but as the creator, I am acutely aware of it. Finally, this interpretation has interesting implications for Satan's final punishment in book 10, where he and all his companions are turned into snakes. This time, Satan is deprived of his words, and can only hiss, in addition to having no hope of changing back, and many of the elements of this rendering would be entirely different with respect to this new serpent. Satan is still Satan, though, and the flames would probably remain.
In this project, I attempted to represent Satan as the serpent through the use of photo manipulation. Even though Satan is "enclosed / In serpent" as he tempts Eve, he still retains elements of his original character (Milton 9.494-5). For this reason, I chose to transform a human head into a snake head (fun fact: I could not find a photograph of Satan for this project, and the head here is my own) in order to better represent the blended species of Satan within the serpent. Milton makes it clear that "never since of serpent kind / Lovelier" than the one in Eden, and so I had to use my imagination in the details of the serpent's head (Milton 9.504-5). The serpent was, however, described as "verdant gold," which clued me into the color that I should be seeking (Milton 9.501). It does not match any particular species of snake, because I assumed that it would be the ancestor of all snakes, and so share their characteristics. Jets of flame spurt out from between the snake's scales, and fire can be seen within the snake's eyes, in addition to the extremely visible body of fire beneath the head. The is to represent the uncontrollable Hell within Satan, which he mentions in Book 4, line 75. Satan, in order to tempt Eve, must repress this as much as possible, but, when Satan uses his claim on special knowledge from the fruit to challenge God by saying "Not just, not God," is going beyond his simple task of tempting Eve to one action, and beginning to express his own opinions about God's injustices (Milton 9.701). Clearly, Satan cannot perfectly play the role of the serpent, due to his strong opinions, and the flames breaking through his serpent disguise represent this. Finally, below even this body of flame, are Satan's words, which I picked from various parts of Satan's speech to Eve. The words are coiled in a shape roughly similar to the body of a shape, because Satan's words are the firmest foundation upon which his character can rest, even as early as Book 1, when he states that "All is not lost: the' unconquerable will," and further raises his spirits by convincing Beelzebub of this as well (Milton 1.106). These lines that I chose are from Satan's false retelling of how he, the serpent, came to speak: "I was at first as other beasts... / ... of abject thoughts and low," "and speech / Wanted not long though to this shape retained," "Shall that be shut to Man which to the beast / is open?" (Milton 9.571-2, 600-1,691-2). Satan's temptation of Eve rests on these lines, and, since Satan works with words above all else, they are even more important than the details of the snake itself, and so I left off the rest of the body altogether.
In this sort of retelling, however, Eve seems much more at fault in the Fall, since Satan has flames spurting from his face, and looks somewhere between snake and human. This is intended as a focus on Satan's character, so it is not a large issue for the interpretation. More worryingly, this work uses a human shape as the basis for the transformation, and identifies Satan's serpent as somewhere between snake and human, rather than as somewhere between snake and some more otherworldly being. After being covered with layers of scales, however, this does not play into much of the actual work, but as the creator, I am acutely aware of it. Finally, this interpretation has interesting implications for Satan's final punishment in book 10, where he and all his companions are turned into snakes. This time, Satan is deprived of his words, and can only hiss, in addition to having no hope of changing back, and many of the elements of this rendering would be entirely different with respect to this new serpent. Satan is still Satan, though, and the flames would probably remain.
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