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초록

This paper is to explore the possibility that Spenser’s Mutabilitie provides Milton with a model for his Satan. As a manifestation of pride and classical heroism, Milton’s Satan in Paradise Lost shares certain significant features with Spenser’s Mutabilitie in The Faerie Queene. Close examination of Mutabilitie’s personality and her action may enable us to conjecture that she might be, at least an important part of, Satan’s prototype. Not only in her ambition and audacity in obtaining what she desires, but also in her conviction that Jove, the king of gods, is not necessarily above herself, may we find the essence of Milton’s Satan in a different shape and context. They both are proud, ambitious, self-righteous, and deeply assured of their native right. Mutabilitie’s rise and fall yield striking similarities to those of Satan. Like Satan, she is self-contradictory. While presenting evidences that the entire universe moves within the principle of mutability, she neglects that she, too, is a part of that change. Satan shares her self-serving attitude towards the absolute and permanence. Thus, the more they strive for dominance, the faster do they approach their own doom, for they are ultimately part of the far greater providence ordained either by God or Nature.

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