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HE TO BE AVENGED.....OUR SPOILS (LINES 143-151)
Satan has selected Man as his target to take revenge upon God. He indulges in speculations about God’s motives in creating the earth and mankind. Earlier, Satan had been believing in the rumors that God was to create a new world, even before he had been expelled from Heaven.
Here Satan indulges in the notion that God created mankind and the new world with the deliberate purpose of insulting Satan and his followers. He then thinks that perhaps, God’s power to create angels had become exhausted and so he was incapable of creating angels to fill the place of Satan and his followers. But again he doubts whether angels were actually created by God. He reaches the conclusion that God created creatures of earth to spite Satan and his followers. To add insult to injury, God has endowed Man with powers and privileges which were originally Satan’s—Satan calls his rights and privileges ‘spoils’ because he was defeated in the war with God and God as a victor had got the goods and powers of these angels as spoils of war. Thus, Satan expresses, not only his thoughts of revenge on God as a victor who had got the goods and powers of these angels as spoils of war. Thus, Satan expresses, not only his thoughts of revenge on God, but also his jealousy at the happiness of man.