In general, the British literature highlights Satan’s convincing tactics on the two characters in the story. The two characters faced several problems, and through the text, we see that Satan is convincing them to choose the death path to avoid any more suffering. The opening line of the literature is a closing speech of a girl and the following conversation by Satan explaining his position and understanding of choosing death over life.
Addressing the lady as his daughter, Satan goes ahead to speak on behalf of the other character who had a chance to go to heaven. According to Satan, the heaven experience is sweet and appealing, as it will mark the end of earthly suffering. However, for one to get to heaven, they have to give one thing, which is their lives.
Before he can explain his reasons for being there, Satan tries to clear his identity and establishes that he is about to act in the capacity of a friend and not as an enemy. As he describes the place they are on, that is the earth, as sinister and unsafe; Satan also explains his aim of appearing, which is to grant them freedom from their present suffering.
Satan describes the situation in heaven, claiming that it plays host to several spirits, of which he was a member before he took up the current responsibility. He tries to make heaven to be an appealing place so that the other characters can give up their life through the death for heaven’s comfort.
Conversely, Satan seems not contented with the roles he took as he finds it to be crude. The fact that he took a different path from heaven without any support or company makes Satan feel abandoned. On the other hand, Satan understands that he had to go on the mission on earth so that he can prove a point to his enemies in heaven. He believes that one day, when there is a multitude in heaven, he will get a chance to go back and rejoin other spirits.
In the next part of the conversation, Satan tries to convince the lady that he will give her powers if she accepts his theories. By freeing them from their current problems on earth, Satan promises to deliver the two in a place where they will find peace and will have power over death.
Their new residence and positions will ensure that they have plenty of food and drinks, which will leave them filled and well fed. At this point, Satan had managed to convince the two characters of the significance of choosing death. In this case, death was happy as this would count as a plus to his domain.
‘This uncouth errand sole and one for all’ is my favorite statement in the text. This statement gives a picture of Satan, who is depicted differently in the entire literature. In this statement, Satan accepts his faults and exposes the things he does not like about his role. More so, the statement gives us a picture that he is the only one with such an unfulfilling duty on earth.
On the other hand, this statement seems to term Satan’s work as a task and not his personal choice or to want. The most difficult word in the text is ‘dalliance’ which Satan uses to explain the character of heaven. The word means a deliberate waste of time or dilly-dallying when it comes to making decisions. The author uses the word to describe the ladies dallying on deciding to go to heaven.