DEMON

(Achtung! This is by no means a theological, or even a philosophical discussion. This is rather a philological discussion, for which reason it belongs in the Sonnets section, and nowhere else…)

What happened to Lucifer? Why did God’s best and brightest all of a sudden move from good to bad, and fell from grace to damnation, from heaven to hell, becoming the personification of evil?

Clearly, he was capable of it, and clearly God had envisaged it all.

In other words, Satan was part of God’s plan for His Creation. But, once again, why did Lucifer do it? Was he pushed by God via the temptation of special power, or did he more or less obey God’s command to fall by His design, a sort of “traitor-hero,” a “defector-patriot”?...

Aesthetically speaking, his revolting ugliness in most artistic impressions of him is a moralistic response to evil, nothing else. Only the good can be beautiful, and the bad must be ugly. So, was he created ugly from the very beginning, or was he a beautiful creature made ugly by his fall? Or, perhaps, he was never ugly at all, but has always been a really beautiful creature, which should then explains the attractiveness of evil to all those who would otherwise abhor all misshapen ugly forms, and by repelling them, would repel evil as such? Indeed, evil has to be beautiful! Like all God’s angels, Satan was created beautiful…

Lermontov’s Demon is written along these lines, and so is Vrubel’s Demon, painted after Lermontov’s. Or, else, how could our saintly Tamara fall in love with the devil?

Lermontov’s Demon falls in love with Tamara and passionately pursues her, offering her everything he has, which is a lot. By being able to fall in love, I guess, he proves that he is not beyond redemption. As long as he is capable of “falling” all the way, like Tamara.

But Demon in love was not at all like Tamara. The pure soul sacrificed all for her love, and she died for it. She was not made for this world, and the world was not made for those like her. For the reason of her boundless love for… yes, the devil… the gates of the Paradise were opened for her. But Demon’s love for Tamara was not boundless, like hers. He could have tried to follow her all the way, just as he had promised her, making peace with the Heaven, and then perhaps the gates of the Paradise might have stayed open to receive him too? Instead, he claimed her soul for himself, like some personal property of his, and when this possession was denied to him, he cursed his love! By treasuring his miserable wicked life above his love, he forfeited his best chance to receive God’s pardon and to regain his “Paradise Lost.”

…Or maybe he was not that selfish wicked person, after all? Maybe, just like Tamara sacrificed her life for her love, he sacrificed his love for his duty… to play the devil, on God’s command?

Maybe he was playing the villain, while being a tragic hero at heart? Like a General Vlasov? Like a Professor Snape?... Like who knows how many other traitors-heroes?…