"Who is the hero of “Paradise Lost”? There are many candidates. The Son of God, who redeems mankind? Eve, who eats the apple to expand her consciousness? Romantic poets like Blake and Shelley notoriously argued that the real hero of the poem is Satan, who rebels against God’s all-powerful rule. But the character I admire most today is a minor angel named Abdiel, of whom Milton is particularly fond. When Abdiel—the name means Servant of God—hears about Satan’s plan to shake the throne of heaven, he steps out from the rebellious hordes and gives the arch-fiend a piece of his pious mind: “Shalt thou give Law to God, shalt thou dispute/With him the points of liberty, who made/Thee what thou art?” Later, Abdiel faces Satan on the field of battle, cracks him across the helmet, and knocks him back. I think that Abdiel reminds Milton of himself at his independent best. Milton was in political trouble when he wrote his great poem in England in the 1660s. He had defended the republican revolution and the execution of Charles I. Now that the monarchy was restored, his life was in danger. Blind and vulnerable, he was living in “darkness and with dangers compassed round.” Yet he persisted in exercising the freedom of the poet. In the days to come, professors at UVA and beyond may need to summon some of that spirit."