Satan is portrayed this way in Paradise Lost. He is cocky, proud, and extremely willing to do anything to reach his goals; he wants to be in control of the universe. He uses his eloquent speaking skills to convince the other angels to fight with him against God in a war he knows he cannot win. All of the same qualities that help him succeed in forming his army are the same characteristics that ultimately lead to his defeat. Milton writes the character of Satan in Paradise Lost in such a way that it makes it almost impossible not to like him. The readers at any given moment admires him or feels sorry for him. Rostrevor Hamilton states about the character of Satan "he wins our admiration the more firmly because he is ultimately real, while the inhabitants of Heaven are remote and strange" (Hamilton 39). Of all the characters portrayed in the book, Satan is the most real because the emotions he displays are the most human; the reader is able to easily relate to him because they feel the same things he is feels. The reader becomes emotionally vested in his pain, suffering, and frustration. He is the perfect hero because even at his lowest point he is able to make the best of a horrible situation. When it reaches the point in the story where he is surrounded by darkness and tortured by fire he adapts to his situation. Hell becomes his home and he names his palace Pandemonium the new residence of everything evil. As a reader, he wins our support because "not only does he survive the greatest battle in the history of the universe, he also finds the strength to rally himself and establish a new empire in Hell from which to conquer a new world" (Kaiter, and Sandiuc 454). .
So based on my research thus far it was safe to say that Milton's intent was to portray Satan as a villain, but as I continued to research I soon discovered this was not consistently true. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Milton continues to confuse his readers by making Satan so likeable.