Study

The Devil Without or the Devil Within? Written by Fingertips

‘The Devil Within or the Devil Without?’ Discuss

Since his initial presentation as the instigator of the Fall of Man in the Bible, Satan - the Devil - has been subject to an almost uncountable array of representations within cultural texts that include literature, drama, film and more recently videogames. As a character, he (or indeed she) is always being redesigned, physically and mentally; adapting to historical, political and social change. A decision that seems to most commonly plague scholars and authors of the devil is which is the most significant: the ‘Devil Within’ or the ‘Devil Without‘? The ‘Devil Within’ refers to a kind of abstract evil that works in the shadows and corrupts humanity from the inside, whereas the ‘Devil Without’ is a physical manifestation of evil, traditionally bent on bringing about the Apocalypse. This essay, by using relevant examples from a wide time frame and selection of textual forms, will compare the significance and effectiveness of notions of the ‘Devil Within’ and the ‘Devil Without’. By referring to both of these representations, I will outline the important role that they both play in regards to each other; the ‘Devil Without’ can rarely succeed without first awakening humanity’s ‘Devil Within’.

The Bible places the Devil as a fallen angel whom - due to pride and perhaps not a little greed - attempted to seat himself equal to and even higher than God. Having lost the ensuing battle in Heaven, Satan is struck down with his minions into Hell, the dark and fiery pit of torment, where the traditional sense of Satan is formed. A grotesque and twisted angel, the traditional Satan becomes obsessed with attempting to spread sin and misery amongst God’s newly favoured creations, humanity; this quite often acts as the driving force of many representations of either the ‘Devil Within’ or the ‘Devil Without’, old or contemporary. An important argument to consider when referring to the physical manifestations of the ‘Devil Without’ is his appearance and whether or not Satan instantly or gradually became the grotesque figure often associated with him. The Bible itself has no definite description of the devil besides his serpent disguise used in the ‘Fall of Man’, but very early texts such as Juliana present Satan as a twisted figure; “vile one”, “monster”, “fiend” and “misshapen, unclean spirit” are a few of the ways in which Satan is referred to in Cynewulf’s tenth century text. In The Old English Life of St. Margaret, however, the twisted appearance of Satan is taken even further by presenting him to the imprisoned protagonist as a hideous dragon.

In these very early representations of a ‘Devil Without’, Satan’s twisted appearance is often accompanied by a seemingly easy way to defeat him. The stories of the Saints commonly have the female protagonist physically besting the Devil in a brief and one-sided fight, and forcing him to admit to all his evil deeds. This notion of a monstrous Satan, easily overcome, continued within literature and art up until the arrival of Paradise Lost and Milton’s depiction of a heroic Satan in the seventeenth century; a Satan that is often considered admirable, courageous and attractive. Forsyth stated that “he [Satan] owes everything to Milton. Milton divested him of a sting, hoofs and horns;” a common modern representation of the Satan that is often now only seen when dealing with less serious depictions of him (The Simpson, South Park, Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny). Instead of the monstrous appearance that had dominated the Western world’s perceptions of the Devil, Milton “clothes him with the sublime grandeur of a graceful but tremendous spirit.” The contentious hero of Paradise Lost went against all existing depictions of Satan and was presented to audiences as a charismatic, unselfish and grand leader whose “form had not yet lost / All her Original brightness,” but seems “As when the sun new ris’n / Looks through the Horizontal misty Air / Shorn of his beams”. In Paradise Lost Satan, despite his fall from Heaven, remains somewhat angelic in appearance albeit with a slightly dimmed shine. As a leader, the idea of a dimly shining Satan gathering his troops after a huge defeat sticks out as quite noble; we see him commiserating amongst the other fallen angels and helps them gather their courage with “Flutes and soft Recorders; such as rais’d / To highth of noblest temper Hero’s old / Arming to Battel”. The imagery invoked in this short passage is something usually saved for great heroes of battle; a marching army ever-victorious and confident that they will defeat their enemies. By appropriating this notion of a confident battle-leader to Satan, Milton changes the way in which we, as readers, perceive the Fallen Angel commonly associated with deceit and unparalleled evil.

Milton’s attractive Devil has been adopted by many seeking to represent Satan in their cultural forms. Many films have forgone the traditionally monstrous Satan for a more human form, ideal for deceit, but no less graceful or tremendous as Milton’s Fallen Angel. The 1997 film, The Devil’s Advocate, poses the proud and charismatic figure of Al Pacino as Satan disguised as the head of a top law firm in New York. Throughout the film, Pacino is seen being a competent boss and sympathetic friend to the protagonist, ‘Kevin Lomax’ (played by Keanu Reeves), deceiving him into a trusting professional and personal relationship. Similarly, the 2000 film Bedazzled sees the highly attractive Liz Hurley playing the part of Satan, who charms her way into Brendan Fraser’s confidences and convinces him to sell his soul to her, by offering him a number of wishes to change his life. Through deceit and ambiguity, Hurley’s Satan always manages to avoid giving Fraser what he wants despite always giving him exactly what he wishes for. The film ends with Fraser voiding his contract by making a selfless wish, thus retaining his soul. In his act of selfessness, by refusing to be corrupted by Satan, Fraser’s character is allowed to keep his soul and the Devil is defeated, for now. Similarly, Pacino’s Satan in The Devil’s Advocate is seemingly defeated when the protagonist selflessly shoots himself in the head in order to prevent the conception of the Antichrist.

This idea of selflessness and having a pure spirit or soul is a common narrative for besting the Devil. Early stories of the Saints like Juliana and St. Margaret all featured victories against the Devil because of faith in God and an incorruptible and pure spirit. Despite being continually beaten and threatened with death by their captives, both Saints remain steadfast and sworn to God. When faced with this spiritual determination the Satan in both stories cannot bear it and is forced to kneel and confess his deeds. Even by the end of Juliana, when the Saint is being set aflame (although ineffectually, as she is not touched by the fire), Satan appears and tries to encourage the crowd before a withering glance from the Saint sends him scurrying fearfully away “to seek out torments”.

The stories of the Saints present the idea that the Devil can be defeated by a pure spirit, which in turn suggests that in order for him to succeed in his evil endeavours, he needs humanity’s Devil Within to manifest itself. If we take the tradition of Medieval morality plays, we will begin to understand how important notions of the Devil Within are for the ultimate victory of Satan over man. The morality plays were commonly short allegorical pieces of drama that usually had an end moral of ’do not sin’; the protagonist was often an ’Everyman’ and had to try and overcome the Devil’s corruption of his soul. Traditionally, the protagonist would be saved by celestial characters such as ‘Hope’ or ’Justice’, thus portraying that these qualities would keep you safe from sin. Cushman states that “[t]he devil of the moralities, on the whole, does not come into contact with the human characters”, instead, he hides in the background and attempts to corrupt man from within using the figures of the vices. Although these vices are characters themselves in the morality plays, they represent evil in a strictly allegorical sense because, as Cole states, “the Vice…has it’s only real existence in the inner, moral life of man.” The Devil Without plants the seeds of sin and corruption within man, and ultimately sits and waits for the seeds to take root. The problem with this is that, in the morality plays, man can reject or overcome the figures of the vices with the help of the allegorical celestial characters such as ‘Hope’, ‘Chastity’ and ‘Justice’.

This presents to us the significant relationship between the Devil Within and the Devil Without, then; man must adopt the Devil Within in order for the Devil Without to succeed. In A Pattern of Catechistical Doctrine, Lancelot Andrewes suggested two ways in which man might be convinced to commit sin: “either love to the bait will entice to evil, or fear of the hook will draw us, or atleast keep us from doing good.” Andrewes’ comment suggests that human emotion is the instigator of sin, as it is either love or fear that causes it. Cole backs up this statement by saying that “all theologians [of the C16 and C17 centuries] were agreed that man sinned of his own free will”, which implies a lack of control on the Devil’s part; he may plant the seed of corruption within man, but in order for it to succeed, he has to choose to embrace it.

This notion of man needing to embrace the Devil Within for the physical Satan to succeed is prevalent in modern narratives of the Devil. The Devil’s Advocate encapsulates the modern Satan perfectly with Al Pacino’s line near the end of the film, where he tells the protagonist: “I’m no puppeteer…I don’t make things happen….I only set the stage; you make things happen.” He is referring to free will; all throughout the film, Pacino suggests to Reeves that he forget the job for now and take care of his sick wife, but Reeves refuses to put his wife first, explaining that if he dropped out now he would despise his wife for costing him a great opportunity in his career. This notion of free will is also seen in the recent Castlevania: Lords of Shadow videogame, whereby the protagonist, ‘Gabriel Belmont’, is in search of a mythical artefact that can supposedly bring his murdered wife back to life - Andrewes‘ “love to the bait”. Throughout the game, ‘Gabriel’ kills a number of innocents and allies in order to progress in his quest and eventually confronts ‘Satan‘, who explains to that the artefact cannot bring his wife back, but can allow someone a brief glimpse through Gods eyes; at this revelation, ‘Gabriel’ realises that all of his sins are were for nothing.

The Devil in Castelvania follows ‘Gabriel’ throughout the game using ‘Zobek’, an old religious warrior, to sow the seeds of corruption to and revenge within him - what Spivack refers to as “the devious beginnings and insidious growth of every evil in our mortal nature.” This is often a common theme when dealing with notions of the Devil Within in cultural texts; as the narrative progresses the evil inside the character grows and sometime completely consumes their spirit. Cole’s statement about Dr. Faustus, that “it is primarily and fundamentally a tragedy of the spirit”, can easily be appropriated to other texts. Returning to Castlevania, ‘Gabriel’s’ spirit is corrupted immensely by his terrible deeds, but upon ‘Zobek’ revealing himself as a tool of Satan, he admits to ‘Gabriel’ that it was mainly his choice that fueled his corruption: “even I did not forsee the beast that lay within….Your penchant for death and murder were insatiable; you just needed a little nudge.” By allowing his desire for revenge to consume him, ‘Gabriel’s’ spirit becomes corrupted to such a point that his appearance changes by the Epilogue of the game. In the C21, ‘Zobek’ finds ‘Gabriel’ - immortal - and physically twisted much like the Devil in the Juliana or the Bible; as the demonic creature is greeted by his name, he becomes aggressive and shouts: “Gabriel is dead! My name is Dracula!”

This twisting of the spirit and it’s effects on physical appearance are a common representation of the Devil Within. Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, although it does not have a physical representation of the devil, uses physical appearance to denote corruptions from the Devil Within inherent in a number of the characters. The figure of ‘Dimmesdale’ becomes more and more emaciated as his illness grips him tighter, a metaphor of the guilt that his infidelity breeds inside of him. Similarly, ‘Chillingworth’s’ body becomes increasingly twisted as his lust for revenge against ‘Hester’ and ‘Dimmesdale’ grows. The presence of the Devil Within throughout The Scarlet Letter, and a distinct lack in a physical manifestation of the Devil Without, reinforces the idea that the Devil Within is the more significant of the two when attempting to corrupt man. Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series of Fantasy novels can also be said to reinforce this; although there is a Satan-like figure in the main antagonist of ‘The Dark One’, he is trapped and can only reach the protagonist, ‘Rand’, through the tainted magical source that he relies upon as a weapon. ‘The Dark One’s’ taint causes any male who wields magic to slowly go insane and this is what happens to ‘Rand’ in the first half of the series. Visions, and voices in his head are all examples of the traditional Devil Within that affect ‘Rand’ until he eventually removes the taint. The damage, however, has already been done and ‘Rand’ becomes a cold and emotionless killer, only concerned with doing his duty: to find ‘The Dark One’ and kill him. ‘Rand’s’ spirit has become so corrupted by the twelfth book that many characters begin to see a slight darkness around him whenever he appears angry.

Texts often present evil within the form of a physical being because “once isolated, evil may become containable or punishable.” The narratives where the protagonists must fight the Devil Within rather than the Devil Without often end more tragically than ones where a physical representation of Satan can be seen. Narratives that use both notions often see the downfall of the protagonist through spiritual corruption after the Devil Without is defeated (as seen in Castlevania, The Wheel of Time and The Scarlet Letter).

To conclude, many textual examples from a wide variety of centuries suggest that the physical Devil (the Devil Without) could only succeed if man chose to embrace the sin and corruption within him (the Devil Within). As such, we can determine that the relationship between the two notions will always prove man’s corruption from within and his possible acceptance of the result, is more significant than the obstacle of a physical Devil. The Devil Within is much more dangerous and harder to confront than the Devil Without.

Bibliography

Primary Sources:

Bedazzled, Harold Ramis, (2000).

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, MercurySteam, Kojima Productions, (2010).

Cynewulf, Juliana, trans. Charles W. Kennedy, http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/Juliana_Kennedy.pdf, [last accessed 13/03/2011].

Devil’s Advocate, The, Taylor Hackford, (1997).

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, The Scarlet Letter, (London: Penguin Popular Classics, 2007).

Jordan, Robert, The Wheel Of Time, (London: Orbit, 1991).

Milton, John, Paradise Lost Books 1 and 2, ed. B. Rajan, (London: Asia Publishing House, 1964).

Secondary Sources

Andrewes, Lancelot, A Pattern of Catechistical Doctrine and other minor works of Lancelot Andrewes, Sometime Bishop of Winchester, (London: J. H. Parker, 1846).

Carey, John, ‘Milton’s Satan’ in The Cambridge Companion to Satan, ed. Dennis Danielson, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 160-175.

Cole, Douglas, Suffering and Evil in the Plays of Christopher Marlowe, (New York: Gordian Press, 1972).

Cushman, L. W., The Devil and the Vice in English Dramatic Literature Before Shakespeare, (London: Frank Cass, 1970).

Forsyth, Neil, The Satanic Epic, (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 2003).