Sataniczność kreacji bohatera w Arabie Juliusza Słowackiego

Abstract

This article attempts to read Juliusz Słowacki’s Arab from the comparative perspective of John Milton’s Paradise Lost. The protagonist of Słowacki’s oriental tale, who is a variation on the Byronic hero, also shows similarities with Milton’s Satan: unceasing motion, obsession of revenge, loneliness, axiological preference of evil. The analysis of those similarities creates a new interpretative context for Arab, which was hitherto regarded as a superficial study of the pathological psyche or a caricature of the Byronic model.