The Representation of the Devil in The Sorrows of Satan

In Marie Corelli's Sorrows of Satan she presents a brand new version of the Devil is created. Here we see not the vengeful and hateful Satan seen in previous works such as Paradise Lost but rather a character with whom we can sympathize. Rimanez evokes an image of a man who made a bad decision and who cannot fix it. When he describes himself as, "the power of Evil, made evil and kept evil by the disobedience and wickedness of Man alone" (445) it evokes shamefulness on the reader as it is because of our misdeeds that this man suffers. At the same time the reader is thankful for his evil abilities for if it were not for this Satan, "thus do i become their constant companion, humoring them in such vices as they best love!- thus do I take on the shape that pleases them, and fit myself to their humors! They make me what I am..." (445) then many of the pleasures which the reader enjoys would not be available to him. Of course, these pleasures are usually evil but it is not Rimanez fault that "the Devil in Man" is actually the "worse monster." This representation of the Devil is a post Victorian creation, born of the Edwardian age after the death of God has already occurred, "the God-in-Man was rejected and slain, - I, the Devil in Man live on, forever accepted and adored!" (446). Although God is dead the Devil lives on in the sin which God's death has created. The best example of his sadness in his predicament is in his appeal to Mavis Clare when he states, "Pray for me then, as one who has fallen from his higher and better self,-who strives, but who may not attain,-who labors under heavy punishment,-who would fain reach Heaven, but who by the cursed will of man, and man alone, is kept in Hell" (339). He states, "I may tempt, but I do not pursue" (340), ultimately, Rimanez does not live a life of sin, he just creates one which Man must decide whether or not to embrace, his final goal is a sinless world so that he may return to Heaven and hear the Angels singing.