밀턴의 『실낙원』에 나타난 ‘악’의 의미들: 한국 청년 독자들의 사탄 해석

Meanings of “Evil” in Milton’s Paradise Lost: Korean Youths’ Interpretations of Satan

This study explores how the concept of “evil,” as embodied in the character of Satan in John Milton’s Paradise Lost, is variously interpreted according to individual readers’ self-perceptions and value systems. The paper first employs Whang’s Personal Identity (WPI) theory and the generative capabilities of ChatGPT-4o to abductively infer a psychological profile of Satan from his speeches, actions, and critical reception. This profile provides a structured lens through which readers’ interpretations can be analyzed. Focusing on the cultural context of contemporary South Korea—where, as C. Fred Alford argues, the Western notion of “absolute evil” is largely absent—the study then examines how young readers in a university literature course make sense of Satan. A “Humanist” youth sees evil as the abuse of authority; an “Agent” youth interprets it as a divinely sanctioned trial essential to the fulfillment of Providence; and a “Romanticist” youth understands it as inner conflict and the loss of volition. These cases suggest that Satan functions not as a representation of universal moral law but as a site for projecting and experimenting with personal identity. By integrating character profiling with reader-response criticism, the study demonstrates how students reconstruct their own concepts of good and evil through engagement with a classic text. It proposes WPI-AI-based reader-response criticism as a practical approach to literature education that fosters self-reflection and autonomous life design.