The Infernal Serpent, the Main Character or the Most Compelling Character of Paradise Lost

If you believe in free will then you must believe in a God that lets the full gamut of positive and negative experience potentially before you. That's what Milton wants to do here, justify the ways of God to men. Who first seduced them to that foul revolt and enter, enter Satan? The infernal serpent whose guile stirred up with envy and revenge deceived the mother of mankind. Can you see him raising impious war against God)? He hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky down to bottomless perdition,. There to dwell in adamantine chains and penal fire, nine times the space that measures day and night. What time his pride had cast him out from heaven