How did Paradise Lost influence Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound?

In Paradise Lost, John Milton portrays Satan as a proud, defiant figure who rebels against what he perceives as the tyrannical authority of God. This characterization deeply influenced Percy Bysshe Shelley, who adopted this archetype of the heroic rebel to shape the protagonist of his own masterpiece, Prometheus Unbound.123

Shelley and other Romantic authors viewed Milton’s Satan as a symbol of resistance against established traditions and oppressive power. By modeling his Prometheus after this Miltonic figure, Shelley created a protagonist who similarly stands against the "power-mad" Jupiter. While Shelley’s Prometheus ultimately distinguishes himself through the act of forgiveness, the foundational influence of Milton’s epic remains clear in the way both works explore the themes of tyranny, rebellion, and the struggle for human liberty.124