Who Do You Think Can Be Regarded As The Real Hero Of Milton's Paradise Lost?

This is a much debated issue and I am afraid we cannot have any final answer for it. If you would ask Milton, he would probably say God is the hero of Paradise Lost. But if you would ask a critic, he would say, Satan is the hero. And yet another answer for this question is Adam is the hero. If you analyse the aim of Milton behind writing this epic, it is "to justify God's ways to man". And in such a justification, we cannot, of course have Satan as the hero. But what is evident from the epic is that Satan is the hero of the epic. He is probably the only character in whole of the epic who has got all the heroic qualities. He is a great leader, who knows how to command his soldiers, he is unfamiliar to the words like despair and above all, he has the "unconquerable will" and a mind that can make "heaven of hell" and "hell of heaven.

On the other hand if we compare him with Adam, Adam's only one quality makes him the hero. i.e. his love and selflessness. This is the only virtue which makes Adam the hero of the epic. Whereas, all the positive traits of Satan become negative when they are multiplied with arrogance, pride and jealousy.
As far as God is concerned, he appears to be only a passive observer in the epic and does not contribute to main stream of actions in the epic. But the merci and his love for mankind also raises Him to the stature of a hero.