Exploring a Passage in John Milton's
Paradise Lost,reaches out and pulls in references and allusions to other literary works, making it Milton's most influential piece of literary work. The writing echoes primary epic and the epic's elevated language of describing people and events in great detail and in super realistic terms.
Primary epic often uses nature as a simile, as with the line, "Thick with autumnal leaves that strew the brook."(303). This line portrays an image of thousands of dead, brown, wet, and muddy leaves, which add more depth to the portrait of the fallen angels described in the passages from lines 299-313. To assert this description further, Milton uses references to specific places to affirm and reinforce the grand stature of the characters to whom he is referring. For example, the demons are, "High over-arched embower; or scattered sedge Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion armed Hath vexed the Red Sea coast," (304-06).
Orion armed is associated with seasonal storms and The Red Sea in Hebrew is called The sea of sedge. These two images when combined, add a fierce and grimy portrait of these fiends. They seem to be hovering, and waiting for the right moment to generate chaos in the world G-d has thrown them down to. Milton has, in this passage, begun the process of characterization of these demons. He endows Satan with heroic qualities and his cohorts
emerge as militant followers of a stately, yet ominous leader.
Although Satan has heroic qualities and his angels are portrayed as evil warriors, Milton often has these rebellious angels remember what they have lost and given up. This helps to express the nature of their evil. Each demon is aware of their condition and their transgression from Heaven to Hell and they are, "Under amazement of their hideous change." (313).
The main theme of the poem as a whole, is the examination of the origin of h
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