+1 862 207 3288 We discussed in class how in Paradise Lost Milton uses both the epic (or extended) simile and allusion to simultaneously depict and comment on his characters. The poem’s very first epic simile is introduced at line 196 of Book I, describing Satan’s huge size. This simile is extended to line 209, adducing allusions to giants from classical mythology, an allusion to Leviathan from the Bible, and a seemingly digressive story about a sailor who once mistook a whale for an island. Upon closer analysis we noticed that the details Milton keeps crowding into this simile not only describe but also implicitly comment on Satan’s character. The mythological and Biblical figures that Milton alludes to are not only creatures of gigantic size, but monsters who rebelled against either Jove (Jupiter/Zeus) or God. The seemingly digressive story about the sailor and the whale points up the theme of appearance vs. reality, and so implicitly undercuts Satan’s seeming heroic stature.
Perhaps the most significant example of Milton’s use of epic similes and allusions to simultaneously depict and implicitly comment on the character of Satan comes just a little later in Book I. Soon after Satan asserts that it is “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven” (I.263), Milton describes Satan “moving toward the shore” (I.284) of the lake of fire in order to address his defeated army of angels, and Satan’s view of these fallen angels, who still “lay entranced” (I.301) on the lake of fire.
Through a close analytical reading, offer and support your own answer to the following question:
In John Milton’s Paradise Lost, what specific commentary on Satan is implied in the epic similes and allusions describing Satan and his fellow fallen angels in I.283-313 (on pp. 24-26 in the Modern Library Classics edition), and specifically how do these epic similes and allusions imply this commentary?
