Paradise Lost Imagery

Paradise Lost Imagery




Authors attempt to convey an image to the reader by using descriptive language. In order to paint a picture, writers must be able to demonstrate verbal illustrations through imagery. Milton uses vivid imagery to animate the drastic distinctions between Heaven and Hell to readers in the poem, Paradise Lost. Light versus darkness shows the purity of Heaven contrasted with the evils of Hell, sight and blindness demonstrate the depth of understanding, paradise is so envied, yet lost so easily, and the monarchy in Heaven is forced to battle with the Monarch in Hell. By using imagery through elevated language and description, Milton explains Lucifer’s fall from Heaven and the differences between Heaven and Hell.
Throughout Paradise Lost, Milton’s God is never explained or shown. Milton only explains him as being extremely bright and seems to understand a character by their brightness. Satan also refers to the people of Heaven as being bright; “Of those bright confines, whence the neighboring arms” (2.395). Light resembles purity and innocence, while darkness represents evil and guilt. Milton decribes God to be the brightest of them all: “Eternal King; thee Author of all being / Fountain of light, thyself invisible / amidst the glorious brightness where though sitt’st” (3.374-376). However, God was not the only one described as being bright; the angels were also referred to as bright, illuminated beings. Milton states in book three that the angels “Stood thick as stars” (3.61).
In contrast, Satan is from a darker perspective. When he was the archangel Lucifer, he was “Clothed with transcendent brightness” (1.81). Brightness is a characteristic given to the beings that reside in Heaven and since Lucifer was prideful of that, God took it away from him. After Satan fell from Heaven and into Hell, he lost only a little of his brightness as a result of his sin. For example, “Stood like a tow’r; his form had yet not lost / All her original brightness, nor...

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