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What is it about the human imagination that allows one to conceptualize the
deepest, darkest hell yet makes it difficult to envision heaven? Even Milton had
his problems with the descriptions of God and heaven in Paradise Lost as opposed
to the relative ease he had with Satan and hell. William Blake said, “The reason
Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels & God, and at liberty when of
Devils & Hell, is because he is a true Poet and of the Devils party without
knowing it.” (The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 1790) Why exactly were the
descriptions of God, and heaven limited, and how are the same fetters not
applicable when Milton was dealing with Satan, and hell, and why does this
appeal to the reader more? From the beginning, Satan and hell have the advantage
when being described verbally. In a Judeo-Christian viewpoint, evil lends itself
much more readily to physical description than its counterpart because of its
inherent association with the material world. On the other end of the spectrum,
it is challenging to describe God or heaven with any degree of detail without
referring to the corporeal world, and in doing so, committing impiety. Milton
could not give, or even allude to the dimensions of God or heaven without being
accused of blasphemy. As a result, God and heaven becomes intangible, or is
described in vague metaphors of light and goodness.
It is much easier to
describe Satan with his spear that was equal to “the tallest Pine/ Hewn on
Norwegian Hills” or his shield that “Hung on his shoulders like the Moon…” (Book
I, line 287) than to describe a God of infinitely larger proportions. Likewise,
it is much less cumbersome to raise Pandaemonium in our imaginations with its
“Doric pillars overlaid/ With Golden Architrave” (Book I, line 714-15) than to
describe heaven. Therefore, the descriptions of God or heaven are sparse in
comparison to the heavy description of Satan and hell. Yet another reason why
Milton’s voice falters when describing God or heaven is that the human
imagination longs for strife. The dynamic is more captivating than the
stationery. Satan is in the thick of it all. He has just been flung from heaven,
and is in deep turmoil while God is enjoying his eternal rule. Hell is a newborn
in contrast to the established institution of heaven. Satan and his devils in
hell are the more active characters in the poem with little to lose, but much to
gain with Satan’s venture out of hell. Much of the diabolical description in
Paradise Lost is narrated in animated realistic detail whereas the heavenly
descriptions are through Satan’s nostalgic speeches. Satan’s speeches give the
reader a greater sense of the contrast between heaven and hell. Heaven is
idealized and denied through Satan’s unreliable voice, which renders hazy, and
imprecise images. In turn, this makes hell and its struggle more vibrant in the
reader’s imagination, and therefore, more appealing than heaven’s steady
maintenance. There are many things in heaven that do not lend easily themselves
to our human minds yet so much in hell that comes naturally. It is humanity’s
love for the volatile that makes the drama of Satan’s struggle so much more
absorbing than the monotony of God’s stability. It is the physicality ingrained
in our minds that allow us into hell, yet disengage us from heaven. It is
because we are human that we readily hear the hiss of the forked-tongue, and it
is because we are human that heaven’s universal hum often falls upon deaf ears.
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