By Clare Kelly
In John Milton’s Paradise Lost the epic poem there are a some passages that talk about or describe hell but not in a way that it is normally described. Hell is not a place underground that is filled with fire and lava with damned souls and demons spread throughout the are. The way Milton decides to describe hell was as a place that didn’t seem to have much solid land but was instead a place of just liquid. Now while Milton never says exactly what the liquid is that Satan and his devils are lost in, but there are small hints that do appear in certain descriptions of Satans domain.
Near the beginning of the poem in the first book, Milton is describing a scene in hell where Satan is with some of his devils and there is not much mention of land or of what they are floating in. However the details that Milton chooses to use paint a bit of a picture for the reader. “To bellow through the vast and boundless deep. Let us not slip th’ occasion, whether scorn, Or satiate fury yield it from our foe. Sets thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild, The seat of desolation, void of light, Save what the glimmering of these livid flames Casts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend From off the tossing of these fiery waves,” (Book 1, pg 1500 line 177-184) The realm where Satan has been thrown to is a bleak and dismal place with some small areas of land that are described as wild so it could be seen as a place with tangled bushes and short twisted trees fighting for the space to grow. It is a place that does not have any sources of light and is barren and is uninhabited other than the devils that are joined with Satan. Then there is a small interaction between Satan and one of the devils that is with him while they are both floating in the lake. “Thus Satan talking to his nearest mate With head uplift above the wave, and eyes That sparkling blazed, his other parts besides Prone on the flood, extended long and large Lay floating name a rod,..” (Book 1, pg 1500 line 192-196) Satan is talking to the devil that is next to him and they are floating in something keeping their heads lifted over the wave with their limbs just in the liquid under their heads floating.
In the fourth book Satan is going to the Garden on Eden where Adam and Eve are so he can tempt them into disobeying what the Lord has commanded of them. Within the first few lines of this fourth book, Milton is speaking from Satans perspective where it is revealed that he sees himself as the embodiment of hell. “Yet not rejoicing in his speed, though bold, Far off and fearless, nor with cause to boast, Begins his dire attempt, which nigh the birth Now rolling, boils in his tumultuous breast, And like a devilish engine back recoils Upon himself; horror and doubt distract His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom stir The Hell within him, for within him Hell He brings, and round about him, nor from Hell One step no more than from himself can fly.” (Book 4, pg 1554, line 13-22) Satan is saying within him is hell and he brings it out into the world around him. Then later on in the same book he again states that he is the embodiment of hell. “Me miserable! which way shall I fly Infinite wrath, and infinite despair? Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell; And in the lowest deep a lower deep Still threat’ning to devour me opens wide, To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heav’n.” (Book 4, pg 1555, line 73-78) Again Satan is saying that wherever it is he goes is hell since hell is him but there is a lower place that is opening wide that seems to be a Heaven compared to what he suffers where he is.
Later on in the fourth book when Milton is describing Eve’s creation from her perspective, the first thing that she is able to recall is waking up not knowing where she was and then crawling over to a lake. “That day I oft remember, when from sleep I first awaked, and found myself reposed Under a shade on flowers, much wondering where And what I was, whence thither brought, and how. Not distant far from thence a murmuring sound Of waters issued from a cave, and spread Into a liquid plain, then stood unmoved Pure as the expanse of Heaven; I thither went With unexperienced thought, and laid me down On the green bank, to look into the clear Smooth lake, that to me seemed another sky. As I bent down to look, just opposite A shape within the watery gleam appeared, Bending to look on me: I started back, It started back; but pleased I soon returned, Pleased it returned as soon with answering looks Of sympathy and love: There I had fixed Mine eyes till now, and pined with vain desire, Had not a voice thus warned me; ‘What thou seest, ‘What there thou seest, fair Creature, is thyself; ‘With thee it came and goes: but follow me, ‘And I will bring thee where no shadow stays.” (Book 4, pg 1563-1546, line 449-470) Eve is staring into a lake at her reflection and she has fallen in love with her reflection like Narcissus, which Satan later uses to his advantage in how he tempts her to disobey the Lord. Vanity is her greatest flaw and Adam is seen as or is said to be better than her in all ways but beauty. Since it is the lake which Eve is viewing her reflection and hell has been described as a place with waves and pools of liquid it seems like Milton makes her reflection in this water the work of Satan as she falls in love with it.
Thought the epic poem, Milton repeats the theme of hell as being either a place with some sort of liquid or as wherever it is Satan is since he himself is the living embodiment of hell. When something is happening that is the work of Satan or one of his devils or when the reader sees Satan in him home in hell, a liquid of some sort is present. It could be a lake of water clear and still enough for Eves reflection to be seen, or it could be fiery waves and rivers down in the literal hell.