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What type of imagery is used in Paradise Lost?
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Paradise Lost uses vivid and symbolic imagery, including biblical references, light, and flight. Examples include the "Forbidden Tree" symbolizing forbidden knowledge, light representing God's spiritual clarity, and the imagery of flight in hell, suggesting its inescapability. Additionally, Milton's description of Satan's troops with "flaming swords" and the "din of war" engages multiple senses, creating strong visual and auditory images.
Milton's Paradise Lost is packed with original, vivid, and often symbolic imagery. I have included and explained three such examples below.
Of Man’s First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful
Seat, Sing Heav’nly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen
Seed, In the Beginning how the Heav’ns and Earth
Rose out of Chaos
In this first example, from Book 1, Milton draws upon biblical imagery such as "the fruit of that Forbidden Tree" from which Adam and Eve ate. The fruit from this tree is symbolic of the forbidden knowledge that God denied to mankind, and Milton here indicates that the consequences of this forbidden knowledge will be...
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the focus of his work. In this quotation Milton also alludes to the mountain ("Oreb, or . . . Sinai") upon which God gave the ten commandments to Moses, who is referred to, metaphorically, as "That shepherd." Milton refers to Moses as a shepherd because he guided the Israelites to Egypt, in much the same way as a shepherd might guide and care for his flock of sheep.
Hail holy Light, offspring of Heav’n first-born,
Or of th’ Eternal Coeternal beam
May I express thee unblam’d? since God is Light,
And never but in unapproached Light
Dwelt from Eternity, dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence of bright essence increate.
In this second quotation, from Book 3, Milton uses the recurring image of light ("holy Light . . . Coeternal beam . . . unapproached Light") to connote the spiritual clarity that emanates from God. The interpretation of light as synonymous with God originates in the book of Genesis. For example, from Genesis 1:3: "God said, let there be light: and there was light." And from Genesis 6:12, describing the battle against Satan: "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world." God, in the form of light, offers solace and guidance through darkness.
Be then his love accursed, since love or hate,
To me alike, it deals eternal woe.
Nay cursed be thou; since against his thy will
Chose freely what it now so justly rues.
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.
This third quotation is taken from Book 4. In this quotation, Milton uses imagery of flight to suggest that when one is in hell, hell is inescapable. No matter how far one might try to fly, one will always be in hell. The speaker asks, "Which way shall I fly / Infinite wrath, and infinite despair?" The image of infinity suggests that any such attempt to fly away from hell will be futile, as the wrath and despair of hell stretches infinitely in every direction. Milton in this passage also uses metaphorical imagery to suggest that hell is like some kind of ravenous, predatory beast, "threat'ning to devour" its victims, and "open(ing) wide." This metaphorical description emphasizes the terror of hell.
Clearly the vast majority of works of literature contain lots of examples of imagery, which is a term used to describe the way that authors paint pictures of what they are trying to describe with words. In particular, imagery helps to try and make us "see" the picture by incorporating as many of the five senses as possible: taste, sight, touch, smell and hearing. One example of this comes in Book I of this epic classic, when Satan addresses his despondent troops who have been unsuccessful in their attempt to overturn Heaven and depose God. Note how his soldiers respond to his exhortations:
He spake: and to confirm his words, out flew
Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs
Of mighty Cherubim; the sudden blaze
Far round illumined Hell: highly they raged
Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms
Clashed on their sounding shields the din of war,
Hurling defiance against the vault of Heav'n.
Note how we have strong visual images in this quote of the flaming swords being drawn, with the heat of the flames indicated as well. Likewise we have our sense of hearing used as the cherubim "rage" against God and clash their arms against their shields. Such strong images are to be found again and again in this epic poem and help us to imagine the scene before our eyes.