In Book VI, Milton presents his description of epic warfare. He follows many of the conventions of the great classic epics, such as the Iliad and the Aeneid, by giving graphic descriptions of battles and wounds, highlighting the boasting give and take in individual battles, and developing massive scenes of chaotic violence. However, Milton goes beyond his classical models and, in a sense, mocks the nature of the warfare he describes. The reasons that lie behind this sense of mockery in Book VI have been frequently discussed and disputed by critics and commentators. The general sense of those who see a kind of mocking humor in the battle scenes is that Milton was dealing with two difficulties. First, the combat in Heaven is between combatants who cannot be killed, and second, there is no doubt as to the outcome of the battle.
To begin with, in Book V, Raphael has told Adam that the description of the war must of necessity be metaphoric. That is, the human mind cannot grasp the real nature of war in Heaven, so Raphael must use a comparative, metaphoric technique to make the event understandable to Adam. From the start of Raphael's description then, the idea that immortal angels with God-like powers would need armor, swords, even a special cannon, is ludicrous. The angels, both loyal and rebellious, are so powerful that such weapons would be, at best, superfluous and, at worst, bothersome. So the entire nature of the warfare that Raphael lays out must be understood as only a means to allow Adam's human reason to gain some idea of what actually happened in Heaven.
