Hell
Hell in Paradise Lost is the antithesis of Heaven. In a sense, Hell is an ironic parody of Heaven. Hell for Milton is literally the underworld. Heaven is the zenith of the universe, then there is the great gulf of Chaos and Night, and finally, at the bottom, underneath everything, is Hell.
The phrase associated with Milton’s Hell that has occasioned much discussion is the statement that Hell, “As one great furnace flamed, yet from those flames / No light, but rather, darkness visible” (I, 62–63). The idea of flames that do give off light and darkness that is visible has troubled some commentators over the years. But, while one may grant that the phrase “darkness visible” is oxymoronic, it is also meaningful. Heaven, which is pure light, is also pure goodness. Hell is the opposite, pure evil and pure darkness, in fact a darkness so pure that it is visible, a contrasting quality to the blinding light of Heaven.
At first, Hell seems like Dante’s place of miserable torment. The fallen angels wake, lying on a lake of fire, surrounded by sulfurous fumes. However, this first image of Hell is soon replaced by a second. The demons build a capital, Pandemonium, with a palace and a throne for Satan, contrasting with God’s throne in Heaven. The demons also have contests, sing, and debate, so that Hell begins to seem more like Dante’s Limbo, not such bad place except that it is apart from God. Both these images are aspects of Hell for Milton; it is a place of punishment and also a place where demons live in a manner that ironically imitates Heaven. The difference is that the demons’ games, songs, and debates are all corrupt and have no true end unlike the absolute beauty and truth of Heaven.
Milton will also introduce a third Hell, an inner, psychological Hell. At the start of Book IV, Satan has a soliloquy in which he concludes, “Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell” (75). This inner Hell is as much a part of Milton’s universe as the physical lake of fire. In fact, for Milton, the inner turmoil that makes anywhere Satan is into Hell is probably the foremost Hell. Hell as a spiritual state that cannot be avoided is worse than any particular place.
In the physical Hell, though, the demons form a hierarchy of sorts. Milton lists no classifications of demons, but obviously some are more important that others. The demons who speak at the council are the most important and ironically match the archangels associated with God. Beelzebub, Belial, Moloch, and Mammon are the chief demons under Satan.
Besides these four demons who speak at the great council, Milton catalogs over a dozen more. Some of the names are familiar; some not. Osiris, Isis, perhaps Baal and Astaroth are recognizable names; Rimnon, Thammuz, Chemos, Dagon, and a number of others are known primarily by scholars. Milton has taken the names of numerous pagan gods who were worshiped by tribes that opposed the Israelites and made them into fallen angels, now demons. For an audience closer to the Bible and biblical literature than a modern one, all of these names resonated with meaning. Milton’s point is that the pagan gods were once angels who, in corrupted form, became the false gods of those nations that opposed the Chosen People.
The purpose behind the cataloging of demons in Hell and the hierarchy of angels in Heaven is not made clear by Milton, but the two groups are obviously comparable and intended to be so. Similarly, the different aspects of Hell are usually set up in an ironic contrast with a counterpoint in Heaven. The hierarchy of Hell is not a real arrangement based on superiority and inferiority. Satan has taken control, but in actuality all the fallen angels are essentially the same, a point made clear when they are all turned into snakes and both their importance in the universe and their degrees in Hell vanish. In Heaven, the hierarchy is real; in Hell, a sham.
Chaos
At the top of Milton’s universe is Heaven with God on his throne; at the bottom of this universe is Hell, with Satan on his throne. In between the two is Chaos with his consort Night. Chaos and Night are depicted as characters, but they are actually personifications of the great unorganized chasm that separates Heaven from Hell. For Milton, relying on earlier writers and thinkers, Chaos was the formless void that existed before creation. It was the abyss, the darkness, and the mighty wind out of which God created first Heaven and, later, Earth.
Chaos also physically demonstrates the profound width of the gap between Heaven and Hell. Not only is Hell at the bottom of the universe in Milton’s design, it is at the bottom of an almost limitless and unimaginably disordered space. Milton describes Chaos as “Eternal Anarchy” (II, 896) and a “wild Abyss” (II, 917). He adds that it is “The Womb of nature, and perhaps her Grave, / Of neither Sea, nor Shore, nor Air, nor Fire, / But all these in their pregnant causes mixt / Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight” (II, 911–914).
In Paradise Lost, Satan has to journey across Chaos to find Earth. This journey is long and arduous and is one of the accomplishments of Satan that makes him seem heroic. In Book II, Satan, with no clear idea of where he is going or how to get there, sets out across Chaos, intent on finding God’s new creation. If the reader forgets Satan’s motive, to corrupt and destroy, then Satan becomes the heroic individual, pitting himself against the universe.
