Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Reading 3
The thing that strikes me most in this particular reading is the extended simile likening Satan to Leviathan. Leviathan is a sea-monster so huge that sailors mistake it for an island and attempt to anchor on it. In doing so, they chain themselves to a huge sea beast and are dragged around the ocean as a result. Now I think there are at least three ways to interpret his simile. The first is the idea that Satan is the sailor and Leviathan is hate, meaning Satan is losing himself to his hate. This makes the most sense to me because the poem says "high permission of all-ruling Heaven/Left him at large to his own dark designs" ( 212-213). The next interpretation is that Satan is Leviathan and Hell is the sailor, which means that Satan is dragging Hell around, turning it in a new direction under his guidance. My last interpretation is something more implied, that Man is the sailor and Satan/Evil is Leviathan. Honestly, i misread the passage the first time, but since this meaning made LOTS of symbolic sense I decided to stick with it. Suppose humanity represents the sailors, who happen to be lost at sea. They see an island, and upon finally seeing land they are absolutely happy, and decide to anchor on it. Now, they know nothing about the true nature of the island, but they're attracted to it because it seems so much better than being hopelessly lost at sea. When the "island" finally starts moving, they realize their mistakes and are either even more lost or dead. Since Satan/evil is Leviathan in this instance, Milton could be saying that people often "anchor" on evil, because they are lost and see nothing more attractive at the time. Only after Satan/evil reveals itself do people realize that they are even more lost or are damned.
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Excellent! This is one of the strengths of Milton's writing, of any epic poetry, the epic simile. At times these passages seem rather random and off the subject, so we are challenged to figure out the relevance. I think you've done a good job here. Why don't I turn this over to you in class!
ReplyDeleteThis may be unrelated, but in Judaism it is said that when the world is made perfect and the messiah comes, God will finally kill the Leviathon.
ReplyDeleteI know we went over this in class, but I just wanted to comment. I agree with all three interpretions. The third way makes the most sense to me because a couple lines before the simile, Satan is talking about finding a place to rest, hope, reassemble, and plot how to offend the enemy. In class we thought about the idea that God may not be celebrating in Heaven but morning the loss of his right hand angel and others. Even though Satan thinks that God is celebrating his suffering, Satan bringing down sailors or humans who are lost makes the most sense. Satan would be increasing his evil army and unknowningly hurting God even more.
ReplyDeleteFor the first idea, I think Satan is being dragged down by hate which already existed. Maybe Satan's hate started when he thought another angel should become the leader in Heavan rather than the day he was sent down in chains.
For the second idea, I can understand for sure concidering the fact that Satan wants to do the exact opposite of what is found in heaven. Also, Satan could be forming or creating the "designs" of Hell through his mind. Would that mean that Hell is different according to individuals and their ideas of fear or sorrow? We also run into questioning God, the only one, having the power to create new worlds and animals. So how could Satan create or design hell? Does satan only think he can or does he actually have that power as well?
If the world is perfect the leviathon will not be needed to drag anyone down to hell because everyone has to be good to make a world perfect. Or do they? I'm thinking of mathew's post about how evil defines what is good. When was the Leviathon created in Judaism? Maybe that could help with this reasoning.