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Viewing report
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"Celestial Light, Shine Inward". Edition No. 1
VDM Publishing House, Aug 2008, Pages: 156
A reading of the 'illumination' passages in Milton's
Paradise Lost will enable one to draw a sharp
contrast between the images of light and darkness.
Milton sets these images to 'assert the Eternal
Providence / And to justify the ways of God to men'
(I, 25-6) after the fall of the first parents in
Eden. Following the biblical 'Fountain of
Light' tradition, Milton invokes the celestial Light
to shine inwardly as divine guidance to
develop his justification of God (his concepts of
theodicy). Whereas William Empson considers that
Milton did not succeed to
justify God and merely struggled to make God appear
less wicked, one can resolve the Miltonic
controversy over his justification through an
investigation of Milton's use of language. The image
of light represents God's sovereign power; however,
the image of darkness symbolizes the rebellious
angels' devilish guile. By extension, the celestial
light and hellish darkness occur in postlapsarian
Garden of Eden, but the sinful couple receives the
illumination of 'Eternal Providence' reaching an
everlasting and promised divine companionship
through the hope of a 'paradise regained.'
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