What is simile?

Literary devices or figures of speech constitute the effective and judicious implementation of language
to emphasize an idea which cannot otherwise be explained or whose emphasis might be lost. Figures of
speech such as similes are associated with rhetoric. Aristotle’s ‘Rhetoric’ dating from the 4 th century BCE
defines rhetoric as the ‘faculty of discovering in any particular case all of the available means of
persuasion.’ Rhetorical analogy uses the simile, a technique of explicit comparison to persuade the
audience to illustrate a particular idea. M.H. Abrams defines simile as ‘a comparison between two
distinctly different things explicitly indicated by the word “like” or “as”. As an example of simile we can
refer to Langston Hughes' poem ‘Harlem’ in which he uses a number of similes to equate the deferred
dream of African Americans to decay – ‘Does it dry up/like a raisin in the sun?/Or fester like a sore.....’
When the simile increases in magnitude and contains a number of subsidiary comparisons within a
comparison, it becomes an epic simile and seeks to serve the grand purpose of an epic. Epic? Abrams
defines an epic simile as ‘formal, sustained similes in which the secondary subject or vehicle, is
elaborated far beyond its specific points of close parallel to the primary subject, or tenor, to which it is
compared.’ Whaler? The epic simile is interchangeable with the term Homeric simile – lengthy and
allusive comparisons used by epic poets such as Homer in the ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey’ and Virgil in ‘Aeneid’.
John Milton (1608-1704) used it in his masterpiece and one of the greatest works to grace English
Literature – ‘Paradise Lost’ (1667). Written in blank verse and portraying the Biblical narrative of the Fall
of Man from Paradise, due to Adam and Eve’s temptation by Satan, Paradise Lost has been the subject
of controversy surrounding Milton’s apparently ambiguous stand on the character of Satan. In Book
One, though Satan is banished to suffer in Hell as a punishment for his misdemeanours against God,
Satan’s strength of mind and spirit in undefeated as he rises from his fallen state and rallies the legions
of fallen angels to wage war against God and His angels in heaven. The epic similes employed by Milton
enlarge Satan in the mind of the readers and endow him with essentially admirable human qualities, this
leaving an unforgettable impression of Satan as a magnificent creature and a supreme military leader.

What is Milton’s controversial stand on Satan?

The vanquished, lacklustre state of the fallen angels and their subsequent rise to rebel once again
against God under the charismatic leadership of Satan occupies much of the discourse of Book One of
Paradise Lost. Milton’s description of Satan’s great stature and his impassioned speeches rekindling the
flame of hatred against God in his followers reminds the readers of an epic hero. Abrams calls the epic
hero ‘a figure of great national or even cosmic importance.’ Satan is seen as a mighty creature with
superhuman dimensions, carrying a spear tall enough to make the tallest pine tree in the Norwegian
hills seem like a mere wand, and a ‘ponderous, massy and large' shield. He does not submit to defeat,
rather in his speeches it is conveyed that God’s powerful thunder has not been able to destroy his
‘unconquerable Will/ and study of revenge, immortal hate,/ And courage never to submit or yield’. The
shadow of Achilles, the great military leader and epic hero of Greek mythology is present in the
character of Satan. Satan inspires courage among his followers in the same way Achilles rallied his troop
of Myrmidons to war. This image of an undaunted epic hero, supposed to embody nobility, is in direct
contrast with how Satan is perceived in Christianity and Judaism – as an evil being. The name Satan is
derived from the Hebrew ‘ha-Satan’ meaning the opposer or adversary of God’s creation. Satan is
synonymous with the Devil, derived from the Greek ‘diabolos’ meaning accuser or slanderer of God’s
word. Satan is seen as a destructive force who corrupts Man, the favourite creation of God and wreaks
havoc. For Milton to have portrayed Satan in Book One of Paradise Lost in a heroic light is an act as
rebellious as Satan’s rebellion against God.

Milton’s portrayal of Satan had a profound impact on the Romantics of the 18 th and 19th centuries.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge points out the sole motive of the action’ in Satan’s character – the motive that
propels the ‘mighty hunters’ of mankind, ‘from Nimrod to Napoleon’. ‘Satan,' he wrote, ‘has a singularity
of daring, a grandeur of sufferance and a ruined splendour, which constitute the very height of poetic
sublimity.’ Percy Bysshe Shelley admired the ‘nonconformist’ Satan and wrote in ‘Defence of Poetry’:
‘Nothing can exceed the energy and magnificence of the character of Satan as expressed in Paradise
Lost. Milton’s Devil as a moral being is far superior to his God, as One who perseveres in some purpose
which he has conceived to be excellent, in spite of adversity and torture...’ The central conflict or the
paradox in Paradise Lost is the grand, attractive treatment of Satan’s personality, enhanced by Milton’s
use of epic similes on one hand and Milton’s depiction of Satan’s treachery and evil acts. Milton, in
trying to ‘justifie the wayes of God to men’ challenges his readers to uncover the meaning of his
stylistically complex similes to form their own unbiased estimate of Satan. Navigating the Miltonic
similes is an academically enriching endeavour.

Epic similes in Book One:

The first epic simile is found after Milton has begun the epic by invoking the Muse, by describing Hell
and how the fallen angels including Satan were vanquished by God and banished to Hell. Milton
describes Satan lying prostate, in chains, over the burning Lake of Fire. Satan’s huge ‘bulk’ is compared
to the ‘monstrous size’ of ‘Titanians’. Milton’s similes in Paradise Lost are richly detailed, alluding to
several fields of intellectual learning. The ‘Titanians’ or Titans in Greek mythology are twelve gods and
goddesses born to Gaia (earth) and Uranus (sky). Hesiod, an ancient Greek poet wrote in ‘Theogony’
that the Titan god Cronus defeated his father Uranus but after taking his father’s place, he did not free
the other children of Uranus and Gaia – the three Cyclopes and the three monsters from Tartarus, the
underworld prison of suffering. Cronus grew afraid of being dethroned by one of his children so he
swallowed them all. However, his wife (and sister) Rhea managed to hide their son Zeus from him. Zeus
grew up and rebelled against his father with the help of the Cyclopes and monsters. Among them was
Briareos the hundred-armed monster and Typhon (Typhoeus) a Giant with a hundred serpent-heads.
Milton enlarges the simple comparison of a simile to epic proportions by depicting Satan’s enormous
size to the superhuman proportions of Titans and Giants. A Miltonic simile also has multiple layers of
meaning. In this case, there is a tripartite or triple meaning – Milton refers to Satan’s huge size but he
also brings in the idea of rebellion that shaped the succession myth the Greek gods to denote Satan’s
rebellion against God. The third meaning refers to the chained condition of the Titans and Giants after
they were defeated by Zeus and his allies and sent to Tartarus. Similarly, Satan has been described by
Milton as lying on the Lake of Fire chained by God.

The next simile compares Satan lying on the Lake of Fire with the Leviathan, a primordial sea serpent
described in the Hebrew Bible, symbolizing chaos and darkness. In Christianity, the Leviathan is
synonymous to the Devil as one of the seven Princes of Hell. In this lengthy simile, Milton narrates the
plight of the ‘Pilot of some night-founder’d Skiff’ – a boatman rowing a small fishing boat mistaking the
enormous Leviathan lying on the surface of the sea as an island to land on. Notable here is Milton’s
digression from the actual plot to bring in multiple references. The name ‘Leviathan’ came to be
associated with a species of whale after Herman Melville popularized it in his famous novel ‘Moby Dick’.
Over time the word came to mean something of mammoth proportions. Thus here we have a tripartite
structure of the simile – the Leviathan simile depicts several aspects of Satan’s character such as his
monstrous size, his beastly nature and his deceptiveness. In Book Nine Milton describes how Satan,
disguised as a serpent, offers to Eve a forbidden apple from the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of
Eden. As a result both Eve and Adam are banished from Paradise, resulting in the Fall of Man from a
state of glory and bliss.

With this in mind, the Leviathan simile acts as a figure of prolepsis- or foreshadowing the later act of
Satan’s deception. It is significant to note here that the word Leviathan is also associated with the
political state after philosopher Thomas Hobbes wrote a book titled ‘Leviathan or the matter, forme and
power of a commonwealth ecclesiasticall and civil’ (1651). In it, he argued that a society needed a
protector as their sovereign to rescue them from a state of anarchy. ‘Leviathan’ as a social contract
between the ruler and the ruled can be compared to Satan or the ‘Arch-fiend’ lifting the other fallen
angels out of their physical and moral despair in Hell’s chaos and being unanimously accepted the
leader.

Satan now rises from the pool of fire and spreads his wings in flight. Milton’s grand style leaves little to
the imagination as he paints a majestic vision of the Arch-fiend rising to the ‘dusky Air’ and alights on the
ground that burns his feet. The dry land of Hell is compared to a hill blown away by ‘subterranean wind’
from the shattered or exploded side of a volcano such as Pelorus, the promontory near Cape Faro in
Sicily, Italy or Mt. Etna. Milton’s verse is reminiscent of Virgil’s ‘Aeneid’ in which he describes the
eruption of Mt. Etna casting darkness and smoke over Pelorus. Such is the land that burns the ‘sole of
unblest feet’. The allusion to a volcano also has a sonorous quality that further enriches Milton’s
description of the chaos in Hell.

Satan carries with him a ‘ponderous shield/ Ethereal temper, massy, large and round on his shoulder’.
The ‘broad circumference’ of the shield is compared to the Moon. In this epic simile too Milton adds a
number of subsidiary references. The first of them is the huge size of the shield indicating the even
larger stature of Satan and his strength. The shield is like the moon as observed by the ‘Tuscan Artist'
that is Galileo, at evening from a hilltop at Fesole in Florence, Italy. Galileo observes the moon through
an ‘Optic Glass’ or telescope and can see the craters on its surface as scars and spots. Therefore the
moon, supposed to be pristine and pure, is not without its imperfections. Similarly the shield of Satan,
tempered in fiery ether, and also the character of Satan seems to be outwardly appealing and majestic
but it is not without fault. Satan’s shield has marks of thunder from God’s attack. The scars reveal not
only his defeat but also Satan’s disfigurement. It forms the second point of contact, though remote.

The mention of Galileo here is significant as he is the only one among Milton’s contemporaries to be
named in Paradise Lost. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), the Italian astronomer is known as the father of
observational astronomy and modern science. Galileo’s existence was marked by clashing ideologies – a
conflict between science and religion (the Catholic Church). It is said that Galileo was one of the first to
systematically use a telescope to observe celestial bodies. In 1610, he observed the phases of Venus
around the Moon and as a result of his observations, he declared the Ptolemaic geocentric model of the
universe (with the earth at the centre and the sun revolving around it) as incorrect. He supported
Nicolaus Copernicus' heliocentric model (with the sun at the centre and the planets revolving around it)
but the Church wanted him to take his views back as they believed the geocentric model existed
according to the Bible and accused Galileo of Protestantism. Later, Galileo was forced to live in house
arrest for the rest of his life. Milton is said to have met Galileo in Florence in 1638-39. Milton mentions
Galileo in his pamphlet ‘Areopagitica’ (1644) as a martyr who fought for the freedom of thought. Milton
admired Galileo and a study of their life and works demonstrates a philosophical kinship between them.

There are similes pertaining to the sheer numerousness of the fallen angels as they rise upon hearing
their leader’s inspiring words. As Satan looks over the legions of fallen angels lying on the surface of Hell
in a despondent, almost lifeless manner, Milton uses the Vallombrosa simile to compare them with
‘Autumnal Leaves that the strow the Brooks/ In Vallombrosa,' meaning that the fallen angels are lying
scattered like fallen leaves. Vallombrosa is a wooded valley at Tuscany, Etruria in Italy. The word
‘vallombrosa’ means ‘shaded valley’ or ‘valley of shadows’ and it recalls the image of Hell that Milton
had described as a place of ‘utter darkness'. The autumnal leaves symbolizing decay and passage of
time, used as a comparison for the multitude of fallen angels is reminiscent of similes used in earlier
epics. The simile Book 6 of Homer’s ‘Iliad’ goes:

Spoken by Glaucus to Diomedes in the battlefield, the epic simile compares dead soldiers lying on the
field of battle to autumn leaves that are virtually indistinguishable from each other and as a result they
all look alike, deprived of any individuality, vigour or life. They are helpless as they cannot change their
own destiny. In a similar fashion Milton evokes a profound sense of grief for the fallen condition of the
angels – though not dead, they are deprived of their powers because God defeated them. Milton not
only evokes sympathy in the minds of the readers by asking them to picture the fallen angels lying like
autumn leaves but also be brings in prolepsis- the autumn leaves will soon become green and vibrant
again will go back to their previous state of glory as Paradise Lost will reveal how Satan revives them and
urges them to rebel against God with renewed vigour.

In typical Miltonic style, he gives a successive simile – the fallen angels are compared to sedge or
seaweed that washes ashore from the Red Sea during a storm, as indicated by the constellation Orion
that is associated with stormy weather. The apparently lifeless forms of the fallen angels scattered in
disarray are associated with the image of Busiris, a mythical Pharaoh, who would have strangers
sacrificed. It calls to mind the image of carcasses instead of corpses. Busiris’ ‘Memphian Chivalry’, his
army, pursued the Israelites (‘Sojourners of Goshen’) and as a consequence were all killed by God, as
seen in the book of Exodus. The comparison is between the fallen angels lying prostate in Hell and the
‘floating carkasses’ of the Pharaoh’s army on the Red Sea.

The next epic simile alludes to the ‘numberless’ fallen angels as they rise and they have been compared
to the swarm of locusts set upon Egypt by God. Satan is compared to ‘Amram’s Son’ meaning Moses.
Because the Pharaoh of Egypt refused to set the Israelites free, God instructed Moses to bring a plague
of locusts that would destroy the Egyptians’ crops. The numerous fallen angels, like the locusts sent by
Moses, darken the air of Hell as Satan calls upon them. The comparison of Satan, traditionally seen as
the Devil, with Moses the son of God is digressive and far removed from the point of contact. On the
surface it seems that Milton seeks to equate their powerful command over the locusts and fallen angels
respectively, but the simile contrasts instead of comparing. According to Christopher Ricks, ‘Milton
brings out the piety of Moses by stressing the impiety of his adversary.’ Ricks also points out that there
are ‘hideous differences’ between Satan and Moses. ‘Satan,' he writes, ‘is a hideous parody of the good.
Here Milton’s simile acts as a point of contrast instead of contact and thus becomes a dissimile. A
dissimile compares two dissmilar objects and emphasizes the contrast between them for the purpose of
illustration. Milton’s dissimile enlarges the prospect of the Homeric epic simile to prove his point
through contrast, not contact. By comparing Satan to Moses he seeks to highlight Satan’s depravity in
contrast to Moses’ divine attribution.

An earlier instance of Milton’s dissimile compares Satan’s mighty spear – ‘to equal which the tallest
Pine/ Hewn on Norwegian Hills, to be the Mast/ Of some great Ammiral, were but a wand’. Milton states
that Satan’s spear is taller than the tallest Pine and it makes it look like a wand’. It is interesting to note
how Milton, after displaying Satan’s might and strength brings in the image of the ‘wand’ to associate
with the image of Satan walking on the surface of Hell with the spear, like a walking stick, supporting his
‘uneasie steps’. When Milton speaks of Satan enduring the ‘burning Marle’ where he used to be in God’s
graces in Paradise – ‘On Heavens Azure’ , the reader is faced with the conflict of judging Satan for his
rebellion and hatred against God and a feeling of sympathy for the fallen angel as he puts on a brave
face for his followers to see and find motivation in. Milton seeks to bring this very contrast to the
forefront in Paradise Lost and presents a different treatment of the Biblical narrative by making use of
negative similes or dissimiles.

In his description of Pandemonium, Milton uses a dissimile – ‘Not Babilon/ Nor great Alcairo such
magnificence/ Equal’d in all their glories to inshrine / Belus or Serapis thir Gods, or seat / Thir Kings.’
‘Alcairo’ refers to ancient Memphis in Egypt, now called Cairo. In the 4 th century, the Romans
established a fortress known as Babylon along the banks of the river Nile. In the age of the Roman
Emperor Augustus, Babylon was an important town and the seat of Christianity. Belus is the Babylonian
god of war while Serapis is Greco-Egyptian deity. Milton compares the glorious temples of these Gods in
Egypt and their magnificent architecture in a dissimile to Pandemonium. Pandemonium is the name
given by Milton to the ‘high Capital/ Of Satan and his Peers’. It has been designed by the architect
Mulciber, also known as Hephaestus who was fling from his seat in Heaven by his father Zeus. The
architecture of Pandemonium is compared and contrasted with that of shrines of deities in ancient
Babylon in the sense that the seat of Satan’s power overtakes them with respect to magnificence and
power. The structure of Pandemonium is also said to far exceed the ‘works of Memphis Kings’, such as
the ‘tower of Babel.’

Critical commentary:

At this juncture, it would be wise to sum up the features of Miltonic similes and discuss relevant critical
commentaries on them.

Firstly, they are epic similes in the tradition of Homer and Virgil - lengthy, detailed and intricate.
However, Milton maintains a point of attachment ad distance from the classic Homeric simile. According
to James Whaler, the ‘fundamental difference between complex simile as found in Homer and in Milton
lies in Milton’s predominant method of exact homologation...Homer abounds in animals and figures
from humble life, loves “relief” similes, very rarely uses myth in simile, does not use pattern at all.’
Whaler inferred several formulae of logical patterns of Milton’s similes.

Secondly, Milton’s similes contain a number of allusions to Biblical narratives as well as secular legends,
associated with great scholarly learning. Whaler’s statement, ‘Milton did not address casual readers’ is
apt because in order to fully appreciate Paradise Lost, one needs thorough knowledge of the Bible and
other Pagan myths.

Thirdly, Milton often digresses from the actual comparison by alluding to a myth or legend and also by
removing the simile from a point of close contact to a point of remote contact becoming almost a
contrast. This adds to the complexity of meaning, a Miltonic feature that has been criticised. F.R. Leaves
in the essay ‘Milton’s Verse’ criticises the ‘inescapable monotony of the ritual’ and that Milton’s lines ‘is
not doing as much as its impressive pomp and volume seem to be asserting’ and that ‘it demands more
deference than it merits’. T.S. Eliot too criticised Milton’s verse in an essay by writing that in Milton, ‘the
arrangement [of words] is for the sake of musical value, not significance.’ The result, he contends, ‘is not
serious poetry but rather a solemn game’. In Eliot’s second piece on Milton however he admired
Milton’s ‘skill in extending a period by introducing imagery which tends to distract us from the real
subject.’ Of the Leviathan simile he writes, ‘Any writer, straining for images of hugeness, might have
thought of the whale, but only Milton could have included the anecdote of the deluded seaman without
our wanting to put a blue pencil through it. We nearly forget Satan in attending to the story of the
whale, Milton recalls us just in time’.

Fourthly, the simile in Milton is never one-dimensional. It contains several subsidiary meanings, often
forming a bipartite or tripartite structure. Often the simile runs into a secondary simile within the first,
evoking the same degree of comparison with different parameters.

Fifthly, the prolepsis adds another layer of meaning to the similes. His comparisons often foreshadow
later events in Paradise Lost. According to Whaler, Milton is the ‘ first epic poet to add to the simile the
function of prolepsis.’ The treacherous Leviathan whale foreshadows Satan’s deceiving of Eve in Book
Nine. The comparison of the fallen angels to locusts, referring to their sheet numbers, anticipates the
catalogue of fallen angels.

Sixthly, Milton’s similes show a progression from the bestial or animal state (the Leviathan sea monster
or whale simile) to the vegetative or plant stage (the Vallombrosa simile) to the human stage and finally
to a superhuman stage (‘the great Seraphic Lords and Cherubim’).

Seventhly, Milton uses grand similes befitting of the grand style of his epic. He clearly sets out his
purpose on the invocation to the Muse at the beginning of Book One – he intends to ‘assert Eternal
Providence,/ And justifie the wayes of God to men’. To fulfil this purpose he used grand similes of epic
proportions. Firstly, they discuss the sheer might and magnificence of the character of Satan and
secondly the similes refer to the numerousness of the fallen angels as they rise after being motivated by
their leader Satan. The similes have such a huge, unimaginable length and breadth that they transcend
the limits of human comprehension. ‘Aggrandisement,' writes Whaler, is one of the functions of the
simile – ‘it may ennoble the subject by lifting it to sublimity or magnificence, this is often in addition to
its illustrative function.’ Milton replaces ‘homely images’ with the ‘unusual’, or the ‘more familiar to the
less familiar part of his reader’s experience or knowledge.’

It is also important to note that these huge numbers of rebel angels led by the Arch-fiend are placed
against one omnipotent God whose might is supreme enough to hurl Satan ‘headlong flaming from th’
Eternal Skie/ With hideous ruine and combustion down / To bottomless perdition,' along with the
others. Satan’s army may have the power in numbers but it is God who wields the thunder that has the
power to vanquish them.
Lastly, Milton’s simile has an unique contribution to the grand design of Paradise Lost. By using similes
of epic proportions Milton stretches the boundaries of language used and understood by man, in
complex syntaxes to achieve his purpose of justifying God’s will and His actions to the common man.
Language thus becomes an important aspect of studying and interpreting Paradise Lost. By studying the
nuances of language and double meanings in every simile can one distinguish between two contrasting
ideologies that Milton presents in his epic poem. In Book One, Milton’s intention is to urge his readers to
distinguish between Heaven and Hell, God and Satan, the unfallen and the fallen angels. There is also a
difference between Satan and Man. The latter can repent for his actions and ask forgiveness from God
and beg to be restored to His graces. Satan does not realize his mistakes and can only conspire to wage
war against God once again to claim Paradise. Just as it is Milton’s task to present what some critics
deem to be a Christian epic, full of Classical allusions, to narrate the story of the Fall of Man, it is the
reader’s task to read between the lines to grasp Milton’s subtly concealed purpose in the complicated
and richly detailed language of Paradise Lost. The result is.... one of the most seminal works of English
Literature, whose influence is ‘second only to Shakespeare’s.’ The reader must observe Satan’s
character carefully without being unduly influenced by his glorious descriptions and his powerful
rhetoric. Geoffrey Hartman classifies certain Miltonic similes as ‘observer’ similes. In the Leviathan
simile, the ‘Pilot’ of the ‘night-founder’d Skiff’ is an observer who is placed outside of the scene and who
observes the ocean, looking for a place to anchor his boat. He is deceived by the Leviathan pretending to
be an island or a safe haven. In contrast, the observer is Galileo or the ‘Tuscan Artist’ in another simile
who observes the Moon through his telescope and is able to see the moon with all of its good and
defective parts. The reader too must observe and try to find the elusive meaning behind Milton’s
similes.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, it is inferred that the language and similes of Paradise Lost mirror not only Milton’s
purpose but also the central conflict in his tale of the Fall of Man. Man falls to temptation and thus
Paradise is lost to him – but what is this great temptation that overcomes the pre-lapserian Man’s
innocence and goodness, as God’s favourite creation? What leads them to disobey the word of God? It is
nothing but the magnetism of Satan. The symbolization is this – just as Eve fell prey to Satan’s lies and
persuasions, the reader is liable to be tempted by the ideals and attractive oratory of Satan and the
similes Milton uses to describe him and his army, to pursue the path of Satan and not God. The difficulty
in unpacking the meaning behind Milton’s verse lies in the fact that the human mind may not be able to
grasp the affairs of superhuman beings such as God and Satan and may not be able to distinguish
between them. The reader might end up pledging loyalty to Satan instead of heeding Milton’s advice of
obeying God.‘Even to readers in a secular age,' writes Hamm, ‘the poem is a powerful meditation on
rebellion, longing and the desire for redemption’. Milton’s work is marked by ambiguity and there is no
real consensus about his perspective of God and Satan in Paradise Lost. The study of his similes become