Both Spenser and Milton use Language to Describe Allegorical Figures. Who Does So More Effectively?

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“The Faerie Queene” Book 1, Canto IX, Stanzas XXXIII-XXVI– Edmund Spenser

“Paradise Lost” Book 2, lines 644-680 – John Milton

Both Spenser and Milton use Language to Describe Allegorical Figures. Who Does So More Effectively?

      Milton and Spenser are both describing awful situations in their relative poems.   Spenser concentrates on an empty existence filled with gloom and despair.  Whilst Milton is describing an encounter with the gates of hell itself, and indeed two terrible creatures, causing an atmosphere of pure and utter evil flocculated with horror.

     Milton’s language suggests ultimate evil with words that distort the original dramatic meaning. We casually use words like “terrible,” when describing the weather.  In Milton’s poem, words like “terrible” exist to talk about unimaginably frightening situations.  When Milton uses the phrase “terrible as hell,” he is saying it is so terrible it is beyond human comprehension.  To create horror, Milton uses dark words to build up sinister imagery, e.g. “fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell.”  Using these extreme adjectives, we can picture the beast growing as the description continues.

     Another tool that helps illustrate the mental picture of the scene is the introduction of shadow and darkness: “Black it stood as night.”  This darkness adds to Milton’s description of the shapeless blob-like figure. Shapeless blob does not do Milton’s description justice.  It is a dark, evil figure, both striding and gliding, almost as if it has no fixed shape and thus could envelop you entirely.  The uncertainty regarding whether it is gas like shadow or gooey substance also increases the unimaginable and unknown fear.

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     Milton uses many evil comparisons and similes as another literary device for those who fail to catch the sense of horror, e.g. “fierce as ten furies.”  By mentioning the furies Milton continues his theme of carrying over characters, themes, and locations from Greek mythology, giving the scene a mystical effect.  The mythological characters are products of primitive man’s subconscious.  By linking his descriptions of evil and terror to mythological characters, Milton is evoking within the reader his basic subconscious experiences of monsters as terror and horror.  Take for example the description of the dogs with “wide Cerberean mouths.” ...

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