Milton’s Angels and Celestial Motion

Abstract

The incorporation of details of variable celestial phenomena in the portrayal of Satan in Paradise Lost reveals a complex process at work. It suggests that Milton consistently places Satan in the fallen world, aligning him with cosmic events—the appearance of new stars and comets—that cannot belong to the prelapsarian state. Such images defining Satan’s character that rely upon postlapsarian celestial details act as a means of collapsing the vital divide between the unfallen and the fallen worlds, projecting the Satanic presence as a perpetual threat. Satan thinks that he appropriates these variable cosmic phenomena, the new stars and comets, as modes of self-fashioning, disguises through which he wishes to demonstrate both his power and his astronomical acumen. But, for the reader, once these are contextualized, the cosmic details are seen to be in fact a powerful narrative device through which Satan’s true self is revealed. This becomes another instance of his evil intentions recoiling back on himself.