As soon as I started getting into the bulk of Milton's first book, I instantly found myself transported to last semester. He seems to me so similar to Dante: the poetic language, the vivid descriptions of Hell, and the specific names he gives to fallen angels. Milton was onto something here: humans can't resist thinking about their possible demise. He knew that Hell inspired fear, and more than that, captures a great audience because fate concerns EVERYONE. His descriptions of horrendous Hell are typical, but still frightening:
"A dungeon horrible, on all sides round
As one great furnace flamed, yet fro those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible
Served only to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to all, but torture without end
Still urges, and a fiery deluge fed
With ever-burning sulfur unconsumed." (10)
But has Milton really not progressed past Dante? It seems like he has to have a different point, writing much later than Dante. More than that, he has a much different audience: this was post-Reformation. While still overwhelmingly Christian, knowledge of Islamic and considerably pagan religions was more well-known. Was he reminding his peers of their Christian backgrounds?
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