Miltons Telescope Trope Vision and Spiritual Wisdom

Milton’s Telescope Trope: Vision and Spiritual Wisdom Throughout Milton’s Paradise Lost, figures are depicted watching a view, often fluctuating, the outlines of which dissolve while they are being watched. These visual scenarios, often constructed through a Miltonic simile, include the moon observed through Galileo’s telescope (I, 287–91); Satan surveying the cosmic panorama of the created world (III, 555–73); Galileo’s telescope that reappears â€Å"less assured† (III, 588–90; V, 261–3); and finally, a man following a wandering light into the marshes (IX, 634–42). The visual allure of these similes is drawn in part by the description of a natural scene that induces an emotional response, with the human figure standing in for the reader in this emotional reaction. These similes animate human emotions in a description of mental events, as individuals attempt to relate the objective, natural world to the subjective perception of the musing subject. Such an interest in the vis ual image as a manifestation of an individual’s psychological condition suggests that the simile partakes in the perceptual psychology of the epic poem. However, much of the imagery in the Milton’s similes is visually unstable; that is to say, the similes disturb perception by distorting what is seen. Exploitations of perspective in the course of understanding visions and their significance engender misjudgment that represents the poem’s central concern with fallibility. To explore these ideas further, I will