Rhetorical Analysis Chapter 7

Exercise One After a quick read of the passage from 3.540-587, one may assume that Satan is only concerned with viewing the beauty of the newly created earth. However, after a closer analysis and look into the language actually used in the passage, it is revealed that the sun is a more prominent figure in the passage than the earth. Therefore, Milton use of words and images throughout this passage convey the message of the stark contrast between the good the sun does for the earth and the earth’s future inhabitants, albeit being an inanimate object versus the evil Satan will do to the earth, even though he is a living, breathing creature. Since the sun is an inanimate object, the use of it in this passage is actually just a metaphor for God and His goodness and the love He has for His creation of earth. The passage immediately begins with a metaphor that uses the images of darkness and then the rising sun. It says:
The passage describes his impression of the sun as a mix of amazement and jealousy saying, “The golden sun in splendour likest Heaven / Allured his eye” (3.572-573). Since the sun is a metaphor for God, Satan’s jealously is actually of God and he may even regret leaving the comfort of Heaven for the darkness of Hell. The most telling lines, though, appear at the very end of the passage through a description of how the sun benefits the earth. The passage says, “By his magnetic beam, that gently warms / The universe, and to each inward part / With gentle penetration, though unseen, / Shoots invisible virtue even to the deep: / So wondrously was set his station bright” (3.583-587). The words in this quote personify the sun in a way that can be directly correlated with God. As the sun physically warms the earth, God warms the earth with His love. Satan continues to live in the darkness of Hell, as far away as possible from the sun and the