Satan's Journey Through the Realm of Chaos and Comment on its Significance in "Paradise Lost Book-II".

Milton's description of chaos and Satan's journey through it is one of the grandest and the most original portions of the epic. Milton portrayed the place chaos as a grotesque devastating and horrible one. Chaos is described as utter, disorder, uncertainty and darkness. Satan arrives here after having made a long journey from the gates of Hell, which had been opened by Sin.

Satan's Journey Through the Realm of Chaos:

In the realm (kingdom) of chaos, there are four eminent elements namely heat, cold, moisture and dryness. They were always kept fighting to win a victory one over another being confused by their king chaos. As a winner one cannot last long. So a civil war always was going on among them. The controversial decision of chaos makes civil war even more confused affair. In this way, God organizes these elements and forms suitable combination to bring new worlds into existence according to his intention.

Arriving before realm's gate, Satan's ears are afflicted by deafening noise of loudly pealing bells. The destructive sound is compared with the noise of Bellona, the goddess of war. Heaven and solid earth are about to fall and tear away from there exle by the nose.

Satan was travelling through that realm of chaos by swimming, by sinking, by walking, by creeping, by flying and so on. At last Satan reaches to the ruler chaos by overcoming all the difficulties.

The king chaos and his courtiers doubt about Satan's aim. They took Satan as a spy who came to discover their secrecy. Satan over come their doubt by various arguments. He proved himself as an enemy of God who is also their enemy. He wanted to reach the newly created world under their help. Thus by creating rebellious movement on them against God, he has been succeeded.

The significance of chaos is very important in this epic. According to Milton's conception, the cosmos is divided between heaven and chaos. Heaven is above, chaos below. It is chaos which provides God with material for other creations. God has created Hell out of this material and He has created the new world of man also from the same region and the same material.

To Sum up, Milton's depiction of Satan's Journey through chaos represents moral as well as allegorical meaning. Undoubtedly the graphic description of chaos proves Milton's highly imaginative power.