DENOTATIVE ANALYSIS

 

The story starts with the narration of the fall of Lucifer into Hell. Before he was one of the most important Archangels in heaven but then he became the leader of the rebellious angels and he was renamed Satan.

The reader is plunged into the middle of the action. Satan, the fallen angel, falls from heaven into Hell with other rebellious angels. He awakens in hell and he immediately notices the horrible place and he realizes the lasting pain that he will have to bear there. He sees that there is no light: there is only darkness. But there are also flames, fire and fiery deluge like a great furnace. He understands that this place without light, hope, peace and rest is the prison that eternal justice has prepared for rebellious like him. It is also a place very far away from God and heaven.

The first extract ends with an exclamative expression: "O how unlike the place from whence they fell!" The sentence wants to make the reader understand the deep difference between heaven and hell and the feeling of despair that a person could have in front of the vision of hell.

 

 

EXERCISE 1 (pag. 125 - 126)

 

words important to create Hell as a physical place:

 

·                               fiery Gulfe

·                               waste

·                               wilde

·                               horrible dungeon

·                               great furnace

·                               flames

·                               no light

·                               darkness

·                               fiery deluge

·                               every-burning sulphur

 

words important to create Hell as a moral place:

 

·                               lost happiness

·                               lasting pain

·                               huge affliction

·                               dismay

·                               sights of woe

·                               regions of sorrow

·                               doleful shades

·                               hope never comes

·                               torture without end

 

EXERCISE 2

 

a)     Alliteration:

 desolation

Waste - wilde

Mortal - men

His - horrid

Furnace - flamed - from - flames

Served - sights

 

 

b)     Assonance:

 

Nine - times

 

 

EXERCISE 3

 

In the extract I can identify one end-stopped line.

Run-on lines create a sense of expectation and suspence. The reading does not stop because there are a lot of enjambement and therefore you can notice a continuous movement from one line to the next.

 

EXERCISE 4

   

The unusual word order makes the reader understand the importance of some words. The poet adopts this linguistic choice to give more relevance to some words, as matter of facts the reader can better imagine the situation.