interpretations of Hell

The epic poem, "Paradise Lost" by John Milton begins with the battle that ensues between Satan and God after Satan and his fallen angels have been sent out of heaven and have landed in this hell. Milton frequently describes this hell as, "a burning mark" (1.296), a "convex of fire" (2.433) and a "fiery gulf" (1.50). Milton obviously has a clear picture in his mind as to what exactly hell is like and this idea has been the common notion that people derive when they think of hell. In the beginning of the first book, Milton tells the reader that he is invoking a muse to help him in writing this poem yet not just any muse, the Holy Spirit. By doing so, Milton has informed the reader that this must be the official word of God. For centuries, the basis of this idea of hell has held true in many cinematic productions and other interpretations of hell. Yet as time has progressed there have been interpretations that have put a spin on the initial interpretation of the bible, which in a sense is just another interpretation of the words of God. 

For this blog post I decided to try and find different interpretations that either supported Milton's idea of what hell was or those that differed from it. The first interpretation that I has found on Youtube was a similar, but more modernized version of hell that seemed to in the end follow in line with Milton. This is a clip of the actor and comedian Rowan Atkins as he portray the devil himself "welcoming" his guests into hell. Here Atkins has put a comedic twist on the idea of hell, thus contrasting the very serious nature of the hell that Milton knows.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UbqZ_oN5do

Through out this clip, Atkins repeats the idea that hell is a fiery, eternal pit that no one could ever fathom enjoying. He however makes it a comedic interpretation by "dressing" as Satan through donning on a pair of horns and singling out various demographics, poking fun as to why they are in hell and what eternal punishment means for them. 

The next clip that I had found took on a completely different tone, one that was parallel to Milton's through out "Paradise Lost". This video is also similar to "Paradise Lost" in the sense that I believe it was meant to educate people to the correct ideas of what hell is and to banish all misconceptions, as according to the author's opinions. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZLPe2rRdY

One of the first things that I noticed when I watched this clip was that the author asks the question whether hell is just a stepping stone to heaven. This author preaches that hell is not an eternal state in which a sinner must stay forever but that there is a point in which everyone will make it to heaven as long as they pay their due time in hell. This made me wonder then what is purgatory. I had been taught that purgatory is the place that a person goes to wait for their judgment and the time that they spend their is directly related to their sins. However this author seems to believe that that is in fact hell, a person just waits in hell until they are able to be worthy to go up to heaven. I found it even more interesting to look at the comments that other viewers had posted on this video after watching it. It seems that this video had cause a small controversy between a viewer and the author.  SoldierofGod40, a Youtube member who had watched this video said, " Give me a verse that says hell is not eternal thats just not true you are fooling people once in hell always in hell." (SoldierofGod40. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZLFPe2rRY. June 2008). He says that the author is only fooling people. much like Milton says that Satan's only deceiving people and turning God's works into evil. The author responds back by saying, "there are 35 verses in the bible that mention the word hell. in each verse the word HELL and ETERNAL doesn't co-exist. Prove me wrong."(sevensealsofgod, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v+FZLFPe2rRdY. June 2008) One idea however that I recognized in this clip that paralleled Milton's idea was that the reason we are sent to hell is because we have turned away from God. Milton always underlies the message that God would forgive anyone, even Satan if they asked for his forgiveness. 

Through out time, our notion of hell has been modified and changed but in the end seems to still find parallels to the initial ideas of hell that were derived from the bible.