Miłosz's evils

The present article is an attempt at making an inventory of the pictures of devil in Czesław Miłosz’s literary creativity. In the chronological order (from a juvenile text Poems for the Posessed áWiersze dla opętanychñ to end with the poem Late Old Age áPóźna starośćñ) the author shows a fixed presence of the figures of devil in Miłosz’s writings. The devilish problem is also evoked indirectly through the records of the "demonic" state (in Kierkegaard’s view) which in Miłosz’s texts usually takes shape of torment of acedia. Tischner therefore proves that Miłosz’s devils are for the most part ostentatiously anachronistic or amusing but reveal temptations which Miłosz himself faced. Most important of those temptations are urge for dualism that shatters the hope of redemption, urge of historiosophically justified immoralism, urge to doubt into free will, urge for pride and vanity, urge for heartlessness, and ultimately paralysing awareness of one’s own sinfulness which is accompanied by urge for sadness and despair