“In this dark world and wide”: Samson Agonistes and the Meaning of Christian Heroism
Barton, Carol
Early Modern Literary Studies 5.2 (September, 1999)
Abstract
In this essay, I argue that Samson Agonistes is an integral part of Milton’s ultimate definition of Christian heroism, the second of a trilogy of works that begins literally at the pinnacle of human achievement with the Nazarene of Paradise Regained, descends from that unattainable height to the still numenous but theologically problematic Old Testament Nazarite, and finds its most satisfying resolution in the everyman of Adam and Eve. Emanating from the poet’s misgivings over the failure of the Good Old Cause and the concomitant taunt that his blindness was punishment “for the transgressions of [his] pen”, Samson Agonistes thus constitutes Milton’s initial examination of the mechanisms of self-seduction and self-entrapping sophistry that “with words cloth’d in reason’s garb” will lead Samson to marry Dalila, Eve to reach forth her rash hand in evil hour, and Adam to resolve with her to die.
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