Samson Agonistes

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1671

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Free Will Versus God’s Plan

The decisions Samson must make during the dramatic poem are complex because it is unclear whether he has failed God, or whether his suffering is part of the path God has intended for him.

Samson believes he is “a person separate to God / Design’d for great exploits (Lines 31-32)—that God “separated” him out from the general population, giving him gifts and a “great” destiny. However, Samson clearly believes in free will, and does not ascribe his entire life to predestination. Samson regularly blames himself for his humiliating punishments, telling his father, “I my self have brought them on” (Line 375). Samson accepts that he has agency, and thus responsibility, for the choices he has made. He turned himself into “a blab” (Line 495), not God.

However, the philosophical discussion is complicated by the omnipotence of the Abrahamic God: A deity who is all-powerful and all-knowing must have foreseen Samson’s fate. The Chorus suggests that Samson’s self-destructive choices are thus a part of God’s plan, which is mostly inscrutable but definite and reasoned: “Just are the ways of God, / And justifiable to Men” (Lines 293-94). Samson’s decision to deflect human intervention—he doesn’t want his father to free him, and he doesn’t go with Dalila—is shown as acceptance of God’s plan for him. Yet the theme remains intricate: Samson’s patience could easily be defiance of the tools God has given him to escape his imprisonment.

The question of free will in Judeo-Christian belief is pervasive; humankind’s first decisions—eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden—test whether a just God would have created Adam and Eve with the foreknowledge that these humans would choose to disobey God’s instructions. In Paradise Lost, Milton addresses this problem: After Adam eats the fruit, God ruefully points out, “I made him just and right, / Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall” (Book 3, Lines 98-99), later adding, “I formd them free, / and free they must remain” (Book 3, Line 124). In other words, Milton sees freedom of will as an absolute: God gives people the strength to “stand” (stay good) and the vulnerability to “fall” (go bad).

In Samson Agonistes, the decisions Samson makes using his own will are shown to be deeply faulty. He accomplishes heroic deeds with God’s gift of strength, but makes disastrous marriage choices when he chooses Philistine women; only by yielding to God’s will rather than his own does he rise again to bring down the Philistines. Within the play, when Samson refuses to perform at the feast for Dagon—the choice of his free will—God’s plan takes over, as “rouzing motions” (Line 1382) cause Samson to change his mind and allow him to destroy the Philistines. Free will is too heavy a responsibility; only by listening for the external messages of God can Samson fulfill his potential.

The Untrustworthiness of Women

Samson’s conviction that he must marry a woman from the adversarial Philistines comes from his interpretation of God’s plan. Samson describes himself undergoing the same external pressure to marry that he does when agreeing to perform for the Dagon feast: He feels “motion’d” (Line 222) by God. However, the poem depicts Samson’s wives—and by extension, all women—as duplicitous, treacherous, and morally weak. Samson’s first wife, Timna, deceives him; his second wife, Dalila, tells his secrets to the Philistines and cuts off his strength-giving hair. The Chorus uses the actions of these women to convict the entire gender: “wisest Men / Have err’d, and by bad Women been deceiv’d” (Lines 210-11). Women are so sneaky that even supremely intelligent men fall for their stratagems.

The poem’s antipathy toward women reaches its zenith when Dalila visits Samson in jail. However plausible her argument that she was unable to stand up to Philistine pressure to glean his magical secrets, Samson refuses to believe that Dalila’s contrite and compassionate pleas are sincere, sneering, “How cunningly the sorceress displays / Her own transgressions” (Lines 819-20). The portrayal of Dalila is sexist: We get little information about her inner life, as the Chorus stresses repeatedly that women exist as decorative objects, beautiful on the outside but lacking “inward gifts” (Line 1026). One problem with this kind of one-sided misogyny is its nonsensical nature: If Dalila is cunning enough to have tricked Samson intentionally, then she indeed has “inward gifts”; however, if all women are innately weak, then expecting Dalila to withstand Philistine pressure makes little sense.

Greatness Versus Meekness

The Old Testament and the New Testament valorize different—sometimes opposing—traits. Since the Old Testament depicts the suffering of the Jewish people in the face of repeated oppression, it prizes strength and martial prowess in heroes like King David. Meanwhile, the more sacrifice-based themes of the New Testament prioritize submission: The Book of Matthew 5:5 states, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”

The Christian Milton recasts his Old Testament hero in New Testament terms, stressing the importance of humility before God over the use of supernatural strength. Before his imprisonment, Samson was not meek. Instead, he acted “like a petty God” (Line 529) who was “swoll’n with pride” (Line 532). However, Samson’s suffering changes him: He loses his physical power and his sight, becoming an introspective and more correctly devout man. The poem documents Samson’s transformation. He realizes how “slight the gift” of physical strength is—that’s why God “hung it in [his] Hair” (Line 59).

Samson’s humbling has a purpose: It reveals him as God’s chosen. The Chorus dwells on Samson’s fall from greatness, noting that God tends to cast out those with “no regard / Of highest favours past” (Lines 684-85). The degrading prisoner experience forces Samson to demonstrate his loyalty to whatever God has in store—a devotion God rewards by giving Samson another chance to help the Israelites. By agreeing to debase himself further in a performance at a feast of the Philistine god Dagon, Samson has the opportunity to demolish the Philistines. The attack kills Samson as well, reinforcing the New Testament’s values of sacrifice and self-effacement.