Christian Tragedy and Samson Agonistes

Samson Agonistes is Milton’s final work, and as such is remarkable for its lack of finality. The poem is maddeningly oblique; Milton gives no answers, and barely poses any questions. However, Milton succeeds in writing Christian tragedy in Samson Agonistes by presenting the ease with which a Christian can be guided away from a real interaction with his own faith. Samson’s blindness is the blindness of all Christians who seek the path of salvation without divine guidance, and his tragedy is the tragedy of all those who convince themselves they have found it on their own. While Milton is very much working under the circumscription of Greek tragedy, his choices of interlocutors for Sampson speak to his fascination with a major paradox of Christianity: that man cannot work out his faith alone, and yet he must. By removing all direct divine presence from the poem, Milton explores the consequences of following Christian law without striving for Christian faith.

Milton begins Samson Agonistes after the most famous part of the biblical story, after he has been betrayed, blinded and sent to prison. The opening lines speak to the purpose of the whole poem: “A little onward lend thy guiding hand/ To these dark steps, a little further on;/ For yonder bank hath choice of Sun or shade.” (1-3) On the one hand, these lines are merely an exposition of Samson’s movements, but on the other, they reveal a preoccupation with the major themes of the play: guidance and salvation. Milton does not clarify to whom Samson is speaking. As the poem was written to be read, not performed, it is easy enough to imagine a companion to lead Samson on, but that companion is nowhere in the text. Whose, then, is “thy guiding hand?” There is no clear answer, but it...

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