Samson Agonistes Literary Elements

Closet Drama – Tragedy

The majority of the play takes place in a prison in Gaza, after Samson has been betrayed by his wife Delila and captured by the Philistines.

In the traditional Greek fashion that inspired Milton, the chorus serves as a type of narrator for the play, offering important context and explanations for the reader. They also offer commentary that sympathizes with Samson. The chorus is meant to represent Samson's brethren in Israel, so while the play is not told from a single perspective, the chorus encourages the reader to pity Samson and hope for justice for Israel.

The overall tone of the poem is one of despair, though the tone shifts to one of courage and determination toward the end when Samson's strength is restored. The mood of the poem is tragic, as the setting is replete with darkness and the conversations Samson has with his visitors only emphasize his fall.

The protagonist is Samson and the antagonists are the Philistines who have imprisoned him.

The overarching conflict is a political and spiritual one between the nation of Israel and the Philistines, as the Philistines worship a false idol called Dagon. Within the bounds of the play, there also exists an interior conflict within Samson himself, as he is tempted multiple times with the potential for release from prison.

The climax of the poem occurs when Samson agrees to go with the officer to the amphitheater. Samson vaguely insinuates that something inside of him has changed, but readers will not know until the messenger arrives that Samson's strength had been restored.

Samson refers to liberty as "strenuous" (271), an assertion that foreshadows the work he must do to save Israel at the end of the play. The chorus's description of Delilah also foreshadows her conversation with Samson, in which she appears trustworthy on the outside but conceals a deceptive selfishness that could lead Samson astray. Finally, Samson's announcement that he feels a change within himself foreshadows the restoration of his strength that he will use to kill the Philistines at the end of the play.

When Samson agrees to leave the prison with the officer, he says, "I begin to feel / Some rousing motions in me which dispose / To something extraordinary my thoughts" (1381-1383). Here, Samson simply notes that something has changed within him, but does not say what it is. This declaration serves as a moment of understatement, likely because Samson is attempting to keep the restoration of his strength a secret so that he can carry out his plan to kill the Philistines without intervention.

Throughout the play, characters – especially the chorus – allude to Samson's past, in which he performed heroic deeds like slaying a lion with his bare hands and killing 1,000 Philistines with only a donkey's jaw bone. These references help highlight how far Samson has fallen from the notable hero he once was for Israel.

The setting of the play is notably devoid of imagery, being characterized only as darkness. This lack of imagery helps cultivate sympathy for Samson as it emphasizes his desperate state of weakness and blindness. Other moments of imagery do not appear first-hand, but are instead described through a third party like the chorus or the messenger at the end of the play. That vivid descriptions are often only reported underscores the extent to which Samson is cut off from experiencing life the same way he did before he was blinded and enslaved by the Philistines.

Samson's weakened state is a paradox because, despite being blind and enslaved by the Philistines, it is his weakness that leads him to reaffirm his commitment to God. In other words, when he is at his weakest physically, he becomes strongest spiritually, suggesting that even those without power or means can serve God effectively.

The play draws a parallel between Delila, Samson's wife who betrayed him, and Eve, who convinced Adam to eat from the tree of knowledge in Paradise Lost. Both Samson and Adam respond to their wives' transgressions with accusations of misogyny. The play also draws a parallel between Samson and Jesus Christ, as both must sacrifice themselves for the benefit of others.

Darkness becomes a metonymical way of referring both to the physical prison to which Samson is confined and to Samson's state of blindness. When characters allude to the "unforeskinn'd race" (1100), they are using metonymy to refer to the men of Israel, who were circumcised.

There is a distinct lack of personification in the play, an absence that contributes to the tone of despair and doom that dominates the prison setting: Samson is surrounded only by darkness and cannot experience the world the same way he could before he was blinded. In this way, Samson is also surrounded by death.