Summary
Samson is in a dungeon prison in Gaza. He fumbles around, blinded after having his eyes gouged out by Philistines. Samson laments his current state and thinks about the man he used to be and the many feats he performed. He briefly wonders if this was God's plan all along, but decides that he ended up in this state due only to his own poor decision making in revealing his weakness to a woman.
His blindness is the part of his imprisonment that is most insufferable for him. He describes blindness as a type of living death. The chorus appears, and wonders if it is truly Samson they are seeing. They recount his famous deeds— slaying a lion with his bare hands and killing 1,000 Philistines with nothing but a donkey's jaw bone. Now, the chorus laments alongside Samson: he is doubly imprisoned, as his blindness becomes its own form of dungeon.
Samson and the chorus together recount the events that led up to his imprisonment, including how the men of Judah betrayed Samson and handed him over to the Philistines. Samson scorns these men for choosing to serve the Philistines, arguing that people are more likely to choose "Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty" (271). The chorus remarks that despite Samson's predicament, God is just, and those who doubt God's power will never be satisfied. The chorus announces that Samson's father, Manoa, quickly approaches and advise Samson to receive him.
Analysis
The beginning of the drama focuses on establishing its unique setting and temporal perspective. Milton chooses to tell Samson's story in an unconventional way. Rather than begin with Samson's auspicious birth and follow him through his numerous impressive feats, Milton begins Samson Agonistes at the end of Samson's life. What's more, the drama opens with Samson as his lowest point: blind, enslaved, and fumbling around a dungeon prison in Gaza. Critics have often compared Samson to Milton himself, who was completely blind by the time he wrote the play, and who died only three years after the work was published. Many have interpreted Samson Agonistes as Milton's dying work, coming at the end of his career and signifying his continued dedication to poetry and to God. However, the unique timing of the setting also reflects Milton's political aims. The restoration of the English monarchy had recently occurred, leaving many with questions about the fate of the nation. For Milton, whose vocal favor of a commonwealth in the early days of the English Civil Wars also landed him in prison, the restoration was in part an undoing of the political activism of which he had been a part. The country was plagued with uncertainty about what shape the restored monarchy would take, and Samson Agonistes can be interpreted as Milton's final reaffirmation that uncorrupted faith in God is the best course of action for the individual and the nation.
This initial section of the drama focuses on Samson's devastating fall. Both he and the chorus (which Milton employs in the style of Greek tragedy) lament the difference between his former state—powerful, famous, and unparalleled in strength—and his current one—destitute, enslaved, and blind. Blindness, Samson declares, is by the far the most insufferable aspect of his imprisonment. The chorus agrees, declaring that Samson now lives in a "prison within a prison" (153). This preoccupation with blindness is significant to the drama in two major ways: first, Milton himself was blind when he wrote the text, and Samson's despair over his blindness undoubtedly expresses some of Milton's own thoughts about his life as a poet who cannot see. Second, and more important, Samson's blindness is perceived as incompleteness and even idleness; he wonders whether it is worth it to even continue living if he cannot see. For Samson, his strength was one of the ways he glorified God in the name of Israel, but his blindness now cuts him off from God's creation. The intent focus on Samson's blindness therefore sets up one of the central questions in the play—how those without power or means can effectively serve God.
