[Milton-L] Samson as suicide bomber

[Harold Skulsky]

A piece of friendly advice: eliminate analytical categories such as "religious motive," "political motive," , "nationalism," etc., from serious interpretation of SA. These categories presuppose (a) that SA draws a fundamental distinction between politics and religion, and (b) that SA adopts a neutral perspective on the dispute between Samson and Dalila -- that is, on the claims of Jehovah and the claims of Dagon. 

As for the religion-politics distinction, both Jehovah and Dagon are political agents in SA -- that is, both are in the business of actively favoring particular outcomes in a struggle between two nations. 

As for the possibility of reading the play as recusing itself from Jehovah v. Dagon, much less surrendering to a permanent suspense of judgment on the matter, (1) SA, to put it mildly, never questions Samson's view that the beings in the Philistine pantheon are "unable / To acquit themselves and prosecute their foes / But by ungodly deeds," and hence are gods in no more than name. (2) It's true (as I have argued at length elsewhere) that Milton in SA delilberately refrains from caulking embarrasssing leaks in the case for the "godlilness" of Jehovah's deeds. On the other hand (as I also argue elsewhere), there is a vast difference between saying, in effect, "Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief," and throwing one's hands up in a fit of cognitive despair.