Re: Rép. : Re: [Milton-L] Samson as suicidebomber

[JD Fleming]

ok -- yes -- but the point I'm trying to emphasize is that Milton's Samson's strength returns with his hair even while he remains in an apparent state of psychological _dis_conformity with his vow -- wallowing in despair at the beginning of the play, considering himself alienated from God, etc. Samson's recrudescent strength, in _SA_, does not appear to entail a re-commencement of the divine intention that gave him his strength in the first place. Rather, the divine intention, having been impressed upon him, is completely and permanently effective, as it was impressed. Milton's Samson is capable of losing his strength by losing his hair; but he is not capable of losing the correlation between his hair and his strength. I took you to be thinking otherwise. JDF  


----- Original Message -----
From: "James Rovira" <jamesrovira at gmail.com>
To: "John Milton Discussion List" <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
Sent: Friday, May 15, 2009 10:10:50 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Re: Rép. : Re: [Milton-L] Samson as suicidebomber

Could you develop your disagreement, James?  You say this,

<<In point of fact, it is clear throughout SA that the hero's strength
has returned with his hair.>>

I agree with you on that point, and when you say at the end that SA
"does not work that way" I understood you to mean the hair is not
"just" a symbol, which again seems to support my line of reasoning.
It's not "just" a symbol if it is a visible sign of Samson's
conformity to his vow.  I would add that the vow consists entirely and
only of visible signs, comprised of not touching anything dead, not
drinking wine, and not cutting one's hair.

Jim R

On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 1:03 PM, JD Fleming <jfleming at sfu.ca> wrote:

> On the issue of the hair, though, my point is that _SA_ doesn't seem to work along the (conventional, intelligible) lines that you suggest. Quite the contrary -- though the idea of "magical" qualities, perhaps, is not apposite. JDF
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-- 
James Dougal Fleming
Associate Professor
Department of English
Simon Fraser University

"das Fragwuerdige zu sehen"