삼손의 마지막 행동 어떻게 볼 것인가?

Abstract

In discussing Milton’s Samson Agonistes the biggest topic of debate is about Samson’s final act. Some critics including Stanley Fish contend that what Samson does in the climatic action of the play(tearing down the Philistine temple and kill thousands of the Philistines) must be considered praiseworthy because it is what God wants him to do. They believe that Samson’s final action, though it takes the form of suicide, is the one which achieves his vocation of delivering his people from the york of the Philistines. On the other hand, others argue that Samson violates God’s law in the last moment because his suicide is certainly a sin God forbids. John Carey especially among them calls the act of pulling down the Philistine temple “morally disgusting,” and a “bloody act of vengeance.” He thinks that his last action brings a massacre and so there are similarities between his destruction and that of modern suicide terrorists. But in order to understand Milton’s intention correctly grasping the meaning of his last act in the overall context of the play is crucial. Samson’s killing himself appears to be voluntary but actually it is resulted from his regeneration from slavery to freedom. His death is not a critical incident in itself but the final outcome of the successive steps which have matured Samson from a slave to a hero. It has significant meaning as the last point in the long process of his regeneration. Starting from his going to the temple of heathen god, his decision is controlled by the divine impulse as Jesus did in Paradise Regained, which means his standard of behaviour has changed from self-centered to God-centered. He is concerned with a life beyond life and takes part in a transcendent ethics and justice. Milton consciously removes Samson’s prayer of personal revenge in the Judges of the Bible from the last scene. Instead his Samson proclaims that he will do a great thing according to the free will of his own. His obedience to God is no longer the pretended one, but the willing obedience of a faithful son of God who has recovered the gift of superhuman strength by his own efforts. And he uses it willingly, it brings his tragic death. In this regard, his final destructive action is anything but similar to that of modern suicide terrorists. His terrorism, if we could call it, takes the form of religiously inspired violence. His final act signifies that he voluntarily participates in God’s work with the regenerate mind which has been acquired by the long and complicated process of struggling with vices and temptations. As a result, his own will and God’s providence can meet and become one simultaneously at this climatic moment. As chorus reveals in his final words, God unexpectedly returns and proves that Samson is his faithful champion. Therefore, it is a convincing explanation hat Milton’s Samson is a “hero of faith” who has overcome his sins and he is also God’s champion who completes his vocation foretold by God through his tragic death.