![]() ![]() A chapter on three late sonnets confirms the dialectical cast of Milton's imagination. It is then elaborated by close readings of each episode. This reading is introduced by chapters on Samson's magnanimous pride, his violence, and the characteristic style of his exploits. Performed in an act of servile idolatry, and horribly violent, it confirms his subjection to sin yet, by destroying the theater of his servility, it asserts his identity of God champion. In every episode, it is evident that his heroic drive and inventive powers persist, even though his helplessness absolutely forecloses a career of heroic action.The contradiction of his situation is both epitomized and transcended by his destruction of the temple. Complementing God's act of election is Samson's genius for inventing exploits that prove him God's mighty minister. Between Two Pillars breaks free of the regenerist-revisionist controversy over Samson Agonistes by discerning a dialectical opposition between Samson's irrevocable election by God and his subjection-instanced by his slavery-to a fallen, un-Godly order. ![]()
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