Chapter Temptation of Samson Agonistes - Study Guide by John Milton

Dalila's final attempt at temptation is to sloth and it is precisely the temptation that Manoa had earlier offered his son - except that with Dalila there is added temptation of carnal indulgence. Samson, however, is ready for Dalila's attempt to play on his emotions and has no difficulty in overcoming her final temptation:

Thy fair enchanted cup, and warbling charms
No more on me have power, their force is nulled,
So much of adder's wisdom I have learnt
To fence my ear against thy sorceries. (ll.934-7)

Upon realising Samson cannot be tempted and deceived, Dalila finally reveals her true self and storms away, 'a manifest serpent by her sting / Discovered in the end, till now concealed' (997-8). The scene is given literary harmony by repetition of the nautical imagery with which it commenced. The Chorus inquires in a rhetorical question, 'What pilot so expert but needs must wreck / Embarked with such a steers-man at the helm?' (ll.1044-45)

From the encounter with Dalila Samson has not learned humility, patience, or faith; it does succeed in raising him out of the apathy, emotional torpor and despair Manoa's visit had instigated in the hero. Dalila's visit is the first of a series that activate Samson. The importance of the encounter is that Samson has used reason to refute her specious arguments and has, with the aid of right reason, overcome her temptations to draw him 'into the snare / Where once I have been caught' (931-2). However, Samson's reaction to temptation at this point is too self-motivated (as his pride has been irritated by Dalila) for positive spiritual growth. It is in the encounters with Harapha and the Philistian Officer that Samson learns selfless service. The trial of temptation offered by Dalila is the necessary prelude to these encounters.

Harapha

The fourth act is divided into two scenes in which Samson is confronted by Harapha, the fictional giant of Gath, and the Philistian Officer; The taunting Harapha and commands of the Officer are, for the hero's regeneration, the most significant of Samson's trials.

Harapha reveals he has heard of Samson's martial feats and has come 'to see of whom such noise / Hath walked about' (ll.1088-9). He laments that they had not collided on the battlefield, so that he might have vindicated Philistian glory, but now 'that honour, / Certain to have been won by mortal duel from thee, / I lose, prevented by thy eyes put out' (ll.1101-3). Samson's impulsive reaction is to challenge the Philistian giant to a trial by single combat. Harapha, who has come only to taunt the fallen Samson, is shaken by the spirited challenge; he alleges that Samson's strength is the product of 'spells / And black enchantments', of 'some magician's art' that 'Armed thee or charmed thee strong' (ll.1132-4). Samson replies with a firm declaration of his God-given strength:

'I know no spells, use no forbidden arts;
My trust is in the living God who gave me
At my nativity this strength, diffused
No less through all my sinews, joints and bones,
Than thine, while I preserved these locks unshorn,
The pledge of my unviolated vow. ' (ll.1139-44)

Harapha's has drawn from Samson an expression of hope, the first in the tragedy. During Manoa's visit he had given over all hope of his divine mission ('all the contest is now / 'Twixt God and Dagon'). But now, forgetting all earlier despair at his sense of heaven's desertion, Samson unconsciously assumes once more his role as God's instrument and provides a positive and conscious declaration of his faith:

All these indignities, for such they are
From thine, these evils I deserve and more,
Acknowledge them from God inflicted on me
Justly, yet despair not of his final pardon
Whose ear is ever open; and his eye
Gracious to readmit the suppliant;
In confidence whereof I once again
Defy thee to the trial of mortal fight,
By combat to decide whose god is God,
Thine or whom I with Israel's sons adore. (ll.1168-77)

The confrontation with Dalila lifted Samson from near despair, and his despair (as illustrated in the Manoa episode) derived from selfish remorse. Once Samson's attention becomes focused on the spiritual rather than on the temporal or physical aspects of his situation, humility and faith become open to him - Harapha's insults invoke a latent belief in God's mercy. Samson always retained faith in divine justice, and from the beginning has accepted personal responsibility for his condition. Nevertheless, as his thoughts had been too often self-centred, he had begun to doubt and finally despair that God tempers justice with