Samson Agonistes and Spiritual Autobiography

Spiritual autobiography provides a paradigm for understanding structural tensions in Milton's Samson Agonistes. Its intense internalization of plot is characterized, as is Milton's dramatic poem, by a seeming lack of linear progression. The soul is troubled by repeated lapses into self-absorption as it sees its unworthiness and loses sight of God. It must learn to look beyond overwhelming troubles, interpreting them as the mysterious workings of a gracious God. Comparison with autobiographical works by John Bunyan, Thomas Shepard, and Cotton Mather demonstrates how in Samson Agonistes an internalized plot similarly intersects with questions of the relationship between self and God.