To Milton, drama implied Greek tragedy, as against the Elizabethan, Jacobean and Restoration dramatists' forms. Milton wrote against the 'error of mixing comic stuff with tragic sadness and gravity'. Before Milton, Sir Philip Sidney, in his Defence of Poesie, discussed mixed genres with some ambivalence. Similarly, in Hamlet Shakespeare used the buffoon Polonius to parody such mixing (although Shakespeare himself frequently mixed tragedy and comedy).
Neither the structure nor style of Milton's works can be discussed without his central preoccupation with theological concerns. For example Greek or Latin epics, or even Aristotelian principles, are largely irrelevant to an examination of either Paradise Lost or Paradise Regained. For Samson Agonistes however, given Milton's profession of his concern to follow Aristotle's guidelines advocated in the Poetics and the examples of Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles, comparing the poem to the precepts of Greek tragedy is useful. Milton's tragedy is closest to Aeschylus, but also draws on Euripides (his favourite dramatist) and Sophocles. Samson Agonistes resembles Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound in its stark simplicity - that is, few characters, a simple plot, and concentration of the principal or central figure.
In his Poetics, Aristotle defined 'Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its katharsis of such emotions... Every Tragedy, therefore, must have six parts, which parts determine its quality - namely, Plot, Characters, Diction, Thought, Spectacle, Melody.' This first part of this passage is that which Milton invoked at the beginning of the Preface to Samson Agonistes, a revelation of the poet's intentions to follow the precepts of Greek tragedy. In considering Milton's adherence to the rules of Greek tragedy.
In Greek tragedy, plot is the 'first principle' and the most important feature. Aristotle defined plot as 'the arrangement of the incidents', that is, not the story itself but the way the incidents are presented, the structure of the play. Aristotle maintained that tragedies where the outcome depends on a tightly constructed cause-and-effect chain of actions are superior to those that depend primarily on the character and personality of the protagonist. Milton followed this in his composition of Samson Agonistes making Samson's spiritual regeneration the crux of the plot, itself progressive and dependent on the intercession of the other characters (and even the unseen 'character' of God) more so than on the hero himself. Each of the incidents, his confrontations with Manoa, Dalila, Harapha, the Philistian Officer, contribute to the ongoing process of Samson's spiritual recovery and eventual catharsis.
According to classical Greek rules for effective tragedy, the plot must be 'complete', having 'unity of action'. By this Aristotle means that the plot must be structurally self-contained, with the incidents bound together by internal necessity, each action leading inevitably to the next with no outside intervention, no deus ex machina. According to Aristotle, the worst kinds of plots are 'episodic,' in which the episodes or acts succeed one another without probable or necessary sequence'; the only thing that ties together the events in such a plot is the fact that they happen to the same person. In Samson Agonistes, the hero's inner tribulations unify the plot and connect the sequence of events.
While the poet cannot change the myths that are the basis of his plots, he 'ought to show invention of his own and skilfully handle the traditional materials' to create unity of action in his plot. Milton certainly does this, bringing alterations to the Samson story found in the Biblical accounts.
For Aristotle, character has the second place of importance in tragedy. In a perfect tragedy, character will support plot - personal motivations will be intricately connected parts of the cause-and-effect chain of actions producing pity and fear in the audience. The protagonist should be renowned and prosperous, so his change of fortune can be from good to bad. Samson's was undeniably a well-known and influential story in Milton's times.
The form of Samson Agonistes and many of the tragedy's characteristics are Greek. The characters however are Hebraic, drawn from the Book of Judges XIII-XVI. For Samson Agonistes, Milton carefully followed scripture, as he had done with Paradise Lost. The poet did however elaborate and develop certain features in order to heighten the poignancy of the tragedy. For example in the Bible, Dalila is Samson's mistress rather than, as Milton makes her, his wife. But most notably Milton's characterisation of Samson is very different from that of the Bible.
The change, Aristotle noted, 'should come about as the result, not of vice, but of some great error or frailty in a character.' Samson's fall from grace, to which we are introduced at the beginning of the tragedy, was indeed the result of his own weaknesses - his three-fold sins of pride, doubt and presumption.
In the ideal tragedy, the protagonist will mistakenly bring about his own downfall - not because he is sinful or morally weak, but because he lacks wisdom. One of the preconditions for Samson's spiritual regeneration is that he be educated in the error of his pride, presumptuousness and doubt in God. Though Samson's lack of wisdom (which he laments in his early soliloquy) relative to his strength has led the hero to err from God's will, his education, or anagnorisis, allows for redemption.
Indeed Samson does undergo what Aristotle calls 'a change from ignorance to knowledge' during his confrontations. At the end of the tragedy, in the final 'scene of suffering', Samson dies in the ruins of the temple of Dagon with the Philistian lords, however rather than the 'downfall' or catastrophe of Greek tragedy, Samson's fate by virtue of his 'great act' is that of heroic martyrdom in pursuit of his vocation.
By applying the presages of Greek tragedy to a Biblical story of spiritual regeneration and the realisation of vocation, Milton has inversed the rules that govern tragic plot. We encounter the fallen Samson in the prison-house at Gaza, blind, enslaved, immersed in self-pity, doubting both God and his own vocation. During the course of the tragedy, we witness the hero's gradual spiritual regeneration and reconciliation with God's grace. The tragedy concludes with the spiritually regenerated Samson dead, but having answered his calling and realised his vocation. Thus Samson's change of fortune is from bad to good (rather than the usual good to bad); he returns to God's favour and at the end of the tragedy answers divine charge to go to the temple of Dagon to fulfil his vocation as God's champion and Israel's deliverer. Milton followed the convention of tragedy in the final act: Samson's 'great act' at the temple of Dagon is made known only through the dialogue of the Messenger and reports of distal noise from the temple.
Aristotle argues that the Chorus should be fully integrated into the play like an actor; choral odes should not be 'mere interludes' but should contribute to the unity of the plot. Milton deployed the Chorus in Samson Agonistes as an integral part of the development of the plot.
Critics have debated whether a Christian could write tragedy as the essence of the genre is nullified by belief in either a providential God or the prospect of eternal reward for the protagonist. Milton himself had no such reservation about these inconsistencies; he had asked in his Commonplace Book on Lactantius' hostility to drama.
For what in all philosophy is more important or more exalted than a tragedy rightly produced, what more useful for seeing at a single view the events and changes of human life?