ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Samson Agonistes, (Greek: “Samson the Athlete” or “Samson the Wrestler”) tragedy by John Milton, published in the same volume as his epic Paradise Regained in 1671.

Detailed explanation-2: -Samson Agonistes was first published in 1671 in one volume with Milton’s four-book epic, Paradise Regain’d.

Detailed explanation-3: -John Milton’s Paradise Lost. John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost was first published in 1667. This copy was printed in 1668, with an adapted title page. In this ‘advent’rous’ poem (1.13), Milton announces his ambition to ‘justify the ways of God to men’ (1.26).

Detailed explanation-4: -Like Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes focuses on the inner workings of the mind of the protagonist. This emphasis flies in the face of the biblical characterization of Samson in the Book of Judges, which celebrates his physical strength.

Detailed explanation-5: -When Milton began Paradise Lost in 1658, he was in mourning. It was a year of public and private grief, marked by the deaths of his second wife, memorialised in his beautiful, and of England’s Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, which precipitated the gradual disintegration of the republic.