Alfred de Vigny's "La Colère de Samson" and Solar Myth

Alfred de Vigny's "La Colère de Samson," provoked by the failure of his liaison with Marie Dorval, is saturated with bad temper and recrimination. However, it incorporates an expanded and redeeming dimension – a mythic combat of male solar and female lunar principles. Samson ("Shimshon," i.e.; "Shemesh": the sun) is captivated by Dalilah ("laylah": the night) who treacherously consigns him to sightless darkness. Thus freed of his debilitating love for Dalilah, Samson regains his diurnal energy in a cataclismic apotheosis, daybreak. Vigny, like Samson a victim of his own weakness, enhances his own too human role with Biblical and celestial associations. (PAD)