Although not specifically concerned with Milton's tragic drama, Gilbert and Gubar's The Madwoman in the Attic clearly implies that Milton's misogynistic hatred of all “effeminate creation” receives its final expression in Samson's “crushing” revenge upon Dalila and the full flower of her effeminate people. In return, his literary daughters are licensed to “Samsonize” the godlike bard lest they fall victim to his “bogey,” the hierophant who makes women “at best a serviceable second” to masculine creation by associating the feminine principle with the satanic principle. From that perspective, the real hero of Samson Agonistes is Dalila, whose wrongs should be righted by critical daughters ready and willing to transvaluate the drama's fallen ethics. Yet while their advice is specifically aimed at a female readership, Gilbert and Gubar are hardly unique in carrying on Samuel Johnson's old campaign against Milton's reputed misogyny, masculinism, paternalism, and elitism.