Sunset

Sunset is the temporal threshold at which Samson wakes from deep sleep and returns to consciousness of his desire for Delilah. In the passage, dusk over the Pacific Ocean closes his sleep but does not bring immediate haste: he checks the time and remains in bed, newly aware that he has dreamed for the first time in years.

The Sunset Wake

Samson wakes as the sun sets over the Pacific Ocean. His dream has replayed the passion of his night with Delilah as a series of gentle aftershocks, making the transition from sleep to evening inseparable from the memory of their intimacy. The dream is notable not merely for its content but because dreaming itself has been absent from his experience for years.

Evening and Desire

Although Samson is in no hurry to get up, his attention quickly shifts from the dream to wanting Delilah again. His desire is physical and urgent, expressed as an ache he wants her to ease. Elsewhere, an evening greeting and the question of whether Samson is awake place Delilah's presence within the same broad time of day, though the text does not identify that later moment as sunset. Thus sunset is a precise turning point in Samson's scene, while evening also provides a looser frame for the household's activity.