Esther
is one of the most famous people from the Old Testament.
The story of her life, as told in the Biblical book
bearing her name, has been adapted to the stage and film.
Joan Collins
played her in Esther and the King (1960); Tiffany
Dupont played her in One Night with the King (2006)
based on the novel by Tommy Tenney.
In 2013,
Jen Lilley
played the role in The Book of Esther.
It is easy to see why the book has captured the interest of
storytellers in several media. It has court
intrigues, romance,
poetic justice,
a beauty
pageant, culture
clashes, political
and religious
oppression,
just to name a few elements a storyteller or reader of almost any persuasion
might latch onto. You can bring many viewpoints to this book and carry many interpretations
from it, though the book also provides its own interpretation.
Esther takes place during the reign of the Persian King Ahasuerus
(generally identified as Xerxes I). He
puts aside his wife, Queen Vashti, and his
princes arrange an elaborate campaign to find a replacement. Esther is forcibly
recruited into the competition. Esther is a Jewish woman, a ward of
her relative
Mordecai,
who serves in Ahasuerus’ court. He secretly advises her, her humility and kindness win
her favor in with the head caretaker of the harem, and her beauty wins the
king. Meanwhile, Haman,
a high official who has come to hate Mordecai, hatches a plan to destroy the
Jewish people through the empire. Esther risks her life to appeal to the king
and thwart Haman’s plan. This summary hardly does justice to the story, though
even in the Bible the style is plain.
These events are the genesis of the Jewish festival of Purim. This is
where the internal interpretation of the book comes in. Esther is celebrated
for her courage
to act. In addition to that, the hand of God, who is barely
mentioned in the book, is seen throughout the events. He puts someone in place
to rescue the Jewish captives from their enemies. He elevates Esther and
Mordecai to give them protection while they are under the rule of foreigners.
Though the people were threatened with genocide, God
used the situation to preserve them and possibly even set up their eventual
return to their homeland.
The historical
books of the Bible are generally written in a plain, narrative style, though it
occasionally records songs or
other literary forms. Esther stands out in that it is almost novelistic. The conflict
escalates to a climax
followed by a brief denouement.
This makes it a very engaging book.
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