A
Review of the Fabulous “Megillat Esther”, Recently Issued
in Shushan, Capital City of Persia
By Curt Leviat
The Book of Esther is an outstanding example of storytelling. Written
c. 350 BCE, this tale contains all the timeless literary devices: a well-made
plot; conflict and suspense; dramatic irony; believable characters; foreshadowing;
and a harmonious structure.
At the opening royal feast we meet Ahasuerus, the mighty king of Persia
and see how hastily he disposes of his wife, Queen Vashti, when she disobeys
him, foreshadowing the similar dispatch with which he later orders the
Jews condemned to death.
Now the king must have a queen. A beauty contest is announced and Esther—advised
by her uncle and guardian, Mordecai, not to reveal her Jewishness—wins
and marries the monarch. Soon Mordecai (end of Chapter Two), a minor court
official, unearths an assassination plot against the king.
Instead of informing Ahasuerus directly, Mordecai instructs Esther to
bring the news. Thus both Mordecai and Esther can win favor. Mordecai’s
discovery, inscribed in the king’s Book of Chronicles, is pertinent
to the story’s development.
The main protagonists—the foolish king, the lovely Esther, the wise
Mordecai—have made their appearance. Now, for conflict and tension—enter
the villain, Haman, in Chapter Three. Everyone must bow to him, but Mordecai
refuses. When Haman realizes that Mordecai does not bow because he is
a Jew, he plans to destroy all the Jews. Lots—Purim in Hebrew—are
cast, and the pre-spring month of Adar is chosen.
Since the insubordinate Mordecai is Jewish, Haman infers that the entire
Jewish people are disobedient and moreover, their “laws are diverse”
(3;8).
Haman persuades the king by promising lots of silver to the royal treasury
–booty from the slain Jews.
The chapter concludes. “And the king and Haman sat down to drink,
but the city of Shushan was perplexed…”(3;15)—a hint
that people in the city realize that a wrong had been committed against
the Jews.
In contrast to the opening moods of revelry, Chapter Four begins with
mourning and pathos. Mordecai tells Esther of the coming disaster and
asks her to intercede. Fearing for her own life, she hesitates, for no
one may come before the king uninvited, on pain of death. Mordecai counters
that the fate of Esther and the Jews are one. If she remains silent now,
salvation will come from elsewhere; and perhaps for this very reason has
Esther been made queen.
Esther asks the Jews in Shushan to fast for three days, after which she
will go to the king. Here, at mid point of the story (5:2), when Esther
is before the king, the reversal starts; the heroes rise, the villain’s
fall commences.
But Esther does not state her request immediately. That evening she prepares
a banquet for the king, Haman and herself.
She postpones her appeal until the following day, when all three will
dine again. This artful postponement adds suspense and permits the inclusion
of yet another strand to the story.
After Esther’s invitation we read that Haman was happy (5;9)—a
wonderful bit of dramatic irony, for the villain does not suspect his
imminent downfall.
Interestingly, each of the male protagonists has a woman involved with
plot movement: King Ahasuerus-Vashti; Mordecai-Esther; Haman-Zeresh. Haman
takes his wife’s suggestion to prepare a high gallows for Mordecai.
The craft of fiction demands that some strands that later intersect should
at first be left dangling. Three appear at the beginning of Chapter Six:
Can Esther save the Jews at the banquet? Will Haman hang Mordecai? Has
Mordecai’s service to the king been forgotten?
The writer picks up strand number three.
A few hours after having dined with Esther, the insomniac king calls for
the Book of Chronicles and realizes that Mordecai has not been adequately
rewarded for saving his life. The king asks who is in the court. Fortunately,
it is Haman, about to request that Mordecai be hanged for treason. At
this moment, the villain and hero are at delicious cross-purposes.
The king asks Haman how to bestow honors upon a deserving man. The vain
Haman, assuming he’s being considered, suggests something grand:
that man should ride royally clad on horseback, throughout Sushan, while
all praise him.
Then do so to Mordecai, the king tells Haman.. And Haman, so high-spirited
the previous day, hastens home in mourning (6;12).
Now Zeresh changes her mind. Since Mordecai is a Jew, she tells Haman,
you don’t have a ghost of a chance. At once the king’s messenger
enters and hastens Haman to Esther’s second banquet.
Note that this little section begins with Haman hastening home (6:12),
and concludes with his being hastened away.
Another example of the story’s irony are these carefully chosen
words, a tongue-in-cheek parallel to the speed with which the couriers
“hastened” (3:15) to spread the edict for the Jews destruction.
At the second banquet, Esther petitions for the lives of her people. The
king asks who is the perpetrator of the crime.
Esther points to Haman. Ahasuerus, enraged, leaves. Haman falls on Esther’s
couch to beg for mercy. When the king returns, he assumes Haman is attacking
the queen. Ahasuerus orders Haman hanged on the gallows built for Mordecai.
At the close of the narrative the villain has been destroyed, but the
evil he has set into motion must be stopped. But Persian law states that
a royal edict cannot be recalled. The most the king can do is give the
Jews the right of self-defense. Again, the couriers hasten to deliver
the news.
Haste and speed are elements in the latter part of this tale. During the
first half of the Book of Esther time moves at a leisurely pace. The beginning
is either measured in months--the 180- day banquet, the twelve months
of purification during the beauty contest— or indefinite time gaps.
Gradually, however, time becomes compressed. When Esther decides to go
to the king, time is measured by days. From then events follow not by
the day, but by the hour.
Action occurs swiftly around the clock.
Afternoon: Esther before the king.
Evening: the first banquet.
Night: The king’s insomnia.
Middle of the night: Haman in the king’s chamber
Morning: Honoring of Mordecai.
Noontime: The crucial second banquet.
Afternoon: Haman’s demise; the new edict in favor of the Jews; Mordecai
becomes the king’s right hand man.
Ironic reversal is a favorite literacy device of the author. Haman comes
up to bury Mordecai, not to praise him, yet ends up honoring, not hanging
him. The very gallows prepared for Mordecai are used to hang Haman; the
Jew’s day of doom turns into a day of joy. Whereas before (3: 15)
“
Shushan was perplexed”, now “Shushan rejoiced.”
In Chapter Nine; the story ends. The Jews defend themselves and are victorious.
To the end of the tale an epilogue is appended. Purim is established as
a holiday for all time, a day “of fasting and joy, and of; sending
portions to another, and gifts to the poor.” (9;22)
In our story all the characters act of their own volition. Inner human
drives move them. Unlike other biblical stories, there is no deus ex machina.
Not only is God not mentioned in the Book of Esther—the only book
in the Bible without the word “ God” -- there is no hint of
any supernatural force.
The book opens with feasting and joy in Sushan and in the palace; it concludes
with feasting and joy for the Jews of the realm. Upon this artistically
harmonious note concludes the Book of Esther, one of the most perfect
narratives in the Bible.
Curt Leviant’s most recent fiction is the widely praised two-novella
collection, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Original Music of the Hebrew Alphabet
and Weekend in Mustar
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