Just as the ever-wise Dr. Sexson explained time and time again, almost every major literary work written has some influence from the Bible, and the Bible is one of the most important anthologies ever written. One Old Testament tale that is especially intriguing is the story of Esther. Though it is a minor book, this story has become a very important part of Jewish culture, along with Passover and the story of Jonah and the fish. Jews now still, after thousands of years, recite the story during the feast of Purim. Esther tells the story of a young woman who is chosen by King Ahasuerus (also known as Xerxes) to be the Queen of Persia. However, she is Jewish and soon learns of a plot by the King’s second in command, Haman, to kill the Jews, including her uncle Mordechai, the man who raised her. Bravely, she risks death and tells the King about Haman’s plot. He surprisingly spares Esther’s life and has Haman killed while Mordechai is rewarded. It is a story that has been repeated time and time again, names and locations changed. The story of Esther stands out predominantly in four well-known and classic novels: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo, and The Slave by Isaac Bashevis Singer. Esther is an immortal role model “not because of her external beauty and not because she was queen of a powerful empire, but because of her inner fortitude and devotion” (Kohn). Throughout the book to which she lends her name, Esther continually demonstrates a deep devotion to God, honesty, modesty, and generosity. The authors of these four novels, even if they did not know it, have also created enduring characters who share these same traits.
Atticus Finch in Harper Lee’s undying tale of bravery, acceptance, and love, is one of these characters. Atticus is very similar to Esther in many ways. He stands up for Tom Robinson when the whole town believes he is guilty, just as Esther stands up for Mordechai even though Haman wants him dead. Both Atticus and Esther are very modest. While Esther is being prepared to meet the king, she asks for no special treatment; rather, she reluctantly accepts any treatment at all: “Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abigail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, was come to go in unto the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king's chamberlain, the keeper of the women, appointed” (2:15). Atticus behaves similarly when he is asked to shoot the rabid dog. Everyone knows that Atticus is the best shot in the town, but he expresses profound modesty by, at first, rejecting the gun and rebuking their claims of his marksmanship. Atticus displays his generosity by refusing any payment, save for a basket of vegetables, from Walter Cunningham for his legal dues. Esther prepares not one but two banquets for the King and Haman, who she knows is trying to kill her family. One difference between the two of them is that Atticus loses his case for Tom Robinson, while Esther convinces the King not to kill her people.
A surprising similarity rises between Esther and Randle McMurphy of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Even though the personalities of the two people are completely different, their actions throughout their respective tales give the parallel away. First of all, both Randle and Esther are striving for something outside of themselves. Esther is trying to save Mordechai and her people, and Randle is trying to help the patients in the institution break free of the oppressive rule of Nurse Ratched. They both face a great amount of danger. Esther risks death by approaching the King without being summoned: “All the king's servants, and the people of the king's provinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, [there is] one law of his to put [him] to death” (4:11). She is spared, but Randle is not so lucky, forced to undergo a lobotomy, then is mercifully suffocated by Chief Broom.
A female character whose story parallels Esther’s is La Esmeralda from Victor Hugo’s Notre Dame de Paris (a title later Americanized to The Hunchback of Notre Dame). Early in their stories, both Esther and Esmeralda marry men for a cause, not because they love them. Esther marries King Ahasuerus because she believes God has a plan for her. She is very young and doesn’t know the King at all, but is brave and knows that God has a plan for her. Esmeralda, in turn, marries the poet to save his life. Esther, however, is faithful to her King, as far as we know, while Esmeralda goes on to have an affair with Phoebus. Though Esmeralda has character flaws like committing adultery and occasionally being cruel to Quasimodo, she sticks to her morals when she tells Frollo she will not sleep with him or marry him, a choice that later results in death. Esther also obeys her morals by standing up for her Judaism and admitting to the King that she herself is a Jew so that Mordechai does not die. An interesting correlation between the lives of the two characters is that they are both put in a lower social stratum because of their heritage. Esmeralda is a Gypsy of Egyptian descent, and looked down upon because she is poor and a beggar (a character trait to be expected, knowing Hugo). Esther is Jewish. Mordechai advises her to keep her heritage a secret until she is married so that she is not judged for her religion: “Esther had not shewed her people nor her kindred: for Mordecai had charged her that she should not shew [it]” (2:10). Esmeralda definitely has bouts of spiteful behavior in the book, but shows kindness too. After Frollo recruits Quasimodo to attack her, he is punished and jailed. She brings him water, even though he was trying to kidnap her. Esther invites Haman to two dinners even though she knows he wants to kill her uncle, and that he would kill her if he found out who she really was.
Perhaps the strongest similarity is that between Wanda/Sarah in The Slave and Esther. Singer based the characters in his book off of Biblical ones. Sarah is most obviously connected to Rachel, but the comparison is not entirely fair because it is in the context of her marriage to Jacob, not a metaphor for her own personality. The first obvious connection between the Esther and Sarah is that they both leave their homes and lives for a purpose; Sarah loves Jacob, so she leaves everything she knows behind to be with him, even though she knows she will never really be accepted as a Jew. Esther leaves her modest life behind to become the Queen of Persia, one of the biggest empires at the time. Both journeys would have been incredibly frightening, exhibiting the intense bravery of the two women. Sarah does not speak, because she knows she will face persecution if she does and poses as a deaf mute. However, when Pilitsky threatens to hurt Jacob, Sarah risks everything and speaks up. Esther also hides her Judaism from the King until her people are threatened. She tells the King she is Jewish and that Haman is trying to kill her uncle, not knowing what will happen. In all reasoning, the King should have sided with Haman, the man who was his second-in-command for much longer than Esther was his wife. “Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request:For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage. Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so? And Esther said, The adversary and enemy [is] this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen. And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath [went] into the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king” (7:3-7). Against the odds, he sides with Esther and the Jewish people are saved. Sarah’s fate is not so optimistic, but she lives a virtuous life after marrying Jacob until her death.
The three novels mentioned are only a few examples amidst hundreds more. It is not hard to see why the Jews tell the story of Esther every year: to remind themselves to be brave in the midst of danger, to trust God, and to believe in themselves during hard times. The story is undying, and Esther’s character becomes a muse for countless authors. The book’s message transcends sex, religion, race, age, and location. Esther is one of the most important books in the most important book, and Esther the Queen will continue to be remembered forever, even after another three thousand years.
Works Cited
Hugo, Victor. Notre Dame de Paris. New York: A Wessels Company. 1902. Book.
Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. New York: Penguin Books. 1962. Book.
Kohn, Leah. “The Essence of Esther: A Character Study of Judaism in Exile.” Women in Judaism. 2000.
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Philadelphia: Lippincott Company, 1960. Book.
Singer, Isaac Bashevis. The Slave. New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 1962. Book.
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