Character Development in MT Esther

Through this literary reading of MT Esther, Bernard Tola determines—in this early example of a novel—whether character change and complexity can be discerned in the four main characters: Esther, Mordecai, Ahasuerus and Haman. Characterization in MT Esther has widely been assessed as flat and unchanging, resulting in portrayals that lack depth, with the possible exception of Esther herself. In this view, the characters remain superficial, merely fulfilling archetypal roles or representing static wisdom types.

Tola investigates if the narrative is more concerned with the quality of Jewish life in the diaspora rather than with depicting character. This monograph shows how the author of Esther makes use of a wide range of tools in their work with characterization, creating a variety of characters that interact with each other in interesting and sometimes surprising ways.

By applying the anthropological model of Cultural Theory, Tola provides a typology for linking worldview and behaviour. Tola uses this for analysing the interactions between different worldviews, clarifying the cultural commitments of the four main characters. Other methodologies are used to analyse how the worldviews and psychology of the characters manifest themselves through their speech. They provide a means of investigating the interactions between protagonists and of identifying character changes.

This study establishes that the many clashes between the various characters arise from differences in their worldviews, that the result of these clashes is often a change in worldview, and that the worldviews of the characters fuel the plot of the narrative. In their own way, the four main characters change in the course of the narrative. Their changes are sometimes abrupt, sometimes gradual, sometimes profound and sometimes do not amount to character development. Their changes are, however, always important in the narrative.