In a dichotomy that continues to plague media depictions of female sexuality to this day, biblical women have a strong history of falling into one of two unflattering characterizations : victim or villain. Especially when sexuality is involved, these women often even manage to fulfill both roles, victims of the consequences of their own sexual ills. Both holders and victims of their uncontrolled sexuality, these women lure men towards their disappearance, often while encountering their own. Eve, the archetypal fallen woman, on whose shoulders rests the responsibility for humanity's earthly suffering, has successors throughout the Old Testament in numerous biblical seductresses, including Bathsheba, Delilah and, well of course, the always familiarly famous Jezebel. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In many ways, the apocryphal Judith appears not only as a departure, but perhaps even a subversion of this problematic trope. Unlike her attractive counterparts, Judith is neither a victim nor a villain, but rather a heroine. Throughout her narrative, Judith maintains complete control over her own sexuality, manipulating it in a calculated – and God-sanctioned – attempt to exploit her enemy. However, even with this manipulative side, Judith is not presented as a cautionary tale about the dangers of female sexuality. Thus, Judith resists both the victimization which corrupts Bathsheba's sexuality, as well as the villainous connotation which haunts Delilah. However, although Judith in many ways subverts the problematic dichotomy between victim and villain that plagues many of her biblical counterparts, her narrative ultimately remains hampered by a religious context that refuses to allow Judith to fully play her role. Using Judith's Old English poetic reimagining as the basis of the story, my argument traces the way in which the narrative attempts to portray Judith as an active hero, but ultimately subverts its own goal, inadvertently depriving Judith of her free will via excessive dependence. on traditional religious values, particularly sexual purity.I. The HeroineAt first glance, Judith's story manifests itself as a provocative narrative extolling female sexuality as a source of power. Using her feminine charm, Judith takes advantage of the lust and indulgent appetites of the wicked Holofernes, murdering him in his bed after he passes out in a drunken stupor. In this way, Judith transforms a position of submission – a woman led into his bed for sexual purposes at her request – into a position of power. Decapitating Holofernes in her own bed, Judith appears to overturn a narrative that views women as victims of sexual objectification, instead establishing a narrative in which women use their sexuality to gain power. Caryn Tamber-Rosenau also sees Judith, in her original apocryphal incarnation, as something. of a rare biblical feminist icon. Taking note, as I do, of Judith's ability to maintain both innocence and heroism in a narrative that depicts her as both sexual and ultimately murderous, Tamber-Rosenau contrasts Judith with two other "biblical bathers » notables, Bathsheba and Susanna. Both Bathsheba and Susanna succumb to the male gaze, becoming victims of their own sexuality as well as the guilty villains whose art of seduction, however unintentional, is responsible for the demise of a male hero. On the other hand, Judith, Tamber-Rosenau asserts, “takes control of the male gaze and does not let go, using thislook to achieve one’s own ends” (71). In this way, Judith becomes an active subject in a way that none of her counterparts are capable of doing. Judith is not the unwitting victim of her own attraction that Bathsheba and Susanna become in the hands – or eyes – of the voyeurs who desire them. As Tamber-Rosenau notes, Judith escapes the punishment her counterparts receive for their sexuality. “Here,” she says, “he who is looked at does not suffer. Instead, the reader jumps straight to the punishment visited on the viewer” (70). Judith's sexuality is not a source of vulnerability. Rather, it is a form of force, ultimately a weapon over which she actively maintains and exercises total control. What sets Judith apart from her objectified counterparts, ultimately, is that she is not condemned for her actions. The other most notoriously sexual women in the Bible are often victims, along with the men they seduce, of their own sexuality, and face their demise even if they do not knowingly or actively exercise this sexual prowess. Meanwhile, those who do, the temptresses and deliberate seductresses like Delilah and Jezebel, are presented as warnings about the dangers of female sexuality. Interestingly, Judith manages to escape both of these roles. She is neither the passive victim to whom sexuality falls prey, nor does her active and deliberate seduction of Holofernes condemn her to an eternity as a villain. Instead, Judith manages to become a heroine, despite her overt sexuality and her deliberate use of it for destructive purposes. Throughout the poem she retains a number of honorable titles and epithets, "the holy woman" (l. 97), "the noble one" (l. 256), "the courageous woman" (l. 107) , and is rewarded. by God with “honor and glory in the kingdom of this earth, and also as a reward in heaven” (l. 342-43). In this way, Judith resists being victimized or vilified by her sexuality, paving the way for a new tradition of literary heroines using their charm to their advantage who would reemerge centuries later in the form of Vanity Fair's Becky Sharp or Scarlett from Gone with the Wind. O’Hara. Like Judith, these women become formidable rather than dangerous. They are powerful and cunning, but still sympathetic characters, rather than villains presented as a warning.II. Although Judith's tale initially reads as an unexpected feminist triumph hidden in the apocrypha, the story, particularly its reincarnation in Old English poetry, ultimately reinforces a far from revolutionary view of female power and sexuality . In fact, the poem's very attempts to "save" Judith, to spare her any blame or vilification for her actions, ultimately deprive her of the authority and agency that made her such an impressive feminist heroine in the first place. place. Through the poem's insistence on maintaining Judith's innocence and purity, the heroine becomes less a free agent of her own sexuality than a vehicle for God. The story evolves from a provocative tale of a warrior woman to that of a faithful servant of the Lord. The poem's unintentional subversion of its heroine may be due, in part, to the cultural climate in which the story's Old English reincarnation was born, increasingly dominated by Christianity and its rigid sexual mores. The poem is essentially a Christian translation of the Jewish text, containing anachronistic references to Christ throughout. Judith, in her Christian reincarnation, is called “the servant of the Savior” and appeals to the “glorious Trinity” (l. 74, 86). This Christian influence is also manifested in the ultimately pejorative treatment of sexualityin the poem. Although at first glance the story of Judith appears to be a rare example in which a biblical woman is free to use her sexuality as a source of power, it is important to note that, at least in the Old English poem, Judith's story does not really praise sexuality, whether male or female. The poem constantly reinforces Judith's sexual purity. Although not a virgin, Judith is a chaste widow, a status which gives her repeated epithets such as "the blessed maiden", "the maiden of the Lord", and "the bold maiden" (l. 35 , 166, 334.) In fact. , Judith's sexual purity seems to be her main source of praise throughout the poem. Meanwhile, the villain of the poem, the evil Holofernes, is characterized as such primarily by his sexual appetites. Holofernes is condemned throughout the text as "the licentious one", whose desire for Judith seems to be the direct consequence of his corrupt state (l. 256). While the poem traces Judith's heroism primarily through her sexual chastity, it also establishes Holoferenes' evil through his sexual deviance. Meanwhile, another important feature of the story is that the sexuality exercised by Judith remains unexploited. With God's help, "the holy maiden" escapes her fate of sexual "defilement" at the hands of Holofernes: "He intended to rape the brilliant woman by defilement and by sin" (l. 59). The repeated praise of Judith's virginity throughout the poem indicates that she would not have been so generously rewarded by God if her sexual purity had been compromised. Ultimately, although Judith's sexuality grants her a position of power, her heroic status comes with the implicit requirement that her sexuality remain unconsummated. Thus, the story ultimately continues the tradition of separating sexuality and heroism. Although Judith can play with the idea of ​​sex and sexuality and tease it to her advantage, she must ultimately remain chaste in order to maintain her status as a hero. Meanwhile, the poem's almost didactic condemnation of sexuality, alongside its obvious promotion of chastity, ultimately only serves to disempower Judith. of his free will and authority. In her analysis, Tamber-Rosenau goes on to argue that Judith not only escapes the fate of her victimized and reviled biblical counterparts, but ultimately manages to "subvert and even reverse" it, by making Holofernes, in his state of great excitement, both an object and victim of his own sexuality (Tamber-Rosenau 71). I argue, however, that this intense focus on Holofernes' sexuality ultimately removes, or at least weakens, Judith's role in his demise. By portraying Holofernes as a victim of his sexual desires, Judith becomes not so much a victor over evil as Holofernes is simply a victim of his own lust. Symbolically also, Holofernes seems to be more the victim and author of her own disappearance than Judith is an active victor over her evil. As Tamber-Rosenau notes, Holofernes is killed by his own sword (65). Understanding the sword as a phallic symbol, this image reinforces the idea that Holofernes' death was ultimately the result of his licentious appetites. By emphasizing Judith's purity alongside Holofernes' sexual depravity, the narrative weakens Judith's role in the execution while depicting Holofernes as the primary executor of his own demise, ultimately narrowing the story initially provocative of a warrior into a sort of parable of prudence and chastity. Similarly, Judith's agency in the story is once again reduced by her dependence on.. 2017.