The story of Polonius from Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Jephthah (Judges 11:30-40) from the Bible remind us that all too often in our past and present society, women are viewed as the economic possession of men. For in both of these stories, the daughters of Polonius and Jephthah are used as a medium of exchange or barter by their respective fathers. In Hamlet, Ophelia is Polonius closest link to the Crown, in fact, it is one of the principle reasons he has the ear of the King. In the story of Jephthah, Jephthah, albeit unknowingly, sacrifices his daughter as the price to be paid for God’s hand in helping him defeat his dreaded enemies, the Ammonites. However, there are differences between the two fathers and their use of their daughters. With Jephthah we merely see a rash man who is desperate to rid himself of his enemies, so much so that he promises as a sacrifice to God in exchange for his assistant in doing so the “whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph” (Judges 11:31). Jephthah’s story is meant to show the price paid for rashness, as well as a message about making sure one does not pay so much for victory that they cannot enjoy the triumph. Certainly, a wiser and more logical man would have considered that the probability of a cherished loved one being the “whatever” that might walk out the door of his own home was quite high. Of course, like Polonius, Jephthah does not recognize his own foolish nature and places blame on those around him instead of owning his actions. We see this in his reaction to his daughter being the “whatever” that walks out his front door upon his up to then triumphant return, “My daughter! You have made me miserable and wretched, because I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break” (Judges 11:35).
In Hamlet, Polonius uses his daughter as an in at Court. In actuality, he is a h
...