Women in the Bible

     For my short film I’d like to explore different themes presented in the bible regarding women. Many of the most iconic and memorable women in the bible are depicted with negative connotations. For instance, Eve, arguably the most popular female character in the bible became known as the reason for humanity's downfall by luring Adam and introducing sin to the world. Prior to her “evildoings” Eve was silent and lacked free will, and a few verses later she is seen consuming the forbidden fruit and making friends with a serpent; she is never truly painted as a good character (theconversation.com). In my short film I want to allude to Eve’s story, I am currently developing a cake recipe with apple filling to match the forbidden fruit.

     In addition, I’d like to touch on the topic of punishment and consequences. In my story the main character is moved to murder her betrothed because of his abuse to her, and still she is sent to eternity in purgatory as punishment despite her actions being in self defense. In my research I found stories about women in prison who are facing anywhere from 10 years to life for the murder of their intimate partner (christiancentury.org). Up until the 70s, women who had killed their abusers were often acquitted on grounds of self defense or insanity. However, now the argument for their imprisonment is that if women were killing in order to get away from abuse, they should be punished to the full extent of the law. These imprisoned women were presented with the story of Jael in the bible; although the bible does not contain a woman who killed a violent man in a similar pattern by which these women fought back against their abusers, Jael kills Sisera in her home, with a weapon, while he is sleeping. Jael had given Sisera milk and a place of shelter and then chose to kill this violent oppressor with a tent peg and a hammer and was lauded for her actions. This raises the question of when is it just to take another person’s life, this is especially interesting in a religious aspect since the fifth commandment taught in Catechism is “thou shalt not kill.” Over the years Catholics and other Christian religious denominations have interpreted and specified what this means. For instance, one source I read deemed, “the act of self defense can have a double effect: the preservation of one’s own life; and the killing of the aggressor… The one is intended, the other is not (vatican.va).” In my interpretation, and for the purposes of my short film my main character has been sentenced to punishment by God in the afterlife for her murderous actions on Earth.

     Having been inspired by the story of Jael I have chosen to name my main character after her. In addition, I’ve taken inspiration from The Woman herself, Eve for a surname and present to you my protagonist, Jael Aveline.