Getting Biblical in Daily Life
Women's Rights and Feminism
In the Book of Esther, you can see two characters who have a lot to say—by example—about the place of women in society, both in ancient times and in the modern day. Vashti is a character who refuses to put up with the king's unfair demands. He wants to show her off to his subjects at a drunken party, possibly in a wholly sexual way (it's not entirely clear, but it may be that, in his boozy madness, he actually wants to show his naked queen to the people).
But Vashti doesn't want to be objectified in this way. She refuses, which leads to the king divorcing her. (The book doesn't say anything about how she fared after that, so she might've just escaped to an island resort and lived out the rest of her days in peace, sipping on Mai-Tais. We don't know.)
Then, you've got Esther. Unlike Vashti, Esther uses her charm and charisma to advance her way through the harem, winning the favor of all the eunuchs and so impressing the king during the course of one night that she gets to be the new queen. Then, she's able to use the pull she's got with the king to save her people and herself.
To put it mildly, these are two very different models of women making their way in the world.
Different Kinds of Heroines
On the "My Jewish Learning" website, scholar Wendy Amsellem argues that Esther becomes more like Vashti as the story goes on. At first, she is subject to the plans of both the king and Mordecai, but she gradually assumes control of the plan to the save the Jews and ultimately is the person who succeeds in saving them.
Amsellem makes good points, but it's also debatable whether Esther is really passive and under the control of Mordecai and the king to begin with. She seems to be more of a survivor than anybody's fool or object of control. If she seems to go along with anyone else's plans, you can be pretty sure that she's determined that those plans are to her advantage as well.
Israel and Iran
In the spring of 2012, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave President Obama a copy of the Book of Esther. Since the Book of Esther describes how Esther foiled a Persian plot to kill all the Jews, which resulted in the opposing party getting massacred instead, Netanyahu made it pretty clear that he was actually talking about Iran and the threat of nuclear weapons. His aides later confirmed this.
Obviously, we at Shmoop aren't going to take any positions on these extraordinarily sensitive and serious foreign policy matters. (There are some Pop Tarts we need to eat in a couple of minutes, so we don't really have the time...) All the same, it goes to show that people continue to find ways to make books that were relevant over two thousand, three hundred years ago relevant in their own time periods today. Interestingly, it shows that fault lines between nations and peoples that existed ages ago can sometimes be used to re-interpret the divisions between people in the present day—whether you agree or disagree with that particular method of interpretation or not.
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Religious Tolerance
Haman wants to kill all the Jews purely because he hates Mordecai and doesn't think it would be dramatic enough just to kill him. But his argument to King Ahasuerus—which the king endorses—is based on ethnic and religious prejudice. After all, the Jews have different customs and ways; they worship a different God. The king thinks this is a pretty decent argument for genocide.
So Haman and the king both fall into the long line of people who have persecuted other people purely for harmless differences. It's Dr. Seuss's The Butter Battle Book all over again, except one side is a lot more defenseless in Esther than the two competing countries are in Seuss's tale. The Book of Esther takes on a lot of relevance in a time like ours, where people are debating multiculturalism and discussing how to deal with a lot of different religious devotees and adherents living in one place.
Haters Keep Hatin'
You don't need to look through the news too long to find horrible examples of religious persecution—to see members of the Bahai Faith persecuted in Iran, Christians persecuted in Egypt, Muslims persecuted in Burma, Tibetan Buddhists persecuted by China, and even the rise of a popular anti-Semitic political party in Hungry.
So, blind hatred continues to march on to its own wholly insane conclusions—all around the world. Fortunately, books like Esther help to demonstrate the messy and unpredictable consequences of this kind of hatred and fanaticism.