rdless of station. On the flip side, in chapter 4 it is Esther who directly disobeys the word of the king by coming to see him at court. This is precisely the opposite, yet just as unforgivable act of disobedience as displayed by her predecessor. But, Esther is not punished for this crime. In fact, she is rewarded by the king, for he would gladly give away half his kingdom if only she asked. The fact that he would make such an offer to Esther, a Jew, makes the scene doubly ironic. The pervasiveness of irony throughout the first eight chapters of Esther seems fitting considering the fact that the entire story takes place under highly ironic circumstances: one man’s punishment for choosing to obey the word of God above the word of man. Although most of the irony seems to surround the character Mordeccai, hardly anyone mentioned in this tale is can escape the often cruel twists of ironic circumstance, including the queen for which the story is named, Esther. The interpretation of such irony from the standpoint of how it is use as literary device is probably best left to the biblical scholar, where as the interpretation of such irony from the standpoint of meaning is probably best left to the theologian. ...
