This response paper is roughly 1000 words long, or three pages: This is about the average length for your response papers.
Please note that this response paper is based on an entirely invented biblical fiction: while the source-text is real, the biblical fiction Josephine is "responding" to is not (at least, not yet). It is provided here merely to give you a sense of what kinds of responses are appropriate.
Note that Josephine doesn't quote from the Bible or the musical too much, but rather summarizes important scenes and motifs: in a brief response paper of this length, do not waste a lot of time quoting huge blocks of material.
Josephine Q. Student
RLST 128F
November 3, 2008
Response Paper #1
Our class watched the 1979 British musical "Ahab!" based on the account of King Ahab of Israel and his conflict with the prophet Elijah found in 1 Kings 16-22. In many ways, the musical was faithful to the general outline of the story of Ahab: it recounted his birth in the northern Kingdom of Israel to Omri, the previous king; his marriage to Jezebel, the princess of Sidon; the conflict with the prophet Elijah; the war with Ben Hadad (although here he's called Benadad or "Ben" for short) and Ahab's eventual death in battle. Most of the characters are drawn directly from the biblical account, including Ahab's family, Elijah's companion-prophets (including the young prophet Elisha), and the soldiers and royalty of the southern Kingdom of Judah. The locations are likewise drawn from the Bible: Samaria, the capital city; Mount Carmel, the scene of Elijah's climactic battle with the prophets of Baal; and the field of Ramoth Gilead, where Ahab dies in battle in disguise.
The dialogue and music of "Ahab!" even makes sly references to the text of the Bible itself, almost "winking" at the audience who is (supposedly) familiar with the original biblical story. During The Wedding Song, when Ahab first meets and marries Jezebel, he promises that one day people will write a book about them, "And call it a Book of Kings!" This is a reference to the biblical books of Kings in which their story is told. In the same scene, Ahab also makes a comment about Jezebel's make-up and, in the background, the audience can hear a dog barking. On the one hand, the audience is probably supposed to laugh at the subtle comparison between Jezebel, who is wearing so much make-up to disguise the fact that she's ugly, and the common slur "she's a dog." On the other hand, this is also probably a reference to the way that Jezebel dies (which is not part of the musical, but is only hinted at in the song, "I, Elijah, Prophesy!" near the end): in 2 Kings 9:30-35, we read that Jezebel was thrown to be eaten by dog after putting on a lot of make-up and adorning herself. Once or twice, the musical even takes lines directly from the Bible (usually the King James Version, which would have had the most resonance with the audience in 1979). One song ("That Vineyard Is Mine") begins, "Naboth had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab the King," which is almost verbatim 1 Kings 21:1. Another song ("Sackcloth and Ashes") has Ahab proclaim that he will "tear my clothes, put sackcloth on my flesh, and fast," again a quotation of 1 Kings 21:27. Sometimes other biblical verses are drawn in, perhaps to create a more "biblical" ambiance to the lyrics, as when Elijah recites the Shema ("Come Down to Mount Carmel") and Jezebel recites part of the Song of Solomon ("The Wedding Song"). Of course, the musical also makes other "cute" references outside of the Bible, as when King Ahab compares his uncle to a "big, white whale," an allusion to the character of Ahab in Moby Dick.
Even though the backdrop draws heavily on the biblical original, and the authors have gone to a lot of trouble to echo the Bible here and there, the overall tone of the musical, I think, departs from the biblical text pretty radically. For instance, even though Ahab "repents" at the end of 1 Kings, and dies in battle as a kind of hero, the rest of 1 Kings 16-22 makes it pretty clear that he is not in any way "heroic": "And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD more than all that were before him" (1 Kings 16:30). His crimes of "idolatry" (which are central to the overall narrative thread of the books of Kings) are represented as extremely severe, so much so that they cause the downfall of the entire house of his father Omri at the beginning of 2 Kings, and the destruction of the kingdom of Israel. "Ahab!" clearly wants to redeem this figure, perhaps just because he is so two-dimensional and the Bible condemns him so totally.
In order to create a sympathetic character, however, the writers have to add in a lot of material to fill in his life, and also "tweak" a few biblical incidents so that Ahab doesn't seem quite so villainous. In the opening song ("I'm a Prince of Israel"), we learn that Ahab never really wanted to be King, but wants to please his father (a common thread in a lot of musical theater, like the musical "Pippin" from the same period [Prof. Jacobs, Class Notes 1/18]). Also, Ahab agrees to let Jezebel worship her native gods, but we never see him worshipping Baal or Asherah (even though the Bible makes it clear that he does so), and the showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel takes place without Ahab knowing, and the prophets of Baal have already shown themselves to be schemers taking advantage of Jezebel (as they sing in "Come Down to Mount Carmel"). Finally, by ending the musical on the battlefield, with a bright light (from heaven?) shining down on Ahab as he's dying, "Ahab!" completely glosses over the tragic end of his entire family by making him into a kind of heroic martyr figure. Even the music helps to create sympathy for Ahab, as he goes from an Elvis-style rockster ("I'm a Prince of Israel") to a Frank Sinatra-style crooner ("The Wedding Song") to an almost operatic hero ("Ramoth, Ramoth"). The genre of musical theater allows the creators to stick closely to the bare outline of the biblical story, while creating a drama that is really about the heroic individual finding a place for himself in the world.