1

It would seem that women in biblical times were oppressed, with the

role of the woman stated as “to get married, bear children, keep house”

(Timothy 5:14). This is disproven as the only role of women in the biblical

society which is encompassed in Anita Diamant’s The Red Tent. While their

society is outwardly patriarchal, and the women apparently submissive, it is

the wives and mothers who maintain control of their families. Women are the

pillars of strength within any society; regardless of whether it is patriarchal

or matriarchal. Diamant demonstrates this female power– in nurturing and in

discipline – through character and imagery. Motherhood is a common

portrayal of strength in The Red Tent, as Dinah’s four mothers are the

support system of Jacob’s clan. These woman as well as supporting

characters such as Ruti and Rebecca teach Dinah to stand for herself and her

loved ones. Historically such portrayals have been exemplified in many

cultures. The Bible tells of many women in strong roles, as does Egyptian

mythology and Native American legend. Through food imagery, descriptions

of the red tent and references to teraphim – household gods –, Diamant

explores the concept of sources of power.

The novel opens with a view of Leah taking charge of her own future

from a very young age. Upon the arrival of Jacob, Leah falls in love with him

and quickly decides to woo him. She impresses him with a feast she

prepared for the occasion of his arrival, and later dazzles him with her

knowledge of the harvest and her complete grasp on the mechanics of

running Laban’s household. So when it comes time for Rachel to become

 2

Jacob’s wife, Leah happily steps in for her when she becomes too afraid of

the marital bed, and Jacob is not displeased. Leah showed immense strength

by effectively managed her own future, and secured her position as chief

wife without hurting her sister.

While Leah and Rachel were using their power to ensure themselves a

place in Jacob’s heart as well as his household, Zilpah was fighting against

being forced into marriage with him. However, as part of Leah’s dowry, she

had to no choice but to act as a wife of Jacob. Though she was unhappy

about her new husband, she bore Jacob’s children – Gad and Asher – and was

delighted in this. After having birthed them, she demanded Jacob’s

attendance and informed him that “another pregnancy would surely kill her”

(Diamant 60). In declaring this, she made it possible for herself to maintain a

place in Jacob’s household as a mother and a woman without having to

surrender her body as a relief of Jacob’s needs and a vessel for his seed.

Zilpah’s refusal of Jacob was very brave of her, as a wife’s right to refuse her

husband sex is still contested today and was completely unlawful in biblical

times. 1 Corinthians 7:14 states “...the wife does not have authority over her

own body, but the husband does.” Even by today’s standards, this show of

strength and character by Zilpah is beyond reproach.

Rachel demonstrates her intense resolve in regards to an entirely

different man than Leah and Zilpah, being the first of Laban’s daughters to

defy him and the one who pushes Jacob to leave their home on her father’s

land behind. Upset with her father for his sloth and cruel treatment of his
 3

wife, his daughters – including herself – and Jacob, Rachel decides to seek

revenge on her father by taking away the only thing which he holds dear to

himself: his “teraphim”, or household gods. Laban, perhaps fearing the

negative karma he’s likely brought himself from a lifetime of abuse and

treachery, is a very superstitious man and taking his statues of the gods

from him is representative of stealing his power in the eyes of Rachel. She

explains this, saying “I will take the teraphim and they will be a source of

power for us. They will be a sign of our birthright. Our father will suffer as he

has made others suffer.” (Diamant 90). In stripping him of his protection via

the gods, Rachel is denying her father in every form and taking the power of

the teraphim for herself, her sisters and their children. Her strength in

cutting off her own unhealthy relationship with Laban is the driving force for

the family’s departure from his lands. All four of Dinah’s mothers set the

precedent for strength and independent thought for the women of their

community and they instil such values in Dinah while she is growing up.

While Dinah’s mothers were the pillars of Jacob’s family, the clan was

also surrounded by strong women in the outer reaches of the family. Ruti,

the second wife of Laban is a perfect example of this. Ruti suffered much

abuse the hands of Laban –much like his daughters-, from verbal torture, to

physical abuse to a complete denial of her existence except for to please

him. Upon the rest of the family’s departure from Laban’s camp, left in his

cruel captivity without Leah to protect her, Ruti takes her own life. Though

killing oneself is the ultimate last resort, Ruti saw no other way to bring
 4

about the discontinuation of her pain. At the point where she was so

miserable she was invisible (Diamant 96), she needed an escape and was

strong in taking her future –or lack thereof- into her own hands.

Comparatively, Rebecca –mother of Jacob- is no stranger to making

decisions. She runs her own religious compound of sorts, residing with only

women servants and whatever guests she may choose, acting as a high

priestess and healer of sorts. She teaches Dinah about healing, and about

having power over the men in their family. Even Jacob, the head of his own

tribe, went to Rebecca at her request, acted as she saw fit, and asked his

approval of his wives and daughter. He was forever grateful to his mother for

giving her blessing to him and not his twin brother, Esau (Genesis 26:1-11). It

was largely from Rebecca that Dinah learned that women must not always

submit to men, and that there is strength in sisterhood.

Dinah brings this knowledge with her to her own life in the wake of a

tragedy –the death of her fiancé at the hands of her brothers, Simon and

Levi-, forming her own career as a midwife and finding love with her

husband, Benia. She manages to cut herself off from her brothers –similarly

to her mother, Rachel’s, denial of Laban- and create a new future for herself

out of hurt and uncertainty. She continues her mother’s tradition of the red

tent, birthing many babies and healing many women as though they were

her own sisters and daughters. It is in the nurturing of others, and the

continuation of her mother’s traditions that she finds the strength to go on

with her life. Whether supporting each other or ensuring order within their
 5

family, Diamant’s female characters demonstrate immense willpower and

strength of character.

The author also fortifies the women of the novel by force of imagery,

showing them with elements in the novel as sources of power. The red tent

itself exists as a secret place for the gathering of women; a place for

bonding, plotting and healing –of wounds and of broken hearts. Upon

Rachel’s entering to the tent, and womanhood, her mother and the other

women treat her like a princess. In celebration of her joining the ranks of

women, Rachel is hennaed as if to be married, sung songs of goddesses, fed

cakes and massaged. She revels in her maturing and is taught to see

menstruation as a beautiful sign of womanhood and life, instead of as the

dirty, taboo process that it was at the time and now. Similarly, Leah is taken

care of by her sisters in months following Dinah’s birth. It is here that Dinah

first learns how to talk, in order to pass on the stories of her mothers and

continue their family’s long legacy of strong matriarchs. Leah says to her

daughter: “We sang into your ears, but we did not coo or babble. We spoke

to you with all our words, as though you were a grown sister and not a baby

girl. And before you were a year old, you answered us without a trace of a

baby’s lisp.” (Diamant 68). In teaching Dinah how to talk, her mothers were

not only ensuring the continuation of their stories, but also teaching her that

she had a voice and she must use it, that women exist not only for their

bodies. Red tents themselves are a huge part of biblical history, as all

women were put in these tents during menstruation and childbirth, as the
 6

men feared contamination by the blood of women (The Spirit of Indian

Women 37). However, as Diamant demonstrated in her novel The Red Tent,

it is suggested that women using their time in tents to bond and plan the

affairs of their families, making their “moon time” particularly powerful.

There is a colossal irony in the fact that men trapped their women in this tent

because they were thought to be filthy while menstruating, while women

cherished their alone time to conspire and to bond.

The appalling attitude towards menstruation upheld by men in biblical

times for fear of contamination was not uncommon – in fact this very belief is

still strictly upheld in Orthodox Jewish communities. This is why Rachel tells

Laban that his teraphim have been drowned in her monthly blood when he

invades Jacob’s new camp in search of them. When she says that they bathe

in her monthly blood, and that they are polluted beyond redemption, he truly

believes them void of all spiritual value (Diamant 118). In essentially painting

her father’s prized goods with her womanhood, Rachel is firmly protesting his

history of bad behaviour and his misplaced love of the teraphim. The

teraphim are Laban’s one true love – aside from himself –, and the sole time

he presents as a happy, and caring man in the novel is when he buys an

asherah –household goddess- for his wives and daughters as an apology for

sexually abusing Leah and Zilpah. The asherah itself was a symbol of female

power, as “her mouth seemed to broaden even wider with pleasure”

(Diamant 20). This is symbolic of women taking control of their own bodies

and sexualities as all four of Laban’s daughters do later in the novel. The
 7

asherah accepts and is unashamed of her pleasures, as is seen as

detrimental to the dominance of males in their society. Dinah’s mothers pass

this form of sexual rebellion on to her in the ceremony of the unlocking of

her womb with the frog goddess statue. Heket, the frog-headed Egyptian

goddess is the giver of life, and the protector of child-bearing women

(Egyptian Frog Goddess Heket). In performing the unlocking ceremony for

Dinah, her mothers were teaching her the ways of motherhood as taught to

them by their mothers and their grandmothers before that.

Dinah’s mothers also teach how to cook, as food is also an important

bonding element for the women of Jacob’s family. Aforementioned was the

feast which Leah prepared to woo Jacob with, which demonstrates her strong

need to care for others –including her husband, sisters and children. She

manages to serve herself while also ensuring the well-being of her loved

ones. Food also serves as a bond between the women of Jacob’s tribe and his

brother Esau’s wives. They share recipes among themselves and organize a

huge feast in honour of the joining of two families. However, the women of

Esau’s family seem to be even more liberated than those of Jacob’s, in eating

with the men instead of after. Leah and her sisters are amazed by this, and

instantly take to it as a new exercise in equality. Throughout the novel, food

is a reoccurring symbol of nurturing and the strong bond between the

women.

Though the women in biblical times and in Diamant’s The Red Tent,

appeared oppressed to the outside –and while they were, in many meanings
 8

of the word-, they managed all too well to rearrange their own lives and that

of their families if need be. Underneath the film of male dominance in their

society, these women taught themselves and each other about respect,

nurturing and resilience. Through the images of the red tent itself, the

teraphim and the food, demonstrates how the female roles were the

underlying strength and power in their fictional biblical society. In taking care

and taking control, characters such as Leah, Rachel and Dinah presented

themselves as the stronger sex. The true irony of this story is that even

though the males saw themselves as the powerful ones, the stronger sex,

the true patriarchs; it was in fact the females who were the strength, the

foundation and the heart of the family and of the larger society.