Ah, Judith. I dislike this script. I think a play like this represents why some people don't see plays.
However, as a theatrical telling of a story, there are choices made by the playwright, Howard Barker, that are open to interpretation. The first few pages of this one scene play are a little confusing because we don't know what Judith is really there for until Holofernes is asleep -- or pretends to sleep.
It seems like a lot of philosophical flirtation - the best kind - between a couple people who want something from each other but are secretive about what it is they want. Why would a cruel war general allow a couple of strangers in his room, just to chat? Why is this widow woman suddenly empathizing with this contemplative killer? Why does the servant seem to be encouraging their common ground?
We realize later that Judith must kill Holofernes for her home country. She ran into trouble when Holofernes proved to be an honest man. A scrawny, well-read nerd with an inferiority complex. Or was it that he proved to be a liar? Anyway, he was honest in stating that he was a liar and she liked that. The climax is in Judith hesitating with the sword over the man's neck and the servant is pleading with her to strike him. Holofernes is awake, almost giving in to the ten-minute love affair and allowing her to murder him. For me as a reader, Holofernes' resignation was more strange than her wanting to fuck after the fact!
So the major dramatic question has more to do with Judith overcoming something than whether or not she kills him. Holofernes says, "When a woman loves a man, it is not his manliness she loves... It is the pity he enables her to feel by showing... his loneliness... it creeps like blood under a door."
I particularly enjoy this line because it's truth, and also I believe something clicks with Judith right there. They are both broken-hearted. She begins to either really pity him or give in to the possibility that she loves him.
The MDQ is "Will Judith fall in love with Holofernes?"
She cannot even move from the bed once he is dead (and unsexable), but her thirst for power and even sadism drives her to turn on the love that grew in such a short time. So the play is able to end when Judith decides she completed her mission and would rather retain her status as a hero.
It seems like a lot of philosophical flirtation - the best kind - between a couple people who want something from each other but are secretive about what it is they want. Why would a cruel war general allow a couple of strangers in his room, just to chat? Why is this widow woman suddenly empathizing with this contemplative killer? Why does the servant seem to be encouraging their common ground?
We realize later that Judith must kill Holofernes for her home country. She ran into trouble when Holofernes proved to be an honest man. A scrawny, well-read nerd with an inferiority complex. Or was it that he proved to be a liar? Anyway, he was honest in stating that he was a liar and she liked that. The climax is in Judith hesitating with the sword over the man's neck and the servant is pleading with her to strike him. Holofernes is awake, almost giving in to the ten-minute love affair and allowing her to murder him. For me as a reader, Holofernes' resignation was more strange than her wanting to fuck after the fact!
So the major dramatic question has more to do with Judith overcoming something than whether or not she kills him. Holofernes says, "When a woman loves a man, it is not his manliness she loves... It is the pity he enables her to feel by showing... his loneliness... it creeps like blood under a door."
I particularly enjoy this line because it's truth, and also I believe something clicks with Judith right there. They are both broken-hearted. She begins to either really pity him or give in to the possibility that she loves him.
The MDQ is "Will Judith fall in love with Holofernes?"
She cannot even move from the bed once he is dead (and unsexable), but her thirst for power and even sadism drives her to turn on the love that grew in such a short time. So the play is able to end when Judith decides she completed her mission and would rather retain her status as a hero.
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