"David and Bathsheba"

Nationality: Hebrew
Genre: biblical short story

Characters

1) David: King, strays away from God but later returns, lusts after Bathsheba, responsible for Uriah's death

2) Bathsheba: beautiful, object of David's love, married to Uriah, later is married to David, loses her child

3) Uriah: loyal to family & country, respected King David, honorable, soldier, killed because of King David's orders

4) Nathan: sent by God to confront David

Literary Terms

Setting: King's palace, battlefront

Themes: a) lust is sometimes mistaken for love
b) no one can hide from the truth

Internal Conflict: a) David & his feelings of lust
b) David & his relationship with God (struggling between right & wrong, honesty & dishonesty)

Dynamic Conflict: David at first is right with God then becomes corrupted but later becomes right with God again

Foreshadowing: David's uncontrollable feelings of lust foreshadow that he will stray from God and enter further into sinful acts.

Dramatic irony: a)we know of David & Bathsheba's affair; Uriah does not
b) we know of David's plan to kill Uriah; he thinks no one else knows & that he will get away with it