Cursed

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“Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel!” exclaims Jacob to Simeon and Levi, cursing them for killing the people of Shechem. But was it really //anger// that led Simeon and Levi to kill them or was it their desire to protect their sister from those who harmed her?

The dialogue between Jacob and Simeon’s explores both of their arguments and frustrations with each other as they look upon each other’s weaknesses and explain their reasoning for their beliefs on what is truly right. The project examines both characters’ traits and how they are portrayed throughout their actions and beliefs.  Will Simeon and his father still not be able to forgive each other even if it is Jacob’s last dying wish?


 *  Audio Cast

media type="file" key="Cursed Audio Cast2.mp3" width="240" height="20" **

 Dialogue

Jacob (to Reuben): Reuben, my first son, you will no longer excel. You slept with my mistress and for that you are cursed. Jacob (to Simeon and Levi): Simeon and Levi, your anger has lead you to kill men. You are cursed for letting your anger get the best of you, which you should never let happen. Jacob (to Judah): Judah, everyone will love you and foll-  Simeon: Wait. Wait. Wait. What was that?  Jacob: I said ‘You are cursed’. You have made me look bad by making the people of Shechem hate me. Of course you’re cursed. I thought even //you // would understand that.  Simeon: Wow, dad. The degrading comments just never stop with you, do they? And innocent? I wouldn’t call what they did to Dinah innocent.  Jacob: Maybe it wasn’t. But stop acting like Shechem did something horrible. It’s not like he killed her or something.  Simeon: You’re right, dad. Shechem didn’t kill her. He just forced her to have sex with him.  Jacob: And that was wrong of him. But he made up for his wrongdoings.  Simeon (outraged): By doing what? Paying you off? I can just see the conversation that must’ve gone on… Simeon (in Shechem’s voice): Oh my raping Dinah was just a sign of – of my love for her! Yes, that’s it. God, I just love her so much. May I please have her hand in marriage? Simeon (in Jacob’s voice): Oh I don’t know Shechem… Simeon (in Shechem’s voice) Come on. How much will it take? 150? How about 200? Simeon: Is that how he did it Dad? What’d he pay you? How much money did it take him to hand over “your little girl” and demolish whatever dignity did you have left?  Jacob: No, Simeon. He did not pay for my forgiveness. He gave me land and a promise that we would maintain a good relation. Someday you’ll learn the importance of that.  Simeon: I hope not. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> Jacob: Excuse me? <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> Simeon: I said I hope I never get to a point where I let things like reputation and wealth come over doing what’s right. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> Jacob: You throw around the words “reputation” and “wealth” like they have no meaning. Those things are very important, Simeon. They are not bad things to have. <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> Simeon: They are if you let them come over things like your family. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> Jacob: Well, everything in life must be prioritized. <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> Simeon: And family’s at the bottom, right? <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> Jacob: Of course not. It’s just that sometimes I have to take risks to gain more important things. <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> Simeon: More important…? <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> Jacob: That’s not what I meant. <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> Simeon: No, that’s exactly what you meant, Dad. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> Jacob: Simeon, wait. You have to understand. I’m not the one controlling these priorities. It’s God. I have a promise with him to follow his covenant. <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> Simeon: I guess that’s the part I just don’t understand. How can you risk everything in your life and everything you love. Maybe I just don’t believe in God. But if I do, I don’t believe in a God that in order to obey you must put aside your family. If there is a God, I don’t believe in one who makes you sacrifice the ones you love. That’s not God. That can’t be God. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> Jacob: But that’s just the thing. God doesn’t //<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;">make //<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> me do anything. He simply guides me. Simeon: So God guided you, and you the rest of what you did was all you. Jacob: Sime- <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> Simeon: No, dad this is good. I’m finally starting to understand. And did God // guide //<span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> you to love Joseph more than the rest of us? Or was that all you? <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> Jacob: I love all of my sons equally. <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> Simeon: Seriously, dad? When are you going to start telling the truth? Just be honest for once in your life! <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> Jacob: Fine. I admit I have at times I have put Joseph over the rest of you but not for no reason. I just see something in him that I don’t see in the rest of you. He has his priorities straight. And look at how far he’s gotten. Look where is, and look where you are. <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> Simeon: What is that suppose to mean? <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> Jacob: All I mean is…he’s saving a country and you just ruined a city… <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> Simeon: I’m done even trying with you. AND more importantly you said “all my sons.” Unfortunately, you just proved my point. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> Jacob: What? <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> Simeon: You said you loved all your // sons //<span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> equally. What about Dinah? Did you purposely fail to mention her or have you just completely forgotten about her? <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> Jacob: It was an honest mistake. I promise. <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;"> Simeon: No offense, Dad. But your promises don’t mean very much to me anymore. You may be lying on your deathbed looking at all your regrets and wishing you could take so many things back. Wishing for forgiveness. But it’s too late. What you did,…it’s unforgivable. (pause) Goodbye, Dad. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-weight: normal;">

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 176%; font-weight: normal; text-align: center;"> Dialogue Analysis When Simeon questions Jacob on why he was cursed, Jacob replies, “Of course you’re cursed. You have made me look bad by making the people of Shechem hate me.” I do not completely disagree with Jacob for cursing Simeon; Simeon does deserve some punishment for killing an entire city consisting of mostly innocent people.

However, punishment for killing innocent people was not Jacob’s reasoning for his cursing. Instead, he explains that Simeon is being cursed not for the actual killing of the people, but for the result of it, which is Jacob’s relation with the people of Shechem being destroyed.

Edwards uses the excessive use of the word “me” to show that Jacob is so self-absorbed that he fails to mention the impact of Simeon’s crime on anyone else but himself. Not only does Jacob only think of himself, but the things Jacob himself values in life are all superficial.

“Well, everything in life must be prioritized,” responds Jacob when asked about how he values his family in relation to superficial things like wealth and reputation. The statement Jacob replies itself is not contemptible, but in the context that Jacob means it, it is.

Jacob’s top priorities consist of obtaining power, wealth, and a good reputation and everything else seems to be lost in the journey to acquire these things. Jacob then continues to explain that he most take risks to gain things of greater importance, implying reputation is of greater importance than his own family.



<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 160%; text-align: center;">Character Analysis Simeon’s devotion to the welfare of others drives him to be brave to protect people from those trying to deny others well being. Jacob questions Simeon’s ethics after Simeon kills the people of Shechem who raped Dinah, which prompts him to ask, “‘Should our sister be treated like a whore?’” (Gen. 34.31). Instead of protecting his daughters from those who harmed her, Jacob allows for the man who raped her himself to marry her, which provokes Simeon to kill the people of the city.

Simeon’s use of the word “should” not only questions Jacob’s motives in this incident, but his morals altogether. “Should” itself is used to indicate duty and propriety; therefore, in asking if Jacob’s daughter should be treated like a whore, Simeon is questioning Jacob’s standards of justness. The question is obviously a rhetorical question as of course his sister should not be treated wrongly, which makes the question go beyond a simple question of a single incident to an inquiry on his treatment of his daughter.

With this question, Simeon proves how Jacob puts hospitality over family, which is something Simeon refuses to do. Simeon also is not blinded by wealth and power in the pursuit to do the right thing.

This is seen after Simeon and Levi kill the men of the city; their brothers raid the city for spoils, while Simeon and Levi do not, for all they wanted was to protect their sister. Simeon disregards wealth, reputation, and other cultural values, such as hospitality, in order to see what is truly the right thing to do.

Hospitality is a major motif in the Bible as most characters would choose to keep good relations over what’s right even if it means betraying one’s family in doing so. Simeon is even willing to put his own life on the line in order to protect others which is seen in //[|Dinah Avenged]// a painting by Gérard Jollain, which shows Simeon getting ready to stab a man in Shechem. The glint in his eyes shows a look of determination, which is needed to kill all the men of Shechem.

When Simeon embarked on his journey to protect his sister, he knew he was fighting a disproportioned battle, as it was an entire city against two men. It took courage and chivalry for Simeon to embark on such a dangerous mission, which by looking at the painting, Simeon did without hesitance as he knew what he was fighting for was too important to back down from.

Simeon’s altruism is juxtaposed with Jacob’s egocentricity when Jacob curses Simeon for killing the people of Shechem. “You have brought trouble on me my making me odious to the inhabitants of the land” (Gen. 31-33) exclaims Jacob who is angry with Simeon not for killing people but for making him look bad. Jacob’s excessive use of the word “me” shows how Jacob cares only about himself, disregarding all others, even if it is his own family.

Jacob is outraged by the fact that now he does not have a good reputation, which is something Jacob values above good morals.

Throughout Genesis, Jacob has been a very superficial character who has always chosen to strive for things like wealth even when it has meant sacrificing the well being of others.

This is portrayed very well in a painting of Jacob Esua titled Esau Selling His Birthright by Hendrick ter Brugghen.

Brugghen uses a slight smirk on Jacob’s face to show that Jacob is enjoying deceiving Esau as Esau, in his extreme starvation, sells his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew. Jacob, who knows how hungry Esau is, takes advantage of Esau when he proposes that Esau sell his birthright in exchange for food.

This shows just how superficial Jacob is as Jacob uses Esau’s lack of being able to make a conscious decision to his own advantage. Jacob’s obsession with wealth and power make him lose sight of how far he is going to acquire these things. Jacob is juxtaposed with Simeon who is willing to risk anything to protect his sister, as is seen in Simeon’s killing of the people of Shechem.

Artist Information ** Hendrick ter Brugghen : Born in 1588, Hendrick ter Brugghen, was a Dutch painter. He started painting at age 13 and when he was 16 he moved to Italy to study Italian painters’ style and to learn new techniques. His paintings were known for their // chiaroscuro // technique. He died in 1629 after having influenced many by his religious paintings. // Chiaroscuro: Chiascuro is a form of characterized by its bold contrasts between light and dark. It is usually used by artists to obtain a sense of volume when draving three dimensional objects. //
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 160%; text-align: center;">[[image:Hendrick_ter_Brugghen_Flute_Player.jpg width="133" height="179" align="right"]]

Once again, there was one thing that seemed to be the root of most of my problems: procrastination. The procrastinating was worse for this project than most others due to the long time of period over which it was assigned and few due dates where we had to turn in parts of our project.
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 160%; text-align: center;"> Reflection[[image:photogrpah-a-rainbow.jpg width="360" height="270" align="right"]] **

This project seemed to somewhat hang over everything else and although sometimes I would casually glance at it, but I would quickly look away claiming I would “do it later.” Later became later and later until I realized I absolutely had to actually start working.

Another challenge was finding someone available to record dialogue with and a time and place to do it. I ended up just using my mom and recording it on my computer at home because that was the easiest thing to do.

One thing I enjoyed about this project was being able to be creative, such as with the dialogue. At first my dialogue seemed stilted and one challenge I had to overcome was getting it to sound like actual people talking. I also modified my dialogue when beginning to write the dialogue analysis and realizing how difficult it was to write because the character traits were not portrayed clear enough throughout the dialogue, which is something I had to change. Although this was a challenge, I enjoyed writing the dialogue and learned how much I like creative assignments over analytical.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 160%; text-align: center;"> Works Cited

<span style="color: #4f57a1; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Brugghen, Hendrick Ter. "Esau Sells His Birthright." Wikimedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 May 2010. <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Brugghen,_Hendrick_ter_-_Esau_Selling_His_Birthright_-_c._1627.jpg>. Brugghen, Hendrick Ter. "Flute Player." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2010. <http://www.google.com/imgres imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/eeHendrick_ter_Brugghen_Flute_Player.jpg&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hendrick_ter_Brugghen_Flute_Player.jpg&usg=__k4qcfRBXt37qtzlZFv8awdZyEWc=&h=917&w=711&sz=86&hl=e <span style="color: #8237ae; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">n&start=6&sig2=j5WUHclA5kGyc77TLhyd2g&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=vBGlef4DX5C5-M:&tbnh=147&tbnw=114&prev=/ images%3Fq%3Dhendrick%2Bter%2Bbrugghen%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26tbs %3Disch:1&ei=2PT0S4f4M4TYtgOroqyIBQ> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">. <span style="color: #4f57a1; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> Cotten, Ben. "Leaving a Legacy." BenCotten.net. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2010.<http://www.bencotten.net/images/jacob.jpg >.

<span style="color: #8237ae; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> Death Wish. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2010. <http://www.deathwishinc.com/estore/graphics/00000001/cursedlo.jpg>. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> Jollain, Gerard. "Dinah Avenged." Biblical Art. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 May 2010. <http://www.biblical-art.com/extra/ownpub/Jollain/Vol-02_0031.jpg>. <span style="color: #4f57a1; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">"Rainbow." Pennsylvania State Climatologist. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2010. <span style="color: #8237ae; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">

The New Oxford Annotated Bible. Ed. Michael D. Coogan, et al. 3rd ed. Oxford: University Press, 2007. Print.