Judith by Howard Barker

         Judith by Howard Barker was not exactly what I expected.  The beginning of the play seemed philosophic when Holofernes was giving his soliloquy in his general tent about death.  Judith’s character changed the direction of the play.  When she first arrives she brings a bottle and uncorks it.  Holofernes then tells us that he does not drink.  The servant begins to convince him to engage with Judith by reminding him that she heard he likes women.  From there, Judith is seemed like a prostitute whose only motivation is to seduce him.  However, Judith’s character continuously changes and becomes more complex.  I discovered the main dramatic question to be: does Judith have more power than Holofernes?  In the beginning, Judith seems like a weak prostitute, but then her character grows and starts to outsmart Holofernes.  Judith enters Holoferne’s tent with a complex plan.  She is not there to only seduce him, but to seduce him with great intentions.  Judith starts out as a weaker character, but conforming to whatever Holoferne’s wants and asks her to do.  However, her submission turns into power because she plays along with his orders until she eventually starts to get her way.  When Holoferne’s lies in her arms to sleep, she immediately gains control of the situation.  The servant sees this as a time to act.  The servant drives the plan along and helps Judith stay on track with her devious actions.  When Judith makes the move to kill Holofernes, he immediately looses all power because his life is ended.  It is ironic because of how much Holofernes contemplated death and now he is experiencing true death.  She told Holofernes she came to talk to him about death, and then she inflicted it upon him.  Judith proves to have all the power, even her servant bows down to her.