Women

The novel “The Dovekeeper” tells the story of four fictional women who lived at Masada during a war between the Romans and the Jews. Women’s issues are important in the novel as not only relationships between women are of special interest. Although women were seen as being the weaker sex during this time period, these women prove they were anything but weak.

Relationships of interest between women include the relationships between Yael and Sia; and Shirah and Channa. In each of these relationships one woman — Yael and Shirah — had affairs with the husband of the other woman — Sia and Channa. In each of these cases Yael and Shirah received the forgiveness of the women upon whom they had cheated. Yael desired forgiveness because she was afraid Sia would cause her baby to die while Shirah wanted Channa to realize that what she had done to...