Esther and the King (1960)

Denis O'Dea: Mordecai

Quotes 

• Esther : If I'm chosen by the King, it'll be as Esther. I can't use any persuasion.

  Mordecai : No, it will be as yourself. But I must warn you: do not make known your people or your kindred. Never forget that we are in the camp of many enemies.

  Esther : [praying]  Oh Lord God of Israel, guide me. Guide me.

• Esther : [sees Mordecai in the palace]  Uncle Mordecai! Where's Simon? Where is he? Take me to him. Please, please take me to him.

  Mordecai : I can't Esther. He fought the King's general and now they hunt him like an animal. At the village they looted and scourged. They did likewise to every Judean settlement in their path. They hung Emmanuel, the blacksmith. They drove the women and children into the wilderness. Our people are now scattered to the winds.

  Esther : Oh, forgive me. I was only thinking of myself, but I'm nothing.

  Mordecai : Ah, but you are something, Esther. You are something indeed that Jehovah may have selected as a means for saving our people. It is a wondrous thing how gentleness can break the swords of evil, so let it be your gentleness, Esther. Your beauty of face and soul, let it sway Ahasuerus to stamp out the wickedness that springs from this palace.

  Esther : You're asking me to strive for his favor?

  Mordecai : Yes. Forgetting Simon, forgetting your own small dreams, forgetting all this but the deliverance of our people.

  Esther : I want the life they took away from me! I want Simon!

  Mordecai : Simon is a soldier. He turns aside from love when there is war. This is your war, Esther. A softer war fought with gentler weapons but nonetheless hazardous, for there are dangers in the venture. You, too, would be a soldier. Perhaps, Simon would see that for the soldier's pride.

  Esther : He would despise me!

  Mordecai : Then his love would not be worthy, if he places it above the fate of so many of us.

• Mordecai : Esther!

  [finds Esther in the garden] 

  Mordecai : I've just left the King and he smiles again, often and readily. Indeed, each passing day seems another proof that you were God-sent to that troubled man. But I worry about your safety, Esther. The King is not a patient man. He is attracted not only by your beauty but by your integrity and sense of justice. The qualities that still bind you to Simon. Yet I fear that same conscience of yours may, in time, destroy his patience and, perhaps, turn him against you.

  Esther : I'm in no danger, Uncle Mordecai. So far he's shown nothing but kindness to me.

  Mordecai : You do not know him as I do. His violence can be great.

  Esther : You see him as a man among men. You do not see him as I do - through a woman's eyes.

  Mordecai : Oh! Surely such a quick defense can only spring from affection.

  Esther : I can't deny that I am attracted to him by some power that I don't understand. I've tried to believe that it's simply power of admiration. But then, do you think that it was only admiration that I felt for Simon all these years?

• Mordecai : [gives Simon food]  Provisions. I will see that you are kept supplied until the men of Klydrathes abandon the hunt.

  Simon : The hunt will never end.

  Mordecai : Why do you say that?

  Simon : Because I shan't rest until I take Esther out of bondage.

  Mordecai : She is not enslaved. The King himself is her protector.

  Simon : And he prepares her to be his concubine.

  Mordecai : His queen. Hear me, Simon, I've spoken with Esther and I've seen what I believe to be a dawning of a sincere affection in her for the King. An affection which I don't denied I urged, because I could foresee in it the answer that may lead to the salvation of our people, not alone now but for the ages to come.

• Mordecai : [to Ahasuerus]  I dream of the day, Sire, when there will be an end to war. I have been your counselor and counselor to your father Darius, and I have seen death and destruction. I've thought how splendid it would be if all this waste of wealth could be turned to building instead of destroying! The building of aqueducts, the irrigation of the desert, the creation of worth and beauty!