Haman

Haman is the principal antagonist of the biblical Book of Esther. As a high official at the court of the Persian king Ahasuerus, he becomes enraged when Mordecai refuses to bow to him and obtains royal authority for a decree ordering the destruction of the Jews throughout the empire.

Esther’s intervention reverses the plot, and Haman is executed on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Haman is the royal official in the Book of Esther who obtains authority for a programme directed against the Jews of the Persian Empire.

In Angela Hunt’s Esther, when Haman turns his grievance against Mordecai into a decree threatening the empire’s Jews, Esther can no longer keep her identity private. Renamed Esther and trained for court, she learns to survive through restraint while trying to understand a husband who possesses vast authority but remains vulnerable to flattery and manipulation. Her approach to the king may cost her life, and the novel makes courage a form of faithful action: providence works through a woman who must use beauty, intelligence and royal access without knowing whether power or love will protect her.