- All's Well That Ends Well
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- As You Like It
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- Henry IV, Part 2
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- Henry VI, Part 1
- Henry VI, Part 2
- Henry VI, Part 3
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- The Winter's Tale
Like Jacob’s grandmother Sarah, his wife, Rachel, faces years of infertility. Because childbearing was strongly associated with God’s blessing, barrenness was likely a source of particular shame for women in biblical times. For Rachel, the shame is especially personal—Jacob’s other wife and Rachel’s sister, Leah, has already had several children, provoking Rachel’s jealousy.
Yet Genesis assumes that God is responsible for giving children or withholding them, and finally, God “remembers” Rachel. As elsewhere in Genesis, “remembrance” doesn’t imply forgetting; it means that God is now taking action on a person’s behalf. He does this by enabling Rachel to conceive Joseph—though…