What does Hamlet mean by his reference to Jephthah and his daughter (Act 2, Scene 2)?
According to the Old Testament (Judges, 10:6 – 12:7), Jephthah was a judge who led Israel into battle against the powerful Ammonites – after having vowed to sacrifice to Jahweh the first thing meeting him on his return home as a token of gratitude if his army would bring home a victory. Alas, that “thing” turned out to be nobody but Jephthah’s beloved only daughter, who had come out to greet and congratulate her triumphant father after having received the news of his army’s victory. Interpretations of the biblical passage differ over the question whether Jephthah did, in effect, go through with his oath and subordinate his own happiness and his daughter’s life to the will of God, or whether the girl’s life was ultimately spared (although even then, she would still have been banished to the mountains, and to a fate of perpetual virginity). In any event, Hamlet’s allusion to the story indicates that he does see Ophelia as a potential victim – though chiefly of her father’s machinations,
