Short Fiction · Chapter
Sulamith explained
A poetic retelling of the biblical Song of Songs, focusing on the passionate and tragic love between King Solomon and the beautiful Sulamith, a simple vineyard worker.
What happens
A poetic retelling of the biblical Song of Songs, focusing on the passionate and tragic love between King Solomon and the beautiful Sulamith, a simple vineyard worker. Their love is celebrated in lyrical dialogue but ultimately shadowed by jealousy and death, as Sulamith is killed by the king's jealous wife, Astis, after a brief period of bliss.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
This is the story's dramatic climax because Vera Nikolayevna, who has previously dismissed Zheltkov’s love as…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Love and Sacrifice
The central theme of the chapter, exploring love's intensity, devotion, and ultimate tragedy as Sulamith sacrifices her life for Solomon's love.
- Cruelty and Suffering
The brutal murder of Sulamith by Astis highlights the cruelty born of jealousy and the suffering that accompanies forbidden love.
Characters to notice
- King Solomon
The wise and powerful king who falls deeply in love with Sulamith, composing the Song of Songs for her.
- Sulamith
A beautiful and innocent vineyard worker who becomes Solomon's beloved, only to be murdered by a jealous rival.
Key passages
“Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.”
Place me permanently in your heart and memory, because love is as powerful and inevitable as death, and jealousy is as harsh and destructive as the grave.
This opening epigraph from the Song of Songs encapsulates the chapter's themes of love's strength and jealousy's destructiveness.
