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[[quoteright:333:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TheRedTent_1835.jpg]]

''The Red Tent'' is a 1997 novel written by Anita Diamant, which expands on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinah the story of Dinah]] in the Literature/BookOfGenesis. The original Bible story is about a young girl who was raped by a prince, and her brothers [[RapeAndRevenge killed every man in the prince's city-state for it]]. Diamant's novel expands on the story, and tells it from Dinah's perspective. Her encounter with the prince, for example, is not a rape in Diamant's novel; [[AdaptationalConsent it was loving and consensual]]. The story narrates Dinah's life, such as spending time with the women of her family in a red tent designated for their "time of the month".

In 2014, it was made into a 2-episode miniseries airing on Creator/{{Lifetime}}, starring Creator/RebeccaFerguson as Dinah.

!!Tropes associated with ''The Red Tent'' include:
* AbandonTheDisabled: Babies born with disabilities and defects are left to die. Leah was almost killed upon birth for having heterochromic eyes, under the belief that she was cursed, but her mother wouldn't allow it.
* AbsurdlyYouthfulMother: Leah is about sixteen and Rachel about fourteen when they marry Jacob and become pregnant, although Rachel doesn't successfully carry a child to term until she's nearly thirty. At least two expectant mothers that various midwives are called to attend during childbirth were impregnated as soon as they began menstruating; depressingly, in each case the mother and child both die during labour.
* AcquiredSituationalNarcissism: Jacob starts off as a genuinely nice, caring person, but as he gains more and more wealth and status, it kind of goes to his head.
* AdaptationalHeroism:
** Shalem actually waits until marriage in the miniseries in order to have sex with Dinah.
** Downplayed with Jacob. He is more hands-on in the miniseries.
** In the original Biblical text, the prince (who was unnamed) was a rapist who decided ''after'' the fact that he loved Dinah and wanted to marry her. In the book (and the mini-series), he is a kind and handsome young man who falls in LoveAtFirstSight with her (and she with him), and engages in ''loving, consensual'' sex with her. The reason his village is destroyed in the original is a case of RapeAndRevenge; in the novel, it's because Dinah's greedy older brothers were worried about what would happen to their wealth and power if she married a prince. (It also didn't help that the prince did not ask her father for permission to marry her ''before'' they had sex.)
* AdaptationalVillainy:
%% ** Rebecca in the book is mainly described as "arrogant". In the miniseries, she is shown chastising Werenro.
** Re-Nefer is more exploitative of Dinah in the miniseries.
** In the original Biblical text, Laban ''was'' kind of a jerk in his second appearance: he tricked Jacob into marrying Leah when he was supposed to marry Rachel, and forced him to work another seven years to pay for Leah's virginity (after he'd already worked seven years as a bride price for Rachel). But in TRT, Laban is an AlcoholicParent, {{Domestic Abuse}}r, TheGamblingAddict, as well as the swindler he was in Literature/TheBible.
%% * AmbiguouslyGay: It is somewhat implied that Zilpah is a lesbian, due to her disinterest in Jacob (though she could also be asexual]]
* AncientEgypt: Dinah starts a new life there with her mother-in-law and a servant after her husband is killed. She first lives with Re-Nefer's brother in Thebes, and later moves with Meryt to the Valley of the Kings.
* TheAlcoholic: Laban is a rather unpleasant one, to the point of being passed out drunk at Rachel's own wedding.
%% * AlternateCharacterInterpretation: InvokedTrope. These are Biblical characters, but forget what you were taught about them in Sunday school.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: The purpose of the Ritual of Opening is to break the girl's hymen, in order to offer the resultant blood to Inanna, and "open her up" as preparation for marriage. The hymen doesn't ''quite'' [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hymen work that way]], but to be fair, this ''is'' [[ScienceMarchesOn the Bronze Age]]. [[invoked]]
* BabiesMakeEverythingBetter: Played with. Rachel believes this, in her bitter sadness over being unable to have children of her own -- and she's proven correct when she finally bears Joseph, who immediately becomes Jacob's favourite child. Averted for Leah however; she quickly realizes that no matter how many children she bears Jacob, he will never love her as much as he loves Rachel.
%% * TheBeautifulElite: Rachel.
* BestialityIsDepraved: Laban has a habit of "bothering the sheep."
* BibleTimes: Based on the book of Genesis.
* BigScrewedUpFamily: After the destruction of the Shechemites, Jacob's family becomes this. Not that it was much better before.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Re-Nefer seems nice at first, and actively encourages Shalem and Dinah's romance. After Dinah's brothers massacre the men of Shechem, she nonetheless still seems to care for Dinah when she flees with her to Egypt. [[spoiler:However, her kindness towards Dinah comes into question after Dinah gives birth to a son, when Re-Nefer decides to take control in the boy's upbringing and give him the privilege and opportunities as a prince of Egypt, essentially reducing Dinah to his wet nurse. She even threatens to throw Dinah out if she uses the name she gave him, Bar-Shalem, instead of Re-Mose. She doesn't necessarily hate Dinah (even having a few PetTheDog moments), she just values her grandson more.]]
* BittersweetEnding: Since Dinah was the only surviving female child, and ran away to Egypt, all of the private women's traditions of her tribe die with Jacob's wives -- but nonetheless, the memory of Dinah herself lives on through her brothers' daughters. Eventually, she dies peacefully in her old age, surrounded and mourned by her new family, although what's left of her old family barely acknowledges that she ever existed.
* BloodstainedDefloration: The women of Canaan are expected to show bloodied bedsheets to their in-laws following their wedding nights, to prove they were virgins when they got married. They're shocked to learn the women of Padan-Aram don't do this; instead, when a girl experiences menarche and becomes a woman in their eyes, she participates in the Ritual of Opening, where she breaks her hymen herself by masturbating with a carved figurine of a goddess and offers her virgin blood to the mother goddess Inanna, with the other women witnessing and cheering her on.
* {{Bowdlerise}}: The MiniSeries glossed over a lot of things, including the Ritual of Opening.
* BreakTheCutie: A massive one for Dinah after her brother's massacre, to the point where she briefly becomes a DeathSeeker.
* {{Bridezilla}}: Rachel goes through this while preparing to marry Jacob; it's somewhat justified in that she's only about 12 or 13 years old and not yet emotionally mature at the time.
* BrokenBird:
** Rebecca's reason for being so emotionally distant and surrounding herself by [[EtherealWhiteDress white-clad veiled servants]] all named "Deborah" is [[spoiler:the loss of her nursemaid, Deborah]].
** One possible explanation for Zilpah's intense [[DoesNotLikeMen dislike of men]] is that [[ParentalIncest her father molested her]], and she saw how local men in the area ogled her and her sisters and jeered at Leah for her mismatched eyes.
* ButNotTooForeign: Dinah takes on an Egyptianized version of her name, Den-ner, when she becomes a respected midwife there.
* CallingTheOldManOut: Dinah completely snaps and lashes out at Jacob for letting his sons get away with the slaughter of her husband and the men of Shechem, going so far as to curse them all before running away.
* CanonImmigrant: Tabea isn't a Biblical character, but ''does'' live alongside them.
* CharacterDevelopment: Rachel starts off as a real [[{{Tsundere}} diva]], but as she finds her purpose (midwifery), she becomes more mature.
%% * ChildrenAreInnocent: Played straight with Dinah. Averted with Tabea, who has seen a lot of the adult drama in her family.
* CleanPrettyChildbirth: Played straight in the miniseries, but very, very much averted in the novel, which describes most births in very raw and realistic detail.
* ClingyJealousGirl: Rachel, mainly out of resentment towards Leah for manipulating her into switching places on their wedding day, thus taking the great honor of being Jacob's first wife.
* CloserToEarth: The women feel an intense connection with their homeland and goddesses, so much that they are distraught when Jacob packs them all up and moves to a new land -- hence why they steal Laban's teraphim, in order to keep their goddesses close.
* ComingOfAge: A girl becomes a woman when she has her first menstrual period, an event that is greatly celebrated by the women of the tribe.
* CovertPervert:
** Dinah takes interest in listening to her older brother and his wife at night.
** Also, her otherwise very respectable mother Leah makes lots of dirty jokes in the company of the other women in the Red Tent.
* DeathByChildbirth: Many cases of this are mentioned in passing. Rachel eventually suffers this fate herself, just as she did in the biblical narrative.
* DefiledForever: As evidenced by her brothers' [[HonorRelatedAbuse nasty name-calling]], Dinah is [[MyGirlIsNotASlut regarded as this]] in their eyes for her sexual relationship with Prince Shalem.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The book certainly doesn't shy away from the fact that values and mores in the Bronze Age Near East were very different from the ones held by most modern Westerners. One particularly disturbing example is how disabled and "defective" babies are [[AbandonTheDisabled left to die]].
* DespairEventHorizon:
** The slaughter of Prince Shalem for Dinah.
** Also, the destruction of the Teraphim by Jacob becomes this for Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, and Zilpah, who all die not long thereafter. ''Especially'' Zilpah, who was literally DrivenToMadness by it.
* DoesNotLikeMen: Zilpah. She is very reluctant to sleep with Jacob, and does so only on Leah's orders. After giving birth to twin sons nearly kills her, she and Jacob agree to never have sex again, for which she is extremely grateful.
* DomesticAbuse:
** Laban treats Ruti so horribly that she [[spoiler:has an abortion so that she won't give him another child]]
** Also, Bilhah is severely beaten by Jacob after he caught her sleeping with Reuben.
* DownerEnding: For all of Jacob's wives. Zilpah goes insane and dies of a fever shortly after the destruction of their teraphim. Leah wakes up paralyzed one day, and begs her sons' wives to kill her with poison. Rachel dies an agonizing death after giving birth to her second son, and Jacob simply leaves her body to rot at the side of a road. Bilhah is caught sleeping with Reuben, is severely beaten in punishment before being banished, and heavily implied to have committed suicide.
* DreamingOfThingsToCome: Zilpah tries to invoke this many times, interpreting dreams to predict the future. Her predictions are seldom accurate, though. Much like her half-brother Joseph, Dinah is more successful.
* DrivenToMadness:
** This happens to Zilpah when Jacob destroys the Teraphim. [[spoiler:She becomes physically ill as well, and dies as a result.]]
** This is also how Jacob's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob%27s_ladder vision of the angels on the stairs]] (and famed fight with an angel) is viewed by the other characters in Diamant's novel.
* DrivenToSuicide:
** [[spoiler:Ruti slits her wrists after years of suffering under Laban]]. Also [[spoiler:one of Simon's sons when he learns that his father won his mother by murdering every man in Shechem]].
** Bilhah is also heavily implied to have committed suicide after her banishment.
* DysfunctionalFamily: Adah is jealous of, and abusive toward, Basemath, who is more favored by Esau but considerably less fertile than Adah, and his wives and his mother don't really get along.
* TheEmpath: Bilhah is rather observant of both animals and people.
* ExcrementStatement: When he discovers the last of the household idols he thought he'd destroyed, Jacob becomes angry, blaming it for all the misfortunes he's suffered since leaving Padan-Aram for Canaan. After he smashes it with a rock, he urinates on it.
* TheFairFolk: This is what Zilpah hopes she's carrying: a daughter (perhaps some kind of demi-goddess) who will come out fully-formed and magical. [[spoiler:She ends up having twin boys instead, and it almost kills her.]]
* FirstPeriodPanic: During the TimeSkip, Dinah's cousin Tabea got her first period, but rather than it being celebrated or her even being told what was happening to her (as it would be in Dinah's immediate family), Tabea was simply shut into a dark hut, not allowed to leave until she stopped bleeding, and told she was "[[UncleanlinessIsNextToUngodliness impure]]". (She does, however, get to wear a belt or apron that marks her as an adult woman instead of a little girl.) When Rebekah finds out about this, she is enraged, and sends Tabea away, along with her aunt, never to be seen again. Dinah is upset that this happened to her OnlyFriend, but Leah defends Rebekah, saying that it was a necessary evil to protect ''their'' customs.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** Meta, in a very subtle way. Leah wears sky blue. She is Judah's mother. Mary (and Joseph, and thus Jesus) is from the tribe of Judah. Mary is usually depicted wearing sky blue. A very subtle way to foreshadow which of Jacob's wives would be the ancestor of who is probably the most famous Jewish person ever.
%% ** Also, in the miniseries, Dinah meets Judah's family. It is the only family of her brothers' that she meets, other than Joseph's. More subtle meta foreshadowing.
* FourthDateMarriage: Dinah and Prince Shalem fall in love the moment they see each other. When they part ways, they both can't stop dreaming of the other, so Shalem arranges for Dinah to return to the palace so they can meet again. When they do, they immediately decide to marry.
* GagPenis: Zilpah tells Rachel that Jacob has one of these, to make her afraid to go to the marriage bed so Leah can go instead.
* GenerationXerox: After Bilhah is flogged for sleeping with Reuben, she runs away (and is thought to have committed suicide), just like her own MissingMom.
* TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry: Toned down somewhat from the Biblical narrative, but there is still a great deal of this between Leah and Rachel, each desiring what the other has. Leah has a large brood of children, but wishes for the love that Jacob lavishes upon Rachel. Rachel has Jacob's love, but desperately wants to give him children as Leah has done.
* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion:
** Averted. [[spoiler:Ruti induces a miscarriage so as not to give her husband another child (that he'll probably just abuse) and the other women understand her choice.]]
** Leah initially considers doing the same thing when she conceives Dinah, because at this point she is approaching middle age, and giving birth seven times already has taken a toll on her body. She decides not to when Zilpah informs her that her baby is the daughter that the women have desperately wanted for so long.
* HartmanHips: Leah is described as possessing especially wide hips, which explains she is able to survive giving birth to eight children.
* HeirClubForMen: Laban's unhappy that he only had daughters through Adah and a couple of concubines. He does finally get sons, though through Ruti.
* HollywoodHomely: In-universe. Leah (described in the Bible as being rather plain compared to Rachel) is [[InformedFlaw considered this]] because one of her eyes is green and one is blue, something she feels very self-conscious about. [[spoiler:Only because people used to tease her about it, and she only displays signs of self-consciousness around men.]] Also, years of bearing children and nursing take a toll on her.
* IHaveNoSon:
** Jacob disowns Reuben for having sex with Bilhah, just as he did in the biblical narrative. He also does the same to Dinah -- after the whole business with the Shechemites and her running away, he never spoke her name again and acted as though she had never existed.
** Rebecca not only kicks her daughter-in-law out for not performing the Ritual of Opening for Tabea, but [[JerkAss sends Tabea off with her]], even though it wasn't Tabea's fault.
%% ** Adah, in her old age
%% ** Also Leah, who wakes up completely paralyzed one day, with no explanation.
%% ** And Zilpah, after she crosses the DespairEventHorizon and is DrivenToMadness.
* InsatiableNewlyweds: Dinah and Shalem's consummation lasts for nearly a week.
* IntergenerationalFriendship: Rachel becomes an apprentice to the elderly midwife and herbalist Inna, who also passes on a little of her knowledge to Dinah. In Egypt, Dinah also begins working with midwife Meryt, and they grow close enough to consider each other family.
%% * {{Jerkass}}: Laban, but also Simon and Levi
* KarmaHoudini: Dinah's brothers. They get a WhatTheHellHero, and in Literature/TheBible get their inheritance divided, but that's barely a slap on the wrist for destroying a whole village simply because they were worried for their status when their sister got involved with a prince.
* KnightTemplarBigBrother: Simon and Levi, who murder every man in Shechem simply because the prince wanted to marry their sister.
* LawOfInverseFertility:
** Played With; Leah bears many children very easily, but Rachel does not, despite trying every trick Inna has up her sleeves. Rachel actually becomes pregnant just as easily as Leah, but is simply unable carry any of her pregnancies to term. She suffers a large number of miscarriages over many years, before her luck finally turns and she gives birth to Joseph.
** This also happens to [[spoiler:Dinah]] many years later. [[spoiler:She is a middle aged woman by the time she marries Benia, and though they try very hard to have children together, it never happens.]]
* LieBackAndThinkOfEngland: Zilpah views sex with Jacob as this. She only sleeps with him because Leah asked (or ordered) her to, and then only for procreative purposes. She did not enjoy a moment of it, and makes it clear that [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain she does not want to regale her sisters with the story of it]].
* LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek: Was adapted in 2014 into a two-part MiniSeries on Creator/{{Lifetime}}.
* LostHimInACardGame: Laban gambles away Ruti. [[spoiler:Leah and Jacob work together to rescue her, though.]]
* LoveAtFirstSight: Dinah and Shalem feel an instant passion the moment they lock eyes, and they barely exchange a word before they agree to marry.
* LoveFatherLoveSon: Bilhah is Jacob's concubine, but throughout the years, she and his oldest son Reuben develop feelings for each other, which leads to tragedy when they actually act on their love. Slightly less squicky than it sounds, since Bilhah was only a child herself when Reuben was born.
%% * LoveInterest: Prince Shalem
* LoveTriangle: Between Jacob, Leah, and Rachel. While Jacob loved Rachel first, and most out of all his wives, he does also have some feelings for Leah, as evidenced by their wedding night.
* {{Lunacy}}: The women who are of childbearing age all menstruate like clockwork around the New Moon and ovulate with the full moon. In RealLife, periods ''usually'' do not synch up that much.
* MadeASlave: Not on paper, but while Dinah functions as Re-Mose's nursemaid, she is not allowed to play the role of his mother (even though she actually is). Played up in the miniseries.
* MadOracle: Zilpah, sort of. Most see her as very eccentric, and she is obsessed with mysticism and divination. Most of her predictions don't really seem to come true, though.
* MamaBear: Adah cares deeply for both her own daughter and her stepdaughters, so when Laban began molesting them, she got him to put a stop to it.
* MarryThemAll: Jacob ends up married to both Leah and Rachel, and later takes Bilhah and Zilpah as concubines. Though here, the sisters actually pulled the strings to help engineer this arrangement so they could all stay together.
* TheMedic: Inna, who is both a midwife and an herbalist. Later, Dinah becomes this as she becomes a respected midwife along with her friend Meryt.
* MercyKilling: [[spoiler:How Leah eventually dies: she wakes up paralyzed one morning, and begs her servant girls to kill her with poison. They oblige.]]
%% * {{Miko}}: Zilpah has assumed this role in her family, in a way.
* MotherhoodIsSuperior: Leah and her sisters dote on Dinah. They don't pay much attention to the boys after they finish nursing, since they go off to tend the herds with their father. [[spoiler:Except for Bilhah, who has an affair with Reuben once he grows up.]] Likewise, Jacob pays more attention to his sons than he does to his daughter, again on the grounds that men and women operate in different spheres of their semi-nomadic society.
%% * TheMourningAfter: [[spoiler:Inverted at the end]]
* MrFanservice: InUniverse and invoked. Benia in the miniseries shows off his toned body on purpose while working on Dinah's roof in order to get her to fall for him. It worked. Afterwards, he dresses much more modestly when working -- just as he did before meeting Dinah.
* TheMurderAfter: Subverted, as Dinah is not the suspect; she at first doesn't know who killed Shalem, but it's revealed that it was her brothers.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Jacob]], although (in all fairness) he did not directly orchestrate the events surrounding the destruction of the Shechemites. He only requested an outrageous bride price, after his favorite son Joseph suggested having the men circumcised when Simon complained about how "that uncircumcised dog" was lying with Dinah. The rest was all his sons' doing, which he does [[WhatTheHellHero call them out for.]]
* NaughtyByNight: The women act differently in the privacy of the Red Tent than they otherwise do. They are more outgoing, and they serve the goddesses of their homeland (rather than the [[{{God}} God of Jacob]]).
* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
%% ** Dinah's brothers believe they are [[RapeAndRevenge avenging a rape]] and saving her, and that's not the case in the novel.
** When [[spoiler:Leah and Jacob work together to rescue Ruti from being taken away when Laban lost her in a bet.]] Sure, she gets to stay with her family, but her husband starts treating her even worse than he did before.
* NoPeriodsPeriod: Averted; menstruation brings the women into the red tent, and brings them together. They regard it as a gift from the goddess Innana, that allows "periodic" renewal.
%% * NoPreggerSex: Although this is the customary rule, it was averted during Rachel's pregnancy
* NotWantingKidsIsWeird: Tabea mentions that she wants to be a priestess, rather than to be sold into marriage and used as a BabyFactory or risk Death by Childbirth. This is because Tabea has seen a lot of the adult drama in her family, and witnessed Oholibamah suffer in childbirth for days before dying a horrible death. (But the only option open to her besides marriage and motherhood is becoming a priestess.) Because although her family is not without its problems, it is (at least at this point) much more stable than Tabea's, Dinah can't fathom why she (or anyone else) would want to pass up motherhood (which is placed on a very high pedestal in their culture, and especially among the women of Dinah's family.)
* TheOldGods: Although they worship (or pretend to worship) Jacob's {{God}} in public, in private, his wives worship the goddesses of their homeland. They view their husband's God as unnecessarily harsh, and his customs of burning the choicest parts of a sacrificed animal and circumcision as strange. Meanwhile, the women of Canaan, particularly Simeon and Levi's wives Ialutu and Inbu, take a dim view of the rituals of the Red Tent, such as sacrifices to Inanna and the Ritual of Opening, and more readily accept Jacob's customs.
* OldManMarryingAChild: At least two of the expectant mothers that the midwives are summoned to attend are young girls who'd only ''just'' begun menstruating, having been impregnated by much older men. ''Because'' they're too young to safely carry a baby to term, both of them die in childbirth.
%% * OnlySaneMan: Joseph is the only one of Jacob's sons who seems to have a good head on his shoulders.
* ParentalAbandonment: Bilhah's biological [[MissingMom mother]] ran away from Laban, leaving Bilhah behind.
* ParentalIncest: Laban molested his daughters, but stopped after his wife punished him severely for it.
* ParentsAsPeople: Jacob focuses more on his 12 sons than on his daughter, and Leah sometimes loses her patience with Dinah.
* ThePeepingTom: Zilpah spies on Jacob masturbating in the field, shortly before his planned wedding to Rachel. She informs Rachel that he has [[BiggerIsBetterInBed very ample equipment]], terrifying her so much that she backs out of the wedding and has Leah take her place.
* PeriodShaming: Some of Dinah's extended family are from a culture that views menstruation as "impure", with women who are menstruating being required to isolate themselves until it ends. When Dinah's cousin Tabea gets her first period, she's treated as disgusting and locked up in a dark hut by herself, without even being told what's happening to her. Dinah is horrified by this, as her immediate family's culture view menstruation as [[InvertedTrope something to be celebrated]]; although the women still have to isolate themselves in the titular Red Tent, this is a time for them to relax, bond and share traditions, more so than something shameful and punishing. They see it as a gift of "periodic renewal" from the goddess Innana.
* PetTheDog: Rebecca, as vain and mean as she is, receives ''all'' visitors, no matter their age, race, sex, social class, etc. Also, she holds a little boy and rubs a soothing ointment onto his wounds.
* {{Polyamory}}:
** Just as in the {{canon}} Bible story, but this time portrayed as orchestrated by the girls themselves (not Laban tricking Jacob into marrying Leah). Also, Jacob actually does love and care for his wives (well, in the beginning anyway), although Rachel is still his favorite.
** Also, just as in canon, Esau has 3 wives (though one suffered DeathByChildbirth). Like Jacob, he has a favorite wife, the beautiful but (allegedly) infertile Basemath. His first wife, Adah, is jealous of Basemath and abuses her. Additionally, Esau is expecting a child with one of his slave girls, and she will become a lesser wife if her child happens to be a boy.
%% * ThePowerOfBlood
%% * ThePowerOfFriendship
%% * ThePowerOfLove
* PregnantBadass: Dinah, by this time a seasoned midwife, has the presence of mind to [[spoiler:perform an episiotomy ''on herself'' as she struggles through a difficult birth.]]
* TheQuietOne: Bilhah rarely talks or even smiles, especially as a child. Dinah is arguably this, particularly after she [[DespairEventHorizon loses her husband]].
* RapeAsDrama: Werenro is gang-raped and mutilated, and found later by a young shepherd boy.
* RiteOfPassage: The Ritual of Opening, which happens after a girl has her first period.
* ScreamingBirth: Many examples from Dinah's family and the women she assists as a midwife, some more lethal than others.
* SecondLove: [[spoiler:Benia and Dinah are both this for each other.]]
* SexAsRiteOfPassage: Considering that the girl undergoing the ritual is masturbated with a small idol...
* SexlessMarriage: Zilpah and Jacob, after she very nearly dies giving birth to Gad and Asher and does not want to go through that again. For his part, Jacob is understanding about that, and never summons her for sex again.
* ShownTheirWork: A lot of research on Ancient Mesopotamia went into this particular novel.
* ShrinkingViolet: Bilhah, seeing as she starts out as a child, and a lonely one at that.
* SiblingRivalry: Rachel and Leah don't ''hate'' each other, but their relationship is strained due to having to share Jacob's love, as well as Leah having more luck with fertility.
* SignificantWardrobeShift: When Dinah sees Tabea again after the TimeSkip, she is wearing a belt or apron of some kind that signifies that she's had her first period (and therefore considered an adult). Rebecca is angry when she sees her wearing it, because she was not informed, and because she then finds out that rather than doing the Ritual of Opening, Tabea was treated according to the customs of her mother and aunts, rather than Rebecca and ''her'' ancestors. (Namely, being shut away from the family group in a dark tent or hut, with no explanation as to what was happening to her, and told that she is "impure" and cannot rejoin the group until she stops bleeding. It was treated as a negative experience, rather than something to be celebrated or even acknowledged.) Rebecca disowns Tabea for not following family traditions, even though it was ''clearly'' not her fault.
* SomeoneToRememberHimBy: Subverted. Dinah is left pregnant with Shalem's son, [[spoiler:but is forbidden by Shalem's grieving mother to even acknowledge the child as his. Then once the baby born, she completely steals him away from Dinah, who ends up playing very little part in his upbringing.]]
* TeamMom: Leah, the most practical and mature of her sisters. Also Inna thanks to her age, wisdom, and profession as a midwife.
* TextileWorkIsFeminine: They believe it's a gift to womankind from one of the old goddesses.
* ThisIsMyStory: The story begins thusly: "We have been lost to each other for so long. My name means nothing to you. My memory is dust" and continues in this vein for some time.
%% * {{Tsundere}}: Zilpah, Adah, Leah, Rachel
* TheUnfavorite:
** Just as in {{canon}}, Leah, although it is clear that she is still loved and cared for, and Jacob is still attracted to her, just not on the same level as Rachel. All of Jacob's elder sons eventually become this as well, after Rachel bears Joseph.
** Also Bilhah out of Laban's children, who tends to be somewhat of a loner from the very beginning.
* ToxicFriendInfluence: Jacob becomes corrupt and greedy after he starts listening to Simon and Levi instead of Leah and Reuben.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom:
** Although not directly involved with Shalem's murder, Jacob indirectly sets it into motion by [[SarcasmBlind misinterpreting a sarcastic remark]] from Joseph.
** Re-Nefer encouraged Shalem's crush on Dinah, as she believed the girl would make him happy. It ''really'' backfired on her family.
* ValuesDissonance: In-universe.
** The women of Padan-Aram, who do the Ritual of Opening and celebrate the New Moon together, contrasted to the women of Canaan, who "prove" their virginity to their in-laws with the bloody sheets of the wedding night and are not familiar with the New Moon rituals.
** Isaac being monogamous and having (and wanting) only one wife is seen as the exception, not the rule. Not condemned -- just not the norm.
* VirginPower: Early in the book, it's mentioned that Rachel's first menstrual blood is collected to fertilize the garden, with the belief that menstrual blood from a virgin makes crops grow bigger and stronger. [[note]]There ''is'' some truth to this, in that blood can be used as an excellent fertilizer, as it is rich in nitrogen. ''But'' it doesn't have to be menstrual blood, it doesn't have to be from a virgin of either sex, and it doesn't even have to be ''human'' blood.[[/note]]
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Tabea's never seen again after her aunt carts her off kicking and screaming.
* WomensMysteries: The women of Jacob's tribe have their own exclusive secret world, with its own customs and religious beliefs.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: Inna, despite her best efforts, lost a (very young) woman and her child [[DeathByChildbirth during delivery]], and the girl's husband [[BurnTheWitch accused Inna of being an evil witch]] and threatened to take Inna to the village elders, the leader of whom has a beef with her for turning down his son as a suitor. So she decides to join up with her apprentice Rachel instead and live as part of Jacob's tribe.
* YoungerMentorOlderDisciple: Meryt states many times that, despite being significantly older than Dinah and having more practical experience, she considers herself Dinah's apprentice in the arts of midwifery, owing to the latter's more advanced skills.
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