Creating Engaging Characters Through Action and Dialogue

Good writing creates engaging characters by showing not telling. We shall use an example from Chapter 2 of the biblical Book of Ruth that is beautifully and economically written to demonstrate how we learn masses about three characters just from action and dialogue.

Written by hand on expensive vellum, the Bible is short on description, so we won’t consider setting today. We will dive into everything about character this short scene conveys through action and dialogue.  

The passage I want us to focus on is Ruth 2:

² Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.”
Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” ³ So she went out, entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek.
⁴ Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “The Lord be with you!”
“The Lord bless you!” they answered.
⁵ Boaz asked the overseer of his harvesters, “Who does that young woman belong to?”
⁶ The overseer replied, “She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi. ⁷ She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She came into the field and has remained here from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.”
⁸ So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with the women who work for me. ⁹ Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the women. I have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.” 

Ruth 2:2-9

RUTH

Ruth is courageous or innocent, perhaps to the point of naivety, (v.2) to suggest to her mother-in-law that she should go glean.

By law, pauper gleaners could glean around the edges of a farmer’s field, (Leviticus 23:22). However, females ran the risk of being molested, which is confirmed by Boaz’s remark to Ruth in v.9:” I have told the men not to lay a hand on you.”

The impression is that she, a foreigner, is gleaning alone that morning. Locals would probably have known better than to show up boldly in broad daylight. They would have gleaned furtively, after the harvesters had left.  

In v.6, the overseer has nothing but good to say about Ruth. He reports to Boaz that she politely asked permission of him before gleaning and had worked hard all morning.

The reader, already impressed with her loyalty towards her mother-in-law, Naomi, continues to admire this Moabite foreigner, who is prepared to work hard for the benefit of them both.

NAOMI

Ruth’s mother-in-law, Naomi is another of the snippet’s engaging characters. She has but four short words in this passage: “Go ahead, my daughter,” (v.2). In Hebrew, they are but two: l’chi bati. They are telling.

Naomi was already at the end of her tether. All her male relatives had died, leaving her responsible for two, apparently barren, foreign daughters-in-law. One she managed to send back to her Moabite family, but Ruth, the other, stuck like glue and refused to leave her.

When Ruth suggests gleaning like a pauper, Naomi reaches her nadir – her deepest shame. She returned ‘bitter’ from Moab to her hometown of Bethlehem. For her daughter-in-law to be brought this low leaves Naomi beyond broken. She is utterly hopeless.

BOAZ

Boaz is probably the brother of Ruth’s late father-in-law, Elimelech. His name means ‘Strength’ and we are about to realize some of the many qualities of this Prince Charming, after he rides up on his white charger, so to speak.

He is not arrogant but a man of the people: he does not stick his nose in the air as he passes his workers but greets them with a blessing from God. We know they admire him, too, because they bless him back.

Here is a man of faith whose workers know and like him.

Next, he enquires about the gleaner in his field. He asks his overseer, who has nothing but good to tell him about Ruth.

Boaz addresses her as, “My daughter.” This is not only affectionate but lets us know that he is considerably older than she is. (Since girls were married at about thirteen and Ruth was married to Naomi’s son, Mahlon, for some years before he died, she was probably in her late teens or early twenties.)

Boaz helps Ruth to make the best of her dire situation.

In just 236 economic English words (NIV version), the plot moves from ‘coming to Bethlehem as widows’ at the end of Chapter 1 to ‘Ruth has met a male relative who is kind and, looks like he’s interested in her.’ Naomi’s despair at the beginning of the chapter may have been misplaced. There is a window of hope for the two widows.

God has also intervened for good — “as it turned out,” (v.3) Ruth found herself working in the field of one of Elimelech’s relatives. (Some versions say she ‘happened’ to find herself in Boaz’s field.). He has arranged for good, wealthy, kind hero, Boaz, a believer, to meet industrious, loyal Moabite Ruth, also a believer.

Cue violins.

This passage offers maximum impact and suspense for true economy of expression. .

Look out for further tips from examples of great writing in the Bible to inform our own approach to scene creation.

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