The Mystery of Cain and Abel

The Bible passage of Cain and Abel can be considered the first murder ever committed by mankind, or at least the first murder-mystery story ever to be recorded. Both of our readings, Genesis: 4 as well as the N-town play version of the story, contain the five essential elements of a mystery. However, when reading the two texts, I found myself more entranced by the N-town play, which makes it a better mystery story than the bible verse.

One of the mean reasons for this is that the play has much better character development for Cain and Abel than the Bible verse. The character development comes from the dialogue between the brothers. Right from the beginning, we realize that Abel is a kind, grateful and selfless character while Cain is selfish and vain, which allows us to understand and relate to the story better. This can be seen from lines like “For if I have goods enough and plenty I can be merry.” (lines 19-20) and “ever we thank you in heart, body and thought.” (line 24) This is different from the bible verse, which simply states the actions of the characters in a detached and factual way, which doesn’t give us any insight to the characters’ thoughts and feelings.

Another important detail from the play is that the playwright plants clues in the play that foreshadows what might happen next, which is typical of a mystery story. In line 49, Cain says that he is “loth” (reluctant) to give his offerings to God and that he’s “rather go home” (line 52). This shows that he doesn’t care about offering to God and foreshadows the fact that he would be unwilling to sacrifice his best harvest. Also, what I found very interesting is Abel’s words “In lamb’s likeness, though shalt for mans’ wickedness once be offered in painfulness and die full dolefully.” (lines 76-79). This is most probably a reference to Jesus’ death in the New Testament and probably foreshadows that would happen in another N-Town play.

The play also ends with a mystery. The ending simply states, “From man’s sight me hide” (line 196), and we don’t know where Cain went or what happened to him afterwards. Although the Bible verse answers part of this mystery, we still don’t know anything about how Cain lives the rest of his life, or whether he eventually gains God’s forgiveness or repents from his sin. This, to me, is the greatest mystery in the story of Cain and Abel.