the plot. They play no role whatsoever in any of the structural elements of the plot; they are indeed “proper names without characters attached to them” (Berlin, Poetics, 86). With this understanding of the status of the participants and the prominence of the structural elements of resolution and dénouement, the theme of the book of Ruth can be determined from Table 1 (see in Genre above). First of all, it is supremely important to note that the discourse structure unmistakably and emphatically makes
Page 51