A Masque of Reason and J. B.: Two Treatments of the Book of Job

A MASQUE OF REASON AND J B.: TWO TREATMENTS OF THE BOOK OF JOB IN THE CHAOTIC MID-TWENTiEnr CENTURY it is not surprising that two poets who have been most aware of man's seemingly isolated position in the universe turned to the Book of Job for inspiration. A Masque of Reason, a one act play in verse by Robert Frost, published in 1945, and Archibald MacLeish's J. B., a verse drama of eleven scenes, published and produced on Broadway in 1956, have more in common than their common Old Testament source, but, at the same time are unmistakeably different from each other. The Book of Job, written by an anonymous poet in the early half of the fifth century B.C. in Babylon, can be divided into two sections from the point of view of structure. Chapters one and two and chapters thirty-eight through forty-two present the familiar story of the patient Job. All of the dramatic action takes place in these chapters. The middle chapters of the book (chapters three to thirty-eight) contain the argument of the Book in the form of a long-sustained dialogue between Job and his comforters. The middle chapters are philosophical in nature and contain some of the most .beautiful and moving poetry in the Old Testament, but they are not conceived in dramatic terms. It is to the credit of MacLeish and Frost as playwrights that they have leaned more heavily on the opening and closing chapters of the Book of Job as sources for their works than on the middle chapters, but because of this, they have sacrificed some of the poetic possibilities which such a rich source might afford.1 The problem of the Book of Job is a complex one. Essentially it can be resolved into the question, what is the meaning of suffering which is apparently undeserved?2 It is tlle problem of evil, a much more complicated one than the problem of guilt, which concerns the ancient poet. In the end Job discovers that he can set his own distress aside in contemplation of the wonders of God's creation. The question of his own personal guilt no longer troubles him. Job learns that the Behemoth and Leviathan, symbols of evil, hold no terrors for the Almighty, and by implication, if man accepts the ways of God and .1. See Margaret Brackenbury Crook, The Creel God (Boston, 1959), Chapter 19, pp. 170-79. 2. Job asks important subordinate questions throughout the Book. Included among them are: If a man does not receive vindication in his lifetime, can he know of it after death (14: 7-15)? If a man, after death, can know nothing of God's doings, can he induce God to vindicate him in his lifetime (16-18)? Can a man in the clutches of death-but not yet dead-be aWare before he dies of his vindication (19-20)? Miss Crook makes these points, but they are all questions of guilt and are clearly subordinate to the larger issue of evil. 378 1961 A MASQUE OF REASON AND /. B. 379 believes in Him, evil will assume its proper subordinate role among the creations of God. Evil will not be the dominant factor in the human situation, but man's faith in God must be firm for him to realize this. This Old Testament answer satisfies neither Frost nor MacLeish. Each of these contemporary poets attempts to answer the basic question set forth in the Book of Job in a way characteristic of his own poetic vision. And each of them, ultimately, moves outside the scope of the Old Testament in his search for the answer. Both contemporary poets place strong and dramatic emphasis o~ the role played by Job's wife. In the Old Testament only two verses are devoted to repartee between Job and his wife. Then said his wife unto him: 'Dost thou still hold fast thine integrity ? blaspheme God and die.' But he said unto her: 'Thou speakest as one of the impious women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?' For all this did not...