Sophia Donati
Job’s Lousy Acting of Morality
The Biblical figure of Job is one that is of mythical proportion. He is not a man; he is a saint in the framework of the Bible and is regarded by readers as a figure to turn to when struggling with patience of faith. This epic hero is taken on in Archibald MacLeish’s play, J.B. and is transferred to his character of a modern Job. J.B. highlights the simplistic human morality scale of good and bad through the Satanmask and Godmask, therefore connecting to Job’s blind faith to God which edges on naïve and ignorant. The dimensions of the play situate two actors playing God and Satan looking down on the unbeknown ‘actor’ J.B. and his actions as being a commentary for modern humanity. The conversation that enfolds demonstrates the simplicity of human morals through the foundation of the Biblical story. In the book of Job, of the King James’ Bible, Job is painted to be a perfect devout follower to the point of ignorance and foolishness. This perfection of Job reiterates how simple morality claims to be while only being divided into good and bad. The intersection of J.B. and the Book of Job help to unpack these arguments.
The interruption of the Distant Voice in the Godmask and Satanmask’s conversation highlights the simplicity of humanity’s idea of good and bad, because the link between the Biblical Job’s supposed perfection is strong in suggesting human ignorance. In the beginning of J.B., the characters playing the Godmask and Satanmask are acting out a scene, when there is an unexpected interruption. It reads, “Godmask: in a furious, great voice, arm thrown out in a gesture of contemptuous commitment. ‘Behold! All that he hath is in my power!’ The Satan-shadow bows mockingly; raises its two arms, advances until the shadows become one shadow. The light fades.” (MacLeish 52). The stage directions are very telling here as the Godmask takes on this grand poseur persona with his “furious, great voice.” The shadow of Satan, on the contrasting other hand also takes on this large attention while being described with shadow imagery giving the stereotypical drama of darkness and evil. This scene continues: “Suddenly, out of the darkness The Distant Voice of the Prologue. The Voice: ‘Only…’ Silence. Godmask: ‘Only Upon himself Put not forth thy hand” (MacLeish 52). The insertion of The Distant Voice alludes to the whisper of God in the play. It is prompting the Godmask, which is supposed to be in the likeness of God Himself, The Distant Voice is reiterating this mockery and grand show of good and bad. The Godmask whispering to The Distant Voice’s ‘only’ and continuing the sentence reflects how humanity views the teachings of God in the Bible to be fully obedient and a perfect mirror. The literary critic, W.D. White, points to this scene and says, “This attempt to incorporate God-consciousness can be seen first in the presentation of Mr. Zuss (God) and Nickles (Satan)” (White). His presentation of “God-consciousness” is an interesting phrase that describes this meta-aspect of the poem and the dimensions of humanity’s realization it covers. The God and Satan figures simply express the human morality boxes of good and evil, and The Distant Voice of God highlights how religion leads humanity to believe and sponsor this simplicity. In the Biblical Book of Job, this simplicity is also applauded and pushed throughout the Book. The context of the scene is when Satan is challenging the seemingly perfection of Job to his creator, God. It reads, “And the Lord said unto Satan, ‘Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil?” (Job 1:8). The excerpt from the Biblical text seems to be read in the form of a list suggesting four attributes (“perfect,” “upright man,” “feareth God,” and “escheweth evil”) as being the guidelines for a ‘good’ person. It boxes in the idea of morality by heavily suggesting specific good and bad actions to align either with Satan or God. There is also a heavy suggestion of God’s initial favor of Job due to him referring to him as his “perfect servant,” which promotes this blind ignorance in faith. The word format of this except being in a list highlights how larger-than-life Job really is, and how his character is an epic hero used as an example to place restrictive guidelines on humanity’s moral principles.
Although the Godmask and the Satanmask’s roles sufficiently argue how simple human morality is supposed to be outlined, J.B. as a character is an interesting continuation of the Biblical Job and his simplicity as well. J.B.’s ‘bad’ acting suggests again the innocent aspect of humanity drawing again a link to the Book of Job in the Bible, because of Job’s continued naivety and blind faith in following God through his hardships. As the play follows J.B.’s life, and Mr. Zuss and Nickles watching him, there is commentary from the two men on the actor they watch. In this scene the background is established: “As the platform light comes on, the figures fade from the canvas sky and Mr. Zuss and Nickles straighten up, lifting their masks off, stretching, yawning” (MacLeish 44). The background stage instructions set the tone for the dialogue to follow and also draw emphasis to the humanness of Mr. Zuss and Nickles behind their masks. The symbolization of light is also meaningful here as it is in all aspects of the poem “as the platform light comes on” to reveal the true human beings under the characters of God and Satan. The light represents the truth of their human complexities and does not limit them to the simple boxes they are put into when the put on their masks. Then, in their true human form, they converse about observing J.B.’s actions: “Mr. Zuss: ‘Well, that’s our pigeon.’ Nickles: ‘Lousy actor.’ Mr. Zuss: ‘Doesn’t really act at all” (MacLeish 44). Again, the three dimensions of the play are reiterated and the distance between them. The Distant Voice seems to have power and influence over all others, and Nickles and Mr. Zuss in Godmask and Satanmask form have observation over J.B. who seemed to be at the lowest point, even being called a ‘pigeon.’ The line from Mr. Zuss, who plays God with the mask on saying, ‘doesn’t really act at all’ is very significant due to the simplistic and dumb character of J.B. throughout the play. Again, some of the literary analysis from White talks about this quote-on-quote acting of J.B. and how his character is written. He argues, “That sloth of the body and mind which issues in emptiness of heart, which dissipates energy and purpose, and leaves a common grayness overall. At best J.B. is a kind of atomic-age Everyman as is suggested by Mr. Zuss’ statement” (White). This “emptiness of heart, energy and purpose” aligns with this comment of bad acting by J.B. The character is so simplistic and ignorant in nature, that the other humans viewing this see him as a bad actor when portraying a human. Yet it seems that this character more mirrors the inhumanness of Job in the Biblical frame. When Job is dealing with the hardships that God is throwing at him to prove his goodness, Job has a few stanzas of this shiny, somewhat fake-sounding speeches riddled throughout the book. It reads, “Moreover Job continued his parable, and said, ‘Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me; when his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness” (Job 29: 1-3). The use of the light as a symbol connects to the excerpt from J.B. but utilizes the symbol in a more direct way. The ‘candle shin[ing] upon [Job’s] head’ resembles a halo and represents good and holiness. In this imagery, Job is seen of more as a saint than a normal ‘atomic-age Everyman’ as his counterpart is supposed to. While in this Biblical stanza it is reasonable to listen to Job’s parable about light through the darkness and take moral guidance from it, the play takes this and colludes it slightly. Job and J.B. are similar in many ways, and this moral high ground is highlighted in both versions, but J.B. is perceived as a ‘lousy actor’ for this fakeness and inhuman behavior, which proves how Job is actually a show of how this supposed ‘perfection’ of character is too simple and ignorant to be followed.
Nickles’ breakdown about Job’s naivety emphasizes the fault of humanity’s simple moral guidelines, therefore connecting to the Bible’s Job and his innocence that he attempts to live with throughout his life. As the play continues, the interconnectivity between the three dimensions grows as Nickles, playing the Satanmask becomes flustered with J.B.’s simplicity and blind faith. In a rare dialogue moment, Nickles says, “Tell me how you play the end. Any man was screwed as Job was! … Job won’t take it! Job won’t touch it! Job will fling it in God’s face with half his guts to make it splatter! He’d rather suffocate in dung—choke in ordure—’ J.B.: ‘There is someone—Someone waiting at the door’ Nickles: ‘I know” (MacLeish 147-148). The language of Nickles, who is not wearing the Satanmask so is in human form, is delirious and crazed sounding as he seems to go on a tangent. The repetition of “Job won’t…Job won’t…Job will…” shows an obsession of Job’s actions and the predictability in them. Nickles knows how J.B. playing Job, will react to such things because of the boxes of morality now fully revealed and concrete in the play. The line that sticks out the most in this tangent is ‘Any man was screwed as Job was!’ because Nickles acknowledges how un-humanlike the myth of Job was due to his simplistic and blind follow without any doubt. This is where J.B. and Job break once again as J.B. is seen as stupid and ignorant to try to follow Job’s example of perfection. Mary Frances Thelen, a literary critic, pens, “MacLeish, however, has departed from precedent and made of J.B. and ordinary individual instead of a moral giant” (Thelen). Yet the good and bad simplicity that a ‘moral giant’ can carry crushes the ‘ordinary individual’ of J.B. and in this scene—Nickles recognizes that. The person waiting on the door for J.B. and Nickles knowing it as well sums up the frustration of J.B.’s ignorance to the world. The moral giant of Job is not as noticeably ignorant in the Biblical context. Very early on in the Book of Job, there is a line that reads, “And he said, Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave me, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21). There is a sense of destination in the birth and return of ‘my mother’s womb’ that suggests again, the blind faith of Job. Although this stanza utilizes poetic language and is satisfying in its message, when that is translated to the humanistic lens of J.B. it seems Job is an oversimplification of being good and therefore proves the issue in striving for perfection. Similar to the first Biblical passage, there is a list-like format to this excerpt which suggests the powers of the Lord to ‘give’ and ‘take’ and to ‘bless the name of the Lord.’ Throughout Job, there is the seduction of this perfect man, who is much more of a myth than a human and is more of a tool to influence humanity to follow these simple moral guidelines of good and bad. This translation of perfection to J.B. falls very flat as other humans read the idiotic behavior and simples of the character to be incomparable and undesiring.
The play J.B.’s take on Job’s simplicity of morality shows how the strict boxes good and bad cannot be achieved in humanity’s complexities, therefore complementing the message learned in the Book of Job that highlights the flaws of being naïve and ignorant. Both the Biblical original concept of Job and the retake on a modern Job suggest a flaw in the original concept. Job should not be portrayed as an ordinary man—as he is extremely far from that. He is a tool used as a myth to show a perfect, unachievable myth to the average reader of the Bible. Yet since he is referred to as a man, his perfection is deemed as copiable and becomes a guide for what is morally good. The morality this suggests is too simple to the point of fault and good and bad needs more of a scale to exist in humanity’s terms. J.B. plays with this idea of a modern Job by pointing fun of the irreplicable perfection and morality suggested in the Biblical book and makes room for the discussion of Biblical moral guidelines in the deliverance of Job. Although the Book of Job aims to make a model for humanity to look to for a perfect, faithful, and patient man, J.B. shows the stripped ignorance and dangerous simplicity of this character quite clearly.
Works Cited
King James Bible. Project Gutenberg ed., 2nd version, 10th ed., Project Gutenberg ed., 2nd version, 10th ed., Project Gutenberg, 1992. Accessed 4 Apr. 2021.
MacLeish, Archibald. “J.b.” : A Play in Verse. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1958.
Thelen, Mary Frances. “J. B., Job, and the Biblical Doctrine of Man.” Journal of Bible and Religion, vol. 27, no. 3, 1959, pp. 201–205. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1460352. Accessed 3 Apr. 2021.
White, W. D. “MacLeish’s J.B. — Is It A Modern Job?” Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature, vol. 4, no. 1, 1970, pp. 13–20. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24776201. Accessed 3 Apr. 2021.