The Book of Job and Othello
This was a comparison/contrast literary analysis paper for my literature class.
“Ignorance is bliss.” “What you don’t know won’t hurt you.” Such clichés are used in our everyday language. However, they tend to show up in literature, even dating back hundreds or thousands of years. In both of the literary works discussed in this paper, The Book of Job and Othello, the main characters are trying to find out information that they think will better their lives. Job never finds out what he’s looking for, and he gets rewarded for his patience and faithfulness. Othello, on the other hand, finds out more than he wants to know, truth or not, and is punished for what some would call his curiosity (although others may use harsher words). This essay will compare and contrast the two characters’ pursuit of unnecessary enlightenment, however understandable.
Job’s situation was one of peril and melancholy. He had lost his entire family, all of his riches, his health, and everything on the earth that he could hold dear. Who wouldn’t want to know why? Then again, Othello’s reasoning is easily understood as well. He’s in love, and he’s been getting hints and suspicions that his wife (the one whom he is in love with) is cheating on him. Most people would want more information about it, if not more than that. Othello wants proof, and he wants to know.
However, what Othello learns is not the truth. What he doesn’t know ends up hurting him. He doesn’t know that Desdemona is really faithful to him the entire time he questioned her. He doesn’t know that the one he was trusting, Iago, was actually the one who was unfaithful, unloving and deceitful. That is one major difference between Othello and Job. What Job doesn’t know does not hurt him at all. Actually, it’s probably a good thing that he doesn’t figure out that there was no reason behind all of his suffering. He gets rewarded for his patience and faithfulness in spite of everything that befell him. Othello’s impatience to know causes his false knowledge, and therefore in essence, his ignorance. This causes him to kill his wife, and then when he realizes the truth, it causes him even more woe.
Another large difference between Job and Othello is just that: the consequence of knowing too much. Othello’s concluding knowledge of the truth led to his suicide, because he was so upset over the 'loss' of his wife. Job lost everything first, and then questioned why, and eventually got back worldly riches. Job also kept continued communication with the one he had a qualm with: God. Othello relied on other sources of information than his wife, who was the person he was having problems with.
Both characters, Job and Othello, are put to a test. Will they curse the ones they love? Othello, in the end, failed his test. He not only cursed Desdemona, but he murdered her. However, he was initially untrusting of her. Othello did not trust Desdemona in the first place, and held insecurities within his own heart that prevented the necessary trust for a marriage. His lack of trust led him to a punishment: too late realizing that Desdemona was faithful, and ultimately his life. Job passed his test. If losing his possessions didn’t have an effect on his faith, then Satan will try having him lose his family. If that didn’t cause a loss of faith, then try losing his farm, home and livelihood. If that didn’t cause a loss of faith, then his health had to go. Throughout the book, Job loses possessions and worldly things that he held dear. But he passed his test. He remained faithful to the end. For this he was rewarded with renewed riches and possessions. Was it worth it? He lost his family, and went through suffering. And he, unlike Othello, never learned the reason for his turmoil. In the end, for Job, the greater good was done. In the end for Othello, his lack of faith destroyed all of the characters’ lives.
“Curiosity killed the cat,” is another over-used cliché. Both characters were guilty of being overly curious. And in Othello’s case, it did ultimately kill him. It also ruined the last days of his life with worry and, in the last hour, regret. Job also filled years of his life with turmoil and worry about gaining unnecessary knowledge. He continued to ask God why he was going through everything he was going through, and in turn he made it worse. Stressing about your stress never helps to alleviate it. In essence, both characters’ curiosity was in vain, and it did nothing to help their problems.
In essence, Job was the ignorant one, and Othello the curious one. Both were equally curious, however Othello took it to the extreme and was not curious for the truth, but for information to prove himself correct, whereas Job was more passive and just continued to ask for enlightenment from the most true Being. Job found bliss in his ignorance. Othello’s curiosity ended in his death. Perhaps the old clichés are right.