How King Lear drew on Job
A documented line of influence: William Shakespeare demonstrably engaged Unknown’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
Job
Unknown · c. 500 BCE
BibleThe influenced
King Lear
William Shakespeare · c. 1605
ShakespeareRelevance
6/10
On King Lear’s page
- Behind the heath stands Job — the great man broken, demanding an answer the universe won't give
- Shakespeare reworks Job's theodicy into theater: the innocent's suffering (Cordelia for Job), the formidable figure reduced to rags and questions
- Read Job first and Lear's storm-speeches sound like a man asking what the whirlwind never quite answered
On Job’s page
- Lear is Shakespeare's Job — the formidable man stripped to nothing, raging at heaven on open ground
- Both stage the same hard question: why does the innocent suffer? Cordelia's undeserved end is Job's torment made dramatic
- Harold Bloom calls Lear "manifestly influenced by" Job, and the kinship runs deep enough to carry a whole chapter, "The Patience of Lear"