ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the way character Job emphasises his suffering specifically through somatic language. It highlights the dominance of the highly melodramatic metaphors of deity attack in the book of Job. The vehemence of Job’s language of divine violence is recognised, as are the differences in opinion between Job and his friends. The irate and hyperbolic nature of Job’s speech regularly turned tragic depictions of bodily suffering into comical, puffed-up protestations of innocence. Job’s deviant behaviours through resisting his friends’ moralising advice is noted, as is the prevalence of the motif of ‘wind’ in the speeches. Questions about responsibility, agency, and causation are raised in relation to Job’s suffering, and the chapter argues that Job’s inflated sense of nostalgic self-pity signals the character’s sanctimonious nature. The chapter highlights the central role that irony plays, as well as various comic devices, including relief theory, superiority theory, incongruity, and wordplay.
