The Biblical Story of Ruth Through “So Boaz Slept” & “The Story of Ruth” Essay

The Biblical story of Ruth uncovers the story of a woman marrying a close relative of her murdered husband, according to traditions of her husband’s people. This story may look surprising for the modern audience but its deep-rooted controversy between the free choice of spouses and decisions to marry and seemingly arranged marriage determined by old traditions described in the Old Testament’s story attracted many writers, poets and other artists to focus on the main theme of the story and to uncover its background. As a result, diverse interpretations of the Ruth’s story have emerged. At this point, it is possible to refer to So Boaz Slept by Victor Hugo and the film The Story of Ruth (1960) by Henry Koster.

In fact, both the film and the poem expand the original Biblical story of Ruth. The poem uncovers this story as the relationship between the old man, who is widowed and childless, and the woman, who obeys to old traditions of the family and people of her husband. At the same time, unlike the Biblical story, the poem does not pay much attention to the background of Ruth or Boaz. Instead, Hugo focuses her attention on the relationships of Boaz and Ruth and God as the divine power that has planned their encounter and marriage. Therefore, the poem narrows down the scope and background of the story.

On the contrary, the film expands the scope of the story and focuses on the background of Ruth’s story. In fact, the first half of the film is the story of Ruth before she moves to her husband’s fatherland and encounters Boaz (The Story of Ruth 1). This part is very important for the understanding of the entire story and gives insight into the inner world of Ruth, her views, beliefs and determined her obedience to traditions of Israelites. The film helps the audience to understand Ruth’s motives why she was so devoted to her mother-in-law and traditions of her people. At first glance, such behavior may seem to be surprising for the audience, while the film uncovers the background of her story and explains her behavior.

Hugo describes Boaz as an old man of 80 years old, who has lost any hope to have children but he received the message from God as a dream, which implied that he will have children. In such a way, the poet makes the child birth the milestone idea of the union of Boaz and Ruth, as Ruth arrival is a chance for Boaz to implement the will of God and continue his family ‘tree’ to grow.

To laborers and family, though not in sight,
Boaz was faithful, generous, if cautious too.
Girls gazed more favorably than age has due,
For if youth has beauty, age has might (Hugo 17-20)

In such a way, the poet uncovers the virtuousness of Boaz and, in spite of his age, he is faithful and generous and is worth rewarding from the part of God, who brings him Ruth, who can bear him a child, which he has stopped dreaming of (Gwynn, 648).

The poem presents the story of Ruth and Boaz as the God’s plan, where they were supposed to meet each other and marry, but, until that moment, they remained absolutely unaware of the very existence of each other and neither had they known their own future:

Boaz did not know that Ruth was there,
Nor Ruth herself what God intended (Hugo 67-68).

The story of her marriage with Boaz is close to the Biblical story but, unlike the Biblical story and the poem by V. Hugo, the film focuses Ruth’ story on her past, especially her deceased husband and her decision to marry Boaz, which is actually not a decision of her own but rather her devotion to the family of her husband and traditions of his people that make him marrying the close relative of her deceased husband.

Unlike the poem, the film focuses on the pre-history of the Biblical story of Ruth. The film uncovers the story of strong love, widowhood, complications and tragedy, including the death of the beloved husband of Ruth, her devotion to her slaughtered husband, and her virtuousness. The revelation of Ruth’s past helps to understand her present but, at the same time, the creation of such a strong background make the interpretation of the Biblical story quite different from the original story. To put it more precisely, the film offers a very specific interpretation of the story, while the lack of information about Ruth’s background and details of her widowhood expands options for interpretation of the original Biblical texts. Similarly, the poem narrows the scope of interpretation of her story compared to the original Biblical text.

Thus, So Boaz Slep and The Story of Ruth offer their interpretations of the classical Biblical story of Ruth. The poem depicts this story as the God’s plan to let Boaz to have a good wife and children, while the film depicts this story as the story of a woman, who has lost the beloved husband, became absolutely devoted to traditions of her people and found the new husband to carry on living a happy life.

 

Works Cited:

Gwynn, R.S. “Victor Hugo: So Boaz Slept,” The Hudson Review, 61(4), 646-648

Hugo, V. “So Boaz Slept,” Selected Poems. New York: Penguin Classics, 2012.

Koster, H. The Story of Ruth. 20th Century Fox, 1960.

The Story of Ruth. IMDB. 2014. Retrieved on September 26, 2014 from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054343/

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]
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