In five pages this paper notes the similarities between Goldsmith's 1766 text and the biblical Job's trials. Two sources are cited in the bibliography.
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have an ideal life, which the vicar himself describes in the first paragraph. He states his belief that an "honest" man should marry and bring up a large family
(The Vicar of Wakefield). He speaks with tender love of his wife. He states that they shared an elegant home, which was situated in the country, with good neighbors. However,
like Job, his idyllic life comes to an end when the evil Squire Thornhill causes the vicars financial downfall. Also, like the long suffering Job, Dr. Primrose is a
pure soul. He has a good heart and only tries to do what is best for his family. Like Job, he is a sacrificial victim who suffers because of
his goodness. When Goldsmith wrote this volume in 1766, the Age of Reason had sunk to into the depths of cynicism. At attitude which is exemplified in the
satire of Voltaire, particularly his novel Candide (1759). Goldsmiths fable of a good man who suffers, but then rises again in fortune due to his good nature was a welcome
antidote to the ennui of that era. Nevertheless, Goldsmith does not make the vicar into a saint. This characterization includes human faults and failings service to complicate matters for the
vicar. In other words, Dr. Primrose is definitely a good man, but he often does not see things very clearly. At the beginning of the novel he rejects
a suitor for his daughter because he believes the man has lost his fortune and appears to be near poverty. What the Vicar does not know until close the end
of the narrative is that the impoverished Mr. Burchell is actually Sir William Thornhill, the uncle of Squire Thornhill, the man who in the course of the novel causes great