REVIEW: GENESIS, THE JOSEPH STORY

Today I am going to review one of my favourite stories from Bible texts. The Joseph story... which has been remade into an animated film, into the musical Dreamcoat, and whose development may have inspired the epic tale of Edmond Dantès.

So our young hero Joseph is born into a nomadic clan, with parents so loving that they actually spoil him... and with ten older stepbrothers. A case worse than Cinderella's.
And why is Joseph nearly stifled with so much affection? OK, The stepbrothers' late mother Leah, obviously Jacob's first wife... theirs was an arranged marriage, but Jacob and Rachel loved each other passionately... So, when Leah died, he remarried Rachel for love, and Joseph is the fruit of this much-expected second marriage. That's why his parents take even to spoiling the poor lad, as if he were an only child, because he is their only child.
So, when Joseph's mother makes a coat in the colours of the rainbow and gives it to him for a present, the ten stepbros, sensing favouritism for the umpteenth time, fall prey to the green-eyed monster.
It doesn't help any more that Joseph has had a dream in which the sun, the moon, and ten little stars (symbolizing his lovable yet screwed-up family) all shone on him at the same time.
One day, Joseph feels old enough to leave the encampment and join his stepbrothers on the pasture. He obviously has his own way, as it always has happened. But when he meets Leah's sons at the head of their flock... they are not amused at all. Instead, they finally see their chance to leave Joseph to an unpleasant fate. They tear his coat apart (like Cinderella's pink gown...), leave him in a cave, then stain the torn garment with blood to make it appear as if the poor lad has been preyed upon by wolves. And, when a caravan of slavers passes by (is this by chance?), the young men do not hesitate to sell their little stepbrother. How would Joseph have felt? Devastated.
Back in camp, Jacob and Rachel mourn their greatest treasure, taken from them by wolves, lions, or some other kind of wild beasts. They are not aware that he is still alive and well, toiling for bread at a general's estate.
OK, so Joseph is so clever that the general (leader of the ruling pharaoh's whole army) is convinced that such a sharp young man, who can even read and write, should never waste his talents as a mere household slave... and thus, the general makes him a free servant and the steward of the whole estate. So, it's back to a life of privilege, my dear...
But not for long. I love to compare the Joseph story to a roller coaster: it has its ups and downs, at lightning speed, and you have to ride it till the end...
There's the general's wife, a kind of pre-Christian Mrs. Robinson, one of the very first cougars in world literature. Grown weary of her husband, she seeks a younger lover. But Joseph refuses her advances.
One day, while the master is out (Has he been summoned to court? Is he at a military review?), the lady invites Joseph to come over to her room. And, once she's got him, she locks the door... and it's FEMALE RAPE TIME!
(For once, a female raping a male!)
However, Joseph is still unwilling to consort with the consort of his lord. And thus, he successfully tries to escape, not before tearing away his clothes to escape her embrace (What's this? Is tearing clothes a leitmotif in this story?). Fortunately, her spouse soon comes home... and then, she shows him the clothes and tells him, sobbing, that the steward attempted to rape her. Nice scheme, pretending that he was the one who raped you!
Anyway, it succeeds, our hero is framed!... and soon we have Joseph no longer a steward, being a prisoner once more, this time in a state prison fortress on a remote island. And we blame his master's wife, like we blamed the stepbros before. But do not despair... for the next up, and freedom, are around the corner.
One day, quite unexpectedly, the royal cupbearer gets framed for an attempt at a poisoning plot (it must have been tough as nails to be a cupbearer in the olden days: ask Tyrion Lannister!). And he winds up in the same prison as Joseph, in the same cell to be more exact.
Which allows for a little homo cooing in the straw bed (Zeus, for instance, did it with his cupbearer!).
So one day, when they wake up, the cupbearer tells Joseph the dream he had during the night. It involved grapes. Three clusters of grapes growing on the same vine: "Then, I squeezed them into a cup and served the juice to my liege".
According to Joseph, the three clusters of grapes are three days, after which the cupbearer would be set free and reinstated at court. And three days later, the dream comes true.
So, while Joseph is feeling pleased and lonely at the same time, the tension at the royal palace is mounting. The pharaoh has a terrible dream about some cows, night after night, and none of the soothsayers at court can give an answer.
However, the cupbearer knows of one who can.
So we have Joseph before the throne, surrounded by splendour and elegance, yet as little fazed as the spouse of the Clever Princess. And ready to interpret His Majesty's recurring obsession:
"Well, I am sunning myself on the riverbank, and seven lovely fat cows are ruminating there peacefully. Then, from the waters of the Nile rise seven gaunt, lean cows... which, as soon as they have landed, proceed to do the least thing we expect a herbivore to do. Each of the gaunt cows devours one of the fat cows, swallowing it whole. Then, I wake up in a cold sweat."
Joseph knows the meaning of the dream: "The cows are years. Fourteen years: seven years of plenty followed by seven years of want. During this year and the six following, we should gather as much grain as possible in state granaries, then ration the grain and distribute it among the population during the seven bad years to come. And you should need a clever and modest advisor to help you with these matters of state."
In less time than it takes to read the story to come, Joseph is now a vizier and a good chancellor at that. He even gets a fancy estate of his own and marries the niece of his former master (they love each other, are pleased with each other, and thus happily married!). And all that power doesn't go to his head even the least. Moreover, if we should believe the Book of Genesis, Joseph has just laid the foundations for the welfare state!
So, when the years of lean cows come, Joseph has managed to save the realm, and even foreigners flock to his granaries to receive their share of the grain surplus (The Spanish government should have learned this lesson back in the 80s and 90s, don't you think?).
One day, ten of these foreigners appear before Joseph and he recognizes them (guess who they are!). But they don't recognize him for all the jewelry and make-up and fine wig. They're stark unaware of who the vizier is. Now the past has finally caught up with Joseph, and he gets to know that his mother is deceased (he never got to say farewell to her) and that he has had a little brother, Benjamin, whom the now widowed and elderly Jacob keeps beside him at home as an ersatz for Joseph. Nevertheless, the past having caught up with our lead awakens painful memories... Now, Joseph, will you get revenge like Edmond?
Well, he actually invites all of his stepbrothers to a feast at court. Knowing that they were starving, it comes as no surprise that they accept... and everything seems fine... until Joseph has one of the stepbrothers arrested and imprisoned in the same dungeon where he once met the cupbearer. Then, our lead character blackmails the shocked nine free sons of Leah: he will set their brother free only if they produce Benjamin in exchange. They do so, the prisoner is set free, and all twelve are reunited. But no sooner have the stepbrothers and Benjamin received each a sack of grain than an armed detachment comes towards them... It appears that a valuable golden chalice has disappeared at the palace during the feast, and the sons of Leah are the main suspects.
So, Joseph has the sacks ripped one by one, until the precious cup is discovered in Benjamin's sack. This time, he has his own little brother arrested and imprisoned in the same dungeon where Joseph once met the cupbearer.
The old framing trick, as I have seen it in both Othello and Clear My Name episodes of various series, isn't it? And wasn't Joseph framed when he was the general's steward? Tit for tat...
As their youngest stepbrother is arrested, the others offer themselves instead... They feel guilty of having sold their other stepbrother Joseph to some slavers and made it look like wolves had killed him. And they wonder whether he is still alive.
Only then does the vizier have Benjamin pardoned and reveal his true identity: "I am Joseph".
What a pleasant surprise! The whole gambit was actually a test of character for the stepbrothers, who have finally revealed that they have hearts of their own.
So the whole large family goes to live at the palace as courtiers, old Jacob included. And they live happily ever after.
All's well that ends well!

So Joseph reminds me of Cassio in Othello, because both are young gents whose entitlement leads them into various predicaments that they finally come through. I love this kind of character arc. The story is also reminiscent of The Count of Monte Cristo (riches to rags to riches to rags to riches, and the past coming back to haunt the lead character), only without the violent revenge. Which spelled T.R.O.U.B.L.E. for Edmond. Joseph wraps up better and with less complications just because he knows revenge is stupid and makes amends instead.