Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Confederacy of Dunces, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Medievalism, Modernity, and Fate
The Legacy of Slavery
Sexuality, Attraction, and Repulsion
Freedom
Appearance, Identity, and Disguise
Hypocrisy and Self-Interest
Summary
Analysis
In his bedroom, Ignatius writes in one of his notepads. He writes about the medieval period and laments that, after this era, “Fortune’s wheel” turned “against humanity” and a new age of “chaos,” insanity, and vulgarity began. Ignatius stops to read what he has written and is rather pleased with himself. Ignatius writes that once “The Enlightenment” started, people became obsessed with money rather than spirituality. This left humanity with a terrible fate: they were forced to “go to work.”
Ignatius believes that the medieval period was superior to the Enlightenment, which came after it. The Enlightenment was the birthplace of many modern ideas, such as the development of modern science and political concepts like democracy. Although the Enlightenment is generally viewed as a period of rationality, Ignatius believes that, in fact, the medieval period was more civilized than the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment also brought about modern economic theory and capitalism, which Ignatius despises.
Themes
Ignatius sets the pad down on the floor, which is already strewn with other notepads and sheets of paper. He plans, one day, to assemble all these fragments into a great work, but progress so far has been slow. Ignatius lifts his nightshirt and sees that his stomach is bloated. He often bloats in times of stress, and so feels that his body is trying to tell him something. Perhaps it portends the beginning of a “bad cycle” in which Fortuna’s wheel will spin downwards for him.
Ignatius thinks about his body in medieval terms and feels that it is subject to “humors,” a medieval medical term for the forces which make up the human body. These humors required balance in order to work correctly, and so Ignatius interprets his stress as something which creates an imbalance in his body and, therefore, causes physical symptoms. Although Ignatius rejects modern medicine, the physiological effects of stress are something which modern medicine also supports (although it has disproved ideas about humors) and this suggests that, although Ignatius is obsessed with his health throughout the novel, he is not necessarily wrong to think stress causes some of his symptoms.
Themes
Ignatius lies down and begins to pray to Fortuna. Irene shouts through the door that Patrolman Mancuso will arrive soon to talk to her about the car accident. Ignatius tells her to go away and bounces up and down on the bed, trying to burp to relieve his bloating. The movement arouses him, however, and he begins to masturbate. As he reaches a climax, he pictures his pet dog, Rex, who has been dead for several years.
Ignatius literally believes in Fortuna as a deity. He thus assumes that he has no control over the direction of his life and hopes to appease the goddess with prayer. Ignatius’s fantasy about Rex in this passage occurs while he is masturbating, which suggests that his sexual urges are unconventional. This is ironic given that Ignatius claims to hate sexual deviancy and modern society’s corrupt obsession with sex. It demonstrates that Ignatius is a hypocrite but also suggests that his outrage may be rooted in shame over his own sexual urges because they do not fit conventional standards.
Themes
