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
Patrolman Mancuso rides his police motorcycle down St. Charles Avenue dressed in a false beard and Bermuda shorts. He loves the motorcycle and thinks the trees that line the street look beautiful on this mild winter afternoon. He is going to see Irene Reilly even though it is his day off. Mancuso felt so sorry for her when he found her at the scene of the car crash that he vowed to visit her when he was free.
Patrolman Mancuso is a mild-mannered and sensitive person, although in his professional role he is meant to be an intimidating authority figure. However, to be a good undercover officer, Mancuso must learn to essentially lose himself by putting his own personality aside and slipping into a professional, inconspicuous role that people will be fooled by.
Themes
Patrolman Mancuso finds the Reilly’s house and parks his bike outside. Irene’s car is in the driveway, and Mancuso notes that the house is very small and run down. A radio blares inside. Patrolman Mancuso realizes that the neighbors are watching him through the shutters and rings the doorbell. Through the window of the house next door, a woman yells that he should go around the back because Irene is in the kitchen. Patrolman Mancuso obeys and finds Irene in the backyard, hanging out some laundry to dry.
The neighbors keep Ignatius and Irene’s house constantly under surveillance. Although American society reveres individual expression, this passage shows that it is also deeply concerned with conformity— people are suspicious of those who do not fit in. As one cannot really be free to express oneself under these conditions, society’s obsession with freedom is painted here as hypocritical and ironic.
Themes
Irene is startled when she sees Patrolman Mancuso. When she realizes who he is, she invites him inside for coffee. The kitchen is grimy and bare—unlike his own clean, modern one at home—and Irene makes the coffee in a pan on the stove. Patrolman Mancuso takes off his fake beard and sets it on the table. Irene offers him a doughnut, which he declines. In the other room, Mancuso can hear a pop music TV show that Ignatius is watching. Irene tells him that Ignatius hates the program but that he watches it religiously.
Ignatius has a complicated love/hate relationship with television. He despises it as a symbol of modernity and views it as a corrosive force in the world. At the same time, however, he enjoys and is drawn to it. This suggests that Ignatius’s most basic urges often diverge from his belief that he should remain morally pure and uncorrupted by modernity, which he views as vulgar and shallow.
Themes
Irene sits down with Patrolman Mancuso to drink her coffee and Mancuso tells her that she will have to pay a $1,000 fine for the damage she caused in the car crash. Irene is horrified and Mancuso listens with genuine sympathy as she complains that she has no way to get the money. Abandoning his TV show for a moment, Ignatius enters the room and coolly greets Mancuso. Irene tells Ignatius about the fine, but he says that this is Irene’s problem and she will have to find the money somewhere.
Ignatius is suspicious of Patrolman Mancuso because Mancuso symbolizes authority and the enforcement of conventional modern values—thing with which Ignatius feels at odds. Ignatius is extremely selfish—although he is quite happy to live off his mother, he is not prepared to help her. In this sense, Ignatius is hypocritical and does not take responsibility for his role in causing the car crash. He generally does not feel responsible for incidents in his own life because he believes that a medieval goddess named Fortuna controls his fate, and thus any change in his behavior will prove futile.
Themes
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Irene glumly suggests that she could remortgage the house, but Ignatius indignantly tells her that she should refuse to pay. Irene realizes that this is not an option and Ignatius sweeps back to the living room. When he has gone, Irene complains to Patrolman Mancuso that Ignatius would not care if she went to jail. She begins to cry, and Mancuso tells her that, whenever he gets down about things, he goes bowling with his aunt. Irene takes a bottle of wine from the oven and drinks from it. Mancuso admits that sometimes, when family life gets on top of him, he would like to get drunk.
Irene, like many of the other characters in the novel, faces the idea that her freedom may be taken away and that she may go to prison. Her reaction supports the idea that losing one’s freedom is a significant personal blow since it is an important aspect of human life, although one that is difficult to protect or ensure in most societies. The threat of imprisonment runs through the novel and is overlaid by the fact that Ignatius’s favorite scholar, Boethius (who wrote The Consolation of Philosophy, which Ignatius uses as a life manual) wrote this tract while in prison.
Themes
Ignatius storms back into the room and tells Irene that she must start his dinner so that he can be at the movies on time that evening—he does not want to miss the cartoon. Ignatius tells Patrolman Mancuso that he should leave, and Irene begins to yell that Ignatius doesn’t care about her. Patrolman Mancuso tries to excuse himself and Ignatius stomps back to his room.
It is ironic that Ignatius expects Irene to take his whims seriously, especially when it involves something trivial and childish, like the cinema cartoon. His hypocrisy is shown again as he, in turn, does not take Irene seriously when she has legitimate problem, like the fine.
Themes
In his room, Ignatius slumps on his bed and begins to write on one of his notepads about the evils of television. Irene comes to the door and yells for Ignatius to let her in. He refuses and she throws herself against the door in a fury. Finally, Ignatius relents—although he claims that he is afraid to let her in because she is so emotional—and opens the door. Irene is horrified by the mess of papers on the floor, but Ignatius explains that this is his life’s work.
Ignatius justifies his consumption of media to himself because he pretends that it is research for his tract about the evils of modernity. However, really, it is likely that Ignatius simply enjoys modern pleasures like television, but cannot admit this to himself because it would damage his idea of himself as superior to modernity. Irene cannot see the value in Ignatius’s academic work, and this supports the idea that Ignatius sees himself as someone who is unappreciated and misunderstood in his own time.
Themes
Irene complains about the smell in Ignatius’s room, and he accuses her of being drunk. Irene tells him that he must go out and get a job to help her pay the fine for the car crash. Ignatius replies that Patrolman Mancuso must have put this perverse idea in her head. Ignatius warns her that Mancuso is their enemy; he is responsible for a downward spin in Fortuna’s Wheel. Mancuso is also the type of man who thinks that everything will be alright so long as people “work all the time.”
Ignatius belittles Patrolman Mancuso’s belief in productivity because it is a modern idea. Ignatius feels that modernity is anti-spiritual because, rather than address problems religiously or philosophically, modern people tends to address them physically or through things like productivity or material accumulation. Ignatius’s medieval worldview, based on the belief that the goddess Fortuna controls one’s fate, is the opposite of this and holds that productivity is pointless because one can never change the outcome of destiny.
Themes
Irene insists that Ignatius must get a job, or she will remortgage the house. Ignatius is horrified. He says that he cannot possibly work because he is about to have a mental breakthrough with his writing. Nor can Irene remortgage the house, he says, because the loss of his family home would send him mad. Instead, he suggests Irene spend less money on wine. Irene counters that Ignatius’s room is full of “trinkets” and useless things, which Ignatius fiercely denies.
As a medievalist, Ignatius has a different view of productivity to a modern person. Medieval societies tended to be feudal, meaning the ruling class kept most of what peasants made. However, modern society allows individuals to accumulate indefinitely and tends to view productivity only in terms of this material accumulation. Ignatius therefore feels that his intellectual and spiritual productivity are undervalued. It is, of course, partly ironic that Ignatius considers himself productive because he works rarely and in very short bursts.
Themes
Irene is adamant that, with his education, Ignatius can find a good job. Ignatius says that employers feel threatened by him because he is so individual and nonconformist. Irene protests that he has only had one job, at the public library, and that all he had to do was put labels inside books. Ignatius says that the librarian turned against him and fired him because his methods were too unique and creative. Irene suggests the college, where Ignatius worked for a term, but he says that there, too, his individuality was a barrier. A fellow professor spread a rumor that Ignatius was a Papist, and the students demonstrated against him.
Ignatius has likely faced rejection and alienation as a result of his inability to fit into conventional society. This possibly explains his reluctance to engage with the outside world and suggests that his mask of superiority is a disguise he adopts to hide his feelings of inferiority and shame. Ignatius also suffers from feelings of persecution which suggests that he is highly sensitive to what others think of him.
Themes
Ignatius realizes that he cannot fight Fortuna and agrees to find a job, although he says his academic work will be greatly interrupted. He tells Irene that she should feel guilty for forcing him into work and should go to her priest to receive penance. Ignatius laments that his ex-girlfriend, Myrna Minkoff, would be disappointed that it has come to this, and Irene suggests that she and Ignatius should get back together and have a baby. Ignatius is repulsed by this idea and tells Irene to take him to the cinema.
Ignatius does not attribute his need to find a job to his literal circumstances, believing instead that it is the work of the medieval goddess Fortuna, whom he worships. Therefore, in his mind, employment is something he has no power over and cannot rectify with changes in his behavior. Ignatius also blames Irene for this, which further shows his struggle to accept responsibility for his actions and his need to justify his bad behavior to himself. Irene wishes that Ignatius could lead a conventional, American life, which shows that she does not accept Ignatius for who he is and is concerned about how others view her family.
Themes
