Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Consolation of Philosophy, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Classical Philosophy and Medieval Christianity
Wisdom, Fortune, and Happiness
The Problem of Evil
Human Free Will and God’s Foreknowledge
Summary
Analysis
The mysterious woman who has appeared to Boethius in his room sings that life’s trials and tribulations lead people away from their “inward light.” Although Boethius “once was free” when he studied astronomy and uncovered the mysteries of nature, now he “lie[s] prostrate [as a] prisoner of night.”
Despite proclaiming the superiority of reason over art at the end of the previous section, now Lady Philosophy uses song to comfort Boethius and redirect him from his sorrow, which suggests that art can be a legitimate tool for helping transmit the truth, when it is supported by philosophy rather than opposed to it. Her rhetoric about Boethius losing the “light” of truth and becoming a “prisoner of night” is a clear reference to the allegory of the cave from Plato’s Republic, in which people are born “prisoner[s]” in a cave and live most of their lives mistaking shadows of the real truth for reality itself, until they are able to see the light, leave the cave, and understand the truth. Philosophy clearly suggests that she will guide Boethius—and, by extension, the reader—on such a journey from ignorance to enlightenment.
Themes
In prose, the woman reminds Boethius that she has taught, nurtured, and protected him—but he “threw away” these advantages. She knows that he recognizes her, so asks why he does not respond to her—she knows that it is out of astonishment, not shame (even though she “prefer[s] it to be shame”). Seeing that Boethius literally cannot speak, she holds him and promises that “he will soon remember” who he really is. With her dress, she wipes “the tears that filled” Boethius’s eyes and obscured his vision.
Unable to recognize his lifelong teacher, Boethius has clearly lost his former insight, probably because his misfortune and despair are clouding his judgment. Philosophy’s promise to heal his devastation shows that, as a field of knowledge and a practice of inquiry, philosophy serves for more than just the discovery of truth: it also has the practical capability to help people shape their senses of purpose, relationships to mortality, and obligations to others.
Themes
