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Book I, Part III
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
Philosophy sings to Boethius. She implores people to stay composed and stable in the face of “fortune good and bad.” Wise people courageously abandon “hope and fear,” which means they are not affected by the angry and evil actions of others, especially “tyrants.”
Having connected philosophy’s purpose to its practitioners’ resilience in the face of “tyrants,” now Philosophy begins connecting this to the misfortune Boethius has experienced and encourages readers to do the same, looking beyond “fortune” for their sense of self and maintaining their composure when faced with oppression and deceit.
Themes
Philosophy asks Boethius if he understands and implores him to explain his tears. He responds that she already knows about “the severity of Fortune’s attack on [him].” In fact, this came about despite his best efforts to follow Philosophy’s teachings: since Plato argued that governments should be led by philosophers rather than the “wicked and unprincipled men” who often seek power, Boethius joined the government and spent his life trying to defend justice, even though it earned him many enemies.
Through his misfortune, Boethius raises the question of philosophy’s value in the face of evil: what power does truth have before people who do not take it seriously? Is it possible to do what is right and wise, but never be rewarded in the material world? Boethius entered government service because he was inspired by Plato’s idealistic teachings, but was only able to do so much; the unjust world far exceeds the power of his individual will. So he faces the classic despair that nearly every activist experiences, and in turn confronts the dilemma of how to pursue justice in an unjust world.
Themes
Boethius explains that a particular, grave accusation has landed him where he is now. Allegedly, he “prevented an informer from delivering certain papers with which [this informer] intended to show the [Roman] Senate guilty of treason.” Boethius admits that he hoped to protect the Senate, but insists that he is innocent. His treatment by the Senate he has always tried to defend, Boethius insists, has been “nothing short of monstrous.” In fact, Boethius has been sentenced to death and stripped of all his titles, properties, and rights. As though to boost the case against him, the Senate has also accused Boethius of “sacrilege,” which he considers ironic because he has learned from Philosophy to always “Follow God.” Nevertheless, the Senate cites Boethius’s interest in Philosophy as evidence of his godlessness and unworthiness.
Again, Boethius goes into relatively little detail about the accusation that has led to his imprisonment and impending execution, and after more than a thousand years, historians still have not been able to assemble a definitive account. To an extent, it is up to the reader to take him at his word—an uncharitable interpreter might see him as a corrupt official trying to defend himself publicly and clear his name for posterity’s sake—but it remains clear that there was no definitive proof against him. According to Boethius, this accusation is all the more preposterous because he was in fact trying to do the opposite of the accusation that he faces—he wanted to defend the integrity of Rome’s political system, which has been formally taken over by the forces that defeated the Roman Empire in 476, but has been accused of undermining it instead.
Themes
Boethius laments that people blame the unfortunate for their own misfortune, and that the innocent are not only punished for crimes they did not commit, but also “are believed to have deserved all that they suffer.” All around him in Rome, Boethius notes “wicked” people celebrating his condemnation and planning further attacks on the innocent, while “good men” live in terror.
The tendency to look down on the unlucky, Boethius clearly thinks, is a product of ignorance that can be corrected through philosophical inquiry and the wisdom it brings. He depicts the sorry state of Rome as further evidence of how ignorance reverses the proper order of things, elevating the “wicked” above the “good.”
Themes
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