A Slothful, Gluttonous, and Patronizing Character in A Condederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

The novel “A Confederacy of Dunces” written by John Kennedy Toole tells the story of Ignatius J. Riley; A middle aged overweight and slothful genius. Who after earning a Master’s Degree, is still incapable of finding reputable employment and still lives with his mother. Ignatius J. Reilly is by far one of the most hilarious, pessimistic characters you will find in a novel. The story is set in New Orleans, and Toole does a great job incorporating the accents and dialect of the natives, as well as accurate description of the geographic locations into the novel; Thereby, bringing the colorful spirit of the city of New Orleans close to the heart of the story. Although there is a sense of sadness for some of the characters and situations, most of

The significance of religious leaders during this era is evident by the fact that the writer of this poem places the bishop at the beginning of the table. Due to the fact that the “medieval society was a religious society” and that these religious leaders held a special relationship with God, it is no surprise that these individuals held the second highest social class position in the medieval time period (Feudalism and the Three Orders (Overview) 2).

Ignatius is shown as lazy in his reluctance to find a job and. Ignatius spends most of his time in his room watching television or writing. After he and his mother get into a car accident, the family needs money to pay off the debt; consequently, Ignatius must find a job. When his mother first proposes the idea, Ignatius responds, “Do I believe what I am hearing” (Toole 50). Mrs. Reilly

Mrs. Reilly gives her complete attention to Ignatius and treats him like a 12-year old boy who still needs her, even though he is an educated 30-year old man. Ignatius lacks self-control, which leads to obesity and health problems and yet when he says, “Momma, I sure feel like a jelly doughnut” (Toole 51), she runs out to buy two-dozen. This seems outrageous for a parent to kowtow to her adult son when “a successful parent supports a child with authority and positive

Read the following passage from Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. Discuss how the passage contributes to the portrayal of Faustus as a

Ignatius believes he is very intelligent, but although he has a college degree, he lacks much common sense. When told to find a job, Ignatius believes he can hold almost any position but later discovers that is untrue and states “Apparently I lack some particular perversion which today's employer is seeking” (154). Ignatius thinks of others around him as being uneducated and barbarian-like. While Ignatius was on his normal hot dog selling route, the Ladies Art Guild was having a hanging of their paintings, and Ignatius decided to take a look. Upon seeing a picture of a camellia painted by one of the women, Ignatius exclaimed "You ladies need a critic with some taste and decency” (224). Ignatius thinks very highly of himself as being a scholar and man of the arts, yet he continues to act like a child and a fool throughout the story.

“They are enemies of the poor, uncharitable, ambitious, gluttonous, and arrogant, so that even the lowest of the priests

Tartuffe is the ultimate hypocrite in this play due to his immoral actions that go against the Catholic ethics, which he preaches. Though he asserts to be religious, righteous, generous, he is in fact, deceitful, avaricious, and immoral (Cashman 80). Tartuffe hypocrisy is contagious, dangerous, and has a negative impact to those surrounding him; it affects Orgon by destabilizing his entire family and making them believe him as a supposedly spiritual man. Furthermore, those who result in believing him grow into pretenders. For example, Madame Pernelle who preaches Christian kindness, assaults her house help, whereas, Orgon commits wickedness against his household. Notably, some characters, such as Elmire, Dorine, and Cleante are strongly against Tartuffe’s hypocrisy. Both Dorine and Cleante employ rhetoric linguistic to attempt to contradict Tartuffe, and although their opinions are coherent, it is hard to triumph against him. Elmire notes, “You see him as a saint. I’m far less awed…in fact, I see right through him. He is fraud” (1.1.23). This aims to expose Tartuffe for what he truly is, by exploiting his lust for her to attest his insincerity to his spouse Orgon.

Ignatius’s primary vice is gluttony. All of Toole’s characters serve as satirical interpretations of different stereotypes affiliated with certain types of people. Ignatius, an obese white man, is portrayed as a slob who depends on his mother, acts entitled, and eats everything in sight. For example, when Mrs. Reilly goes out and buys him twelve doughnuts, all he leaves are “...two withered pieces of doughnut out of which … the jelly had been sucked” (Toole 39). This

The character Mrs. Mallard from Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” can be considered both sympathetic and unsympathetic for various reasons. She could be seen as a sympathetic character because of the times Mrs. Mallard’s character came from. On the other hand, she could be seen as unsympathetic for how her character is very self-centered. We see this in how she is constantly rationalizing with herself that her feelings of joy at her husband’s death were well founded. There are also several other variables that must be taken into consideration when deciding if Mrs. Mallard is a sympathetic character, or not.

Mrs. Mallard finds out that her husband has just died, "she wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment." The character of Josephine is there to represent her conflict against society. As the story starts up, she as Mrs. Mallard turns to her sister Josephine and weeps in her arms after hearing the sudden news of her husband's death. This is her acknowledging the grief that society expects her to feel. Her openness to Josephine represents the acceptance that came with acting in accordance with what society expected. Mrs. Mallard displays her strength, “When the storm of grief … away to her room alone.” The fact that she does not bring Josephine with her implies the conflict that is about to take place." Josephine is the social norms, assuming that she is weak without her husband by her side. Mrs. Mallard's isolation from this assumption represents that she has strength and can stand on her own. This expected strength is confirmed as Chopin writes, "Josephine was kneeling … lips to the keyhole”, imploring for admission. "Louise, open the door! … before you make yourself ill." The closed door to Josephine shows her decision to close her

“The more closely he observed them, the more he saw that they were all just avaricious and greedy for money and that they were just as likely to buy and sell human (even Christian) blood as they were to sell religious objects pertaining to the sacraments...and in these commercial ventures they carried on more trade and had more brokers than there were engaged in any other business in Paris”(41).

Although it can be difficult to distinguish a malcontent from someone who has an attitude of divine discontent, because both are expressing dissatisfaction with the way things are, there is a distinction to be made between their attitudes. With malcontent, no matter how much there is, there is never enough; however, from the perspective of divine discontent, there is always more than one can use. The former is dissatisfied with how much is available, and the latter’s dissatisfaction is with how little they make use of all that is available. Discontent is dissatisfaction with the way things are, when they are not as satisfying as they once were, or as one had hoped they would be. Alternatively, Divine Discontent is dissatisfaction that one’s

The preacher, it is said, advocates temperance because he is a fanatic, and desires a union of the Church and State; the lawyer, from his pride and vanity of hearing himself speak; and the hired agent, for his salary. But when one, who has long been known as a victim of intemperance bursts the fetters that have bound him, and appears before his neighbors "clothed, and in his right mind," a redeemed specimen of long-lost humanity, and stands up with tears of joy trembling in his eyes, to tell of the miseries once endured, now to be endured no more forever; of his once naked and starving children, now clad and fed comfortably; of a wife long weighed down with woe, weeping, and a broken heart, now restored to health, happiness, and a renewed affection; and how easily it is all done, once it is resolved to be done; how simple his language, there is a logic, and an eloquence in it, that few, with human feelings, can resist. They cannot say that he desires a union of church and state, for he is not a church member; they cannot say he is vain of hearing himself speak, for his whole demeanor shows he would gladly avoid speaking at all; they cannot say he speaks for pay for he receives none, and asks for none. Nor can his sincerity in any way be doubted; or his sympathy for those he would persuade to imitate his example be

Hypocrisy’ as a common theme throughout literature has often been advocated by the author’s use of concealing the true characteristics or meaning of the character. ‘Tartuffe’ by Moliere is an amazing neo-classical drama, where it portrays the contradictory relationship between appearance and reality in terms of hypocrisy. In one hand, Tartuffe, the religious hypocrite, who always wears a false mask of untrue righteousness to deceive others around him, on the other hand in reality he turns out to be the falsifier. Despite Tartuffe is treacherous in his undertakings and manages to deceive some people, however he cannot help but reveals his true nature/characteristics whenever he is confronted by sincere individuals. In another sense, he fails to realize that there are at least some people who has the right knowledge and will be able to identify his true instinct. I believe by using Tartuffe as a model of ‘religious hypocrite’, Moliere superbly demonstrates the logic that although the inherent tendency of a hypocrite is to manipulate others with his deceitful virtue, yet he will only be able to misguide individuals, who are insincere and unwise.