Erasmus The Praise Of Folly Analysis

The Praise of Folly The author of “The praise of folly” Erasmus, wrote this book not with the intention of starting wide spread theological debates but with the intention of showing how pointless these debates are. The book is written in first person so that Folly herself is the one who the readers/listeners (because the book is written as if she were speaking to a crowd) are hearing and not just some man acting like he knows more or is better than anyone else. The book addresses three different classes of people and how folly affects them. The first class is the regular people and women. The second type of people she calls out is the academic and higher standing social classes. The third and final group folly talks about are Christians and
One of Folly’s points that she brings up is women and how they are in and of themselves full of foolishness. “I, who am both a woman and folly herself, attribute folly to them.”(29) Folly later states that women owe it to folly for being far better off than men. Women’s beauty is a natural thing according to folly, she bring up how men grow beards, have course skin, and go gray in the hair as all signs of aging. While women have soft delicate feature which are almost eternal signs of beauty. According to folly all some men want from life is pleasure, and who can give them pleasure other than a woman who will have sex with them? No one according to folly, but the folly is not of men wanting pleasure. The point Folly makes is that a woman must have folly to have sex with a man(30) She says “Women have no other way of giving pleasure but through folly”(30). Women are not the only
The monks and priest are the main targets of Follies words. A time of reform and a time of questioning is beginning to appear and rules and customs that have gone on for years without question are now being put under scrutiny. Even harsher with her words to this particular group of people Folly now is calling out not only the group of people in charge of the church but also the people who think they can find their lives only through the church. Her main charge against these people is there refusal to understand that folly and foolishness is as if not more regarded than wisdom in the Christian religion. One could say Christ is the biggest fool of all for accepting man’s sin and dying for us while he had lived a perfect and sin free life. Knowledge and wisdom are the downfall of am according to Genesis when Adam and eve eat the apple of forbidden fruit and gains the knowledge of good and evil it separates them forever from the full relationship they had with God before that. Folly is not attacking the religion of Christianity it is the opposite in fact. Folly says how peter and the disciples went around baptizing everyone but not explaining why, not because they didn’t know but because the people only need to know the basics and not the understanding of everything to be happy, in other words to keep them from overcoming their follies. She also brings up how the disciples didn’t need certain words or