Short Works · Chapter
XCV explained
Epictetus critiques the contradictory and irrational attitudes people hold towards death and suffering, blaming the gods regardless of whether death comes early or late, and clinging to life even when it brings misery.
What happens
Epictetus critiques the contradictory and irrational attitudes people hold towards death and suffering, blaming the gods regardless of whether death comes early or late, and clinging to life even when it brings misery.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Falling action.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
This moment is the emotional and philosophical peak where Epictetus forces the reader into a crisis of choice,…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Acceptance of Nature and Fate
The chapter highlights the folly of blaming the gods for the natural events of death and aging, instead of accepting them as part of the universal order.
- Reason as Guide and Consolation
The irrational behavior described—contradictory blaming and desperate clinging to life—serves as a negative example, showing what happens when reason is abandoned.
Characters to notice
Key passages
“When a man dies young, he blames the gods. When he is old and does not die, he blames the gods because he suffers when he ought to have already ceased from suffering.”
People irrationally fault the divine whether death comes too soon or too late, never accepting their fate.
Illustrates a fundamental lack of acceptance of nature's course.
“when death approaches, he wishes to live, and sends to the physician and intreats him to omit no care or trouble.”
Even when death is near after a long life of suffering, a person desperately seeks to prolong life.
Highlights the contradiction between complaining about prolonged suffering and then fighting to continue it.
“Wonderful, he said, are men, who are neither willing to live nor to die.”
It is a strange and irrational state to be dissatisfied with both life and death.
Epictetus's concluding remark on the absurdity of the common, unreasoned attitude.
