Bring out your antibiotics, because we're about to get infected.
Timon is all about spreading literal and metaphorical disease to his enemies so that they'll suffer. Since he doesn't have any money, maybe cursing them to plagues of suffering is the only recourse he has left.
There's a lot of suffering in Timon of Athens—or at least there's a lot of talk about it. That's probably because Athens is seen as a society that's sick at its core. Just as a diseased body causes suffering for its owner, a sick society causes suffering for those who live in it. In a way, it's appropriate that Timon calls down disease and death on Athens: he feels that Athens called down (metaphorical) disease and (literal) death on him.
Questions About Suffering
- Why is disease the most appropriate way for characters to describe the pain they feel? Is there anything different about the way that Timon views disease and the way his servants talk about it?
- Timon doesn't just talk about making people suffer; he actually pays women to actually do the deed. What is he trying to accomplish? Why does he pay prostitutes, specifically?
- How is everyone in Athenian society suffering? How might we understand what Apemantus calls people's "diseased perfumes"? What is he talking about?
Chew on This
Timon tries to infect people to bring them down and teach them a lesson about what's right and wrong.
Timon has been infected by his society because he wants nothing but suffering for Athens.