Romance of the Rose

by de Lorris and Meun

RomanceHow does the characterization, plot structure, point of view, and language differ from previous romances?

Allegory• If the Allegory is a cerebral form, does

it conflict with the Romance?• Consider Reason’s lecture, or any of

the philosophical lectures of Meun’s section. How do these aspects change the nature of the Romance narrative? Do they detract from the typically action packed plot line?

• How do these two genres conflict?

• Do they work together in this text?

Romance and Allegory

Metaphor• After reading the end, what does the rose

represent?• How else does the text use metaphor?• Do the characters’ names function as true

metaphors? For example, if Rebuff actually represents rebuff, how is he to be read metaphorically? Isn’t the only real overarching trope here personification?

Lewis, C. S. (1898–1963), British author, and E.M. Tillyard. The Personal Heresy: A Controversy, ch. 5, Oxford University Press (1936).

Two kinds of symbol must surely be distinguished. The algebraic symbol comes naked into the world of mathematics and is clothed with value by its masters. A poetic symbol—like the Rose, for Love, in Guillaume de Lorris—comes trailing clouds of glory from the real world, clouds whose shape and colour largely determine and explain its poetic use. In an equation, x and y will do as well as a and b; but the Romance of the Rose could not, without loss, be re-written as the Romance of the Onion, and if a man did not see why, we could only send him back to the real world to study roses, onions, and love, all of them still untouched by poetry, still raw.

Religion(s)• How many religions are at play (at war) in this

text? Does each character have his own “religion” (i.e. the “religion” of jealousy)?

• How does the God of Love conflict with or support the Christian God? Are there times when they may be read as synonymous?

• What is the significance of Genesis 1:1 in regards to love? See pages 177 and 259

If there is a God of Love, then is there a “religion” of romance?

Is it reacting against the “religion” of reason?

•How much “faith” does it take to believe in a Romance?

•In other words, how strong much our “willing suspension of disbelief” be?

“foolish people will find this hard to believe and many will take it for fiction” p. 316

•Does the Romance require a certain “faith” from the reader?

Imagery and the Manuscripts

http://rose.mse.jhu.edu/

Nero watching his mother being disemboweled

Querelle du Roman de la Rose

• Christine De Pizan & Misogyny

• Where else did you see misogyny in the text? Think of Genius’s lecture towards the end…

• Is Meun’s section more misogynistic than De Lorris’ section?