Romance of the

Rose
by de Lorris and Meun
 Romance
How 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?
 Romance and
Allegory
• How do these two genres
conflict?
• Do they work together in this
text?
 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?
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.
Lewis, C. S. (1898–1963), British author, and E.M. Tillyard. The Personal Heresy: A Controversy, ch. 5, Oxford University Press (1936).
 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?