LIT 231
Prof. G. Steinberg

Response Paper:  Orlando Furioso, Cantos 1-6

Choose one of the following areas as the focus of your response paper:

1. Sacripant, the King of Circassia, compares Angelica to a rose.  Which work that we’ve read this semester does his comparison remind you of?  Go back and reread the description of the rose in that earlier work.  What is the significance of the specific similarities between Sacripant’s rose image and the rose in the earlier work?  Why would Ariosto want to imitate that work here?  What effect does his imitation have?  What purpose might underlie it?  How would Ariosto’s audience likely react to the imitation?  How is Ariosto’s imitation different from the original?  What do the differences say about Ariosto’s purpose and motives?  Is Ariosto perhaps reminding us of the other work in order to correct errors or point out limitations or agree with particular values?  Is he simply updating the other work?  If he’s simply updating, what does he perceive as needing updating?  Why does it seem to him to need updating?
2. Bradamant hears about the glorious future of her ancestors from a dead person.  Which work that we’ve read this semester does this episode remind you of?  Go back and reread the relevant section of that earlier work.  What is the significance of the specific similarities between the episode in Ariosto and the similar episode in the earlier work?  Why would Ariosto want to imitate that work here?  What effect does his imitation have?  What purpose might underlie it?  How would Ariosto’s audience likely react to the imitation?  How is Ariosto’s imitation different from the original?  What do the differences say about Ariosto’s purpose and motives?  Is Ariosto perhaps reminding us of the other work in order to correct errors or point out limitations or agree with particular values?  Is he simply updating the other work?  If he’s simply updating, what does he perceive as needing updating?  Why does it seem to him to need updating?
3. Astolfo has been turned into a tree and laments his fate.  Which work that we’ve read this semester does this episode remind you of?  Go back and reread the relevant section of that earlier work.  What is the significance of the specific similarities between the episode in Ariosto and the similar episode in the earlier work?  Why would Ariosto want to imitate that work here?  What effect does his imitation have?  What purpose might underlie it?  How would Ariosto’s audience likely react to the imitation?  How is Ariosto’s imitation different from the original?  What do the differences say about Ariosto’s purpose and motives?  Is Ariosto perhaps reminding us of the other work in order to correct errors or point out limitations or agree with particular values?  Is he simply updating the other work?  If he’s simply updating, what does he perceive as needing updating?  Why does it seem to him to need updating?

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