LIT 231/LIT 230
Prof. G. Steinberg

Response Paper:  Orlando Furioso, Cantos 1-6

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

  1. Much of Orlando Furioso focuses on the education of Rinaldo and Ruggiero rather than on Orlando himself.  How do the adventures of Rinaldo and Ruggiero in these cantos educate them?  Focus specifically on one or two adventures.  What values does the character learn from the adventures?  Where do they succeed or show that they have learned important lessons?  What are the sources of their success(es)?  Where do they fail or show that they have more to learn?  What causes their failure(s)?  Where are the most important lessons learned?  What are the best sources of wisdom and knowledge?  What are the worst sources?
  2. 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?
  3. What does the story of Dalinda and Guinevere tell us about how Ariosto views women?  Do Dalinda and Guinevere differ from Bradamant in significant ways?  Are they all three fundamentally similar?  What about Angelica?  What characteristics do all the female characters seem to share?  What characteristics differentiate them?  Are some female characters more successful at navigating the world and love than others?  What characteristics does Ariosto seem to value, admire, and reward in his female characters?

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