LIT 231
Prof. G. Steinberg

Response Paper:  Roman de la Rose, Chapters 5 and 7

We are now in the part of the Roman de la Rose that Jean de Meun wrote.

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

1. What do you make of Friend's advice?  Friend gives the lover a great deal of advice about how to behave in order to overcome his difficulties.  Is Friend's advice practical?  Is it ethical?  How does it reflect on Jean's values?  Does Jean seem to be endorsing what Friend says?  How does Friend view love?  What is his goal in love?  How is Friend's view of love similar to or different from the view of love in Guillaume's part of the Roman?
2. We get contrasting figures in 1.) the scolding husband that Friend tells the lover about (starting on p. 130) and 2.) the Old Woman who gives Fair Welcome advice.  Why does Jean include these figures?  What is he trying to say about love and marriage or about men and women?  How does Jean view women?  Does Jean seem to be endorsing what the scolding husband and/or the Old Woman say?  If not, why does Jean allow them so much time and space to express their views?  What do we learn from them about love, about Jean, and about Jean's view of his fellow human beings?  Are we getting a window into what medieval married life was like?
3. Is Jean's continuation in the same spirit as Guillaume's original?  How has Jean changed Guillaume's allegory?  How is Jean's storytelling different from Guillaume's?  How is Jean's purpose similar to or different from Guillaume's?  Does Jean seem to be doing the same thing as Guillaume?  Why or why not?

Click here to go to the syllabus.