The Romance of the Rose Study Questions & Topics for Discussion

The Romance of the Rose Topics for Discussion

The Romance of the Rose explores the process of how a romantic relationship develops in allegory. Has this process changed between now and the Middle Ages? Comment on any differences and similarities you notice.

Explain, in your own words, the conventions of Courtly Love and how this "game" was played.

Literature often gives an insight into the culture it was written in. What can we learn about daily life in Medieval times by studying the details within The Romance of the Rose?

Scholar C.S. Lewis believed that Guillaume de Lorris intended to finish the work with the narrator turning from the ways of Courtly Love and following the ways of reason. Argue either in favor of or against this suggestion and consider only de Lorris's part.

Using the details in the text, explain how the relationship described in de Lorris's original allegory progresses from the point...
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