The Romance of the Rose

How does the text explore gender dynamics? How are masculinity and femininity represented? How does the text reflect, or question, gender roles and/or stereotypes common at the time?

How does the use of setting vary between de Lorris’s portion of the book and de Meun’s? Does the characterization and description of the Garden of Pleasure change? What does this tell us about their perspectives and approach to the story?

Using specific examples from the text, analyze the use of biblical and mythological references. What role do these allusions and references play in the text? What is their wider significance?

Fair Welcome, held as the necessary counterpart to the rose, is portrayed as male. How does Fair Welcome’s gendering affect his depiction and role in the text? How does his characterization compare to that of the rose?

Christine de Pizan heavily criticized this poem’s portrayal of women and the tradition of courtly love. Research her criticism. What aspects of the text seem to support de Pizan’s interpretation? What aspects of the text, if any, might contradict her view?

How does the poem use social class, and the markers associated with it, to shape characterization and the dynamics between the characters? How does the text depict and explore the social dynamics of the time?

The narrator rejects Reason and condemns her at the end of the novel. Is this intended to be satirical or literal? What does this ending suggest about the narrator and the idea of love put forward in the poem?

How are religious faith and Christian morality depicted in the text? What is the relationship between figures who present themselves as religious (e.g., False Seeming) and those who are more closely associated with love and sexuality?