Recently, I had the opportunity to become acquainted with an amazing work — “The Romance of the Rose” (French: Roman de la Rose). It is a French allegorical poem from the 13th century, written in Old French, and is one of the oldest works of world literature, comparable in terms of its grandeur, content, and length to “Hamlet” or “War and Peace.”
The book consists of two parts, written by different authors at different times: The first part is by Guillaume de Lorris, written around 1225–1230, comprising 4,028 verses. The second part is by Jean de Meun, written 45 years later, around 1275, including the remaining 22,817 verses.
The narrative is told from the perspective of a “lover, ” a young man and a stranger who, by a miracle and a misunderstanding, finds himself in a world unlike the familiar and well‑known land he knows, where he becomes a participant in events that truly test his heart and mind. In fact, the poem consists of monologues by allegorical characters, presented as human qualities such as Regret, Sincerity, and Jealousy, as well as concepts inherent in the familiar world — “Poverty, ” “Wisdom, ” “Reason, ” and so on. The other heroes were representatives of the gods, such as Cupid, Venus, and Mars. As he shapes his life path among these personifications, the lyrical hero (and it is indeed a lyrical hero — I’ll explain why a bit later) makes choices, agreeing or disagreeing with each of the moral teachings sent to him.
The novel is based on the dream of the first author. However, in the second part of the novel, his co‑author introduces an interesting line in the speech of one of the characters, which states that if the “in love” person is helped, he will write about this entire story in the greatest book, where he will glorify them, and which, of course, the author holds in his hands, realizing that both authors identify themselves with the character from whose perspective the narrative is told.
The novel is commonly considered to be about love, but the problems it addresses are far more complex, and therefore the theme of the work expands to encompass not only one life but also general philosophical concepts such as peace and war, life and death. The main question the author poses is whether, without a doubt, to choose the side of the Heart or the side of Reason. Which of these concepts is superior, what should be given preference, and what is better to devote one’s life to. The goddess of love, Venus, Nature, and the other virtues, led by Cupid, stubbornly stood on the side of passionate and unwavering Love. And only the reader remains alone on the battlefield, fighting for Reason with all their inner world. At least, that’s what they come to as unpredictable events unfold.
Specifically, the events unfold in a growing narrative tension toward obtaining the desired love at any cost — at the cost of deception, hypocrisy, and even war, which ultimately destroys the very object of desire, which seemed sacred and inviolable in the opening pages of the novel. At the end of the book, a phrase is uttered that the world should be free, and roses should be picked, not guarded in flower beds, for that is what they are created for — to be objects of love. Here is the next question: is there great beauty to express love for it, or to be used by others?
This leads to the following question: is love worth resorting to baseness, to meanness, to cruelty? Is it possible to fight for a lofty goal (which, in the end, no longer seems so lofty), is it possible to go to war for the sake of peace? And is this world really as we imagine it?
If we interpret the events honestly, without immersing ourselves in the romanticism of what is happening, the plot unfolds as follows: the young man is punished for the bliss and carefree life he experienced in the magical garden, and he is pierced by Cupid’s arrows, which causes him to fall head over heels in love with the Rose, who is kept under strict guard behind the fence of the flower garden. Overwhelmed by suffering, the hero pours out his soul to a scoundrel who calls himself a friend; he attempts to touch Rosa several times, tempts one of his guards, Priem, to let him lead him to her, for which the guard is thrown into prison; and then the main character is consumed by the thought of freeing him from prison—but only so that the guard would take pity on him and once again open the desired path to Rosa for him.
Throughout his journey, he rejects the voice of Reason, which tells him to renounce his service to Cupid and break free from the madness of love. In the end, a friend advises the main character to resort to baseness and deception, to bribe the castle guards in order to free Priem, but, fortunately, Cupid comes to the rescue, summons the holy retinue, and the greatest gods, united, free Priem through the most brutal, base, and repulsive war and the inevitable cunning. In the tale of Cupid, there is both the Mask and Hypocrisy. In the end, the main character picks the desired rose, having received permission from the Reception, and the flowers are declared to be publicly available, and the forbidden fruits are permitted. Leaves fall from the bushes, and idle permissiveness reigns. The very thing with which the whole story began. A curious moment that caught my imagination: Venus, the goddess, who, to a large extent, is precisely the reason the gods managed to defeat the fortress of the guardians, shattered the old one, which she herself had once brought to life with love. It turns out that she went against her own love, which she had once embodied.
Of course, the story is presented as a celebration of good human qualities embodied in those who besiege the castle, which belongs to the negative qualities of a person, but in the book they are presented in a sensible and wise way, so that you don’t want to consider them negative characters. In the end, you take their side and wish that the lover would never reach the rose — the thief, the murderer, the madman.
But in the end, the hero is left alone with his love, which has become his victim, his trophy—just as everything that came his way fell victim to him. What will happen next? Has he lost the meaning of life? Will countless new arrows of Cupid follow, like new calamities, and will another careless love, capable of leading to even more heinous crimes, kill everything alive in him? And will he find the essence of his former passionate love if it has become so base and commonplace?
One’s attitude toward the body as an interaction with the world
