In the typical mystery, detective and reader must interpret a series of signs to find the identity and motive of the criminal. The signs in such works may have several possible meanings, but only one is correct, and only the right reading will lead to the truth. The Name of the Rose shuns these conventions. Clues may be understood in various ways and a false hypothesis nevertheless leads to the solution – As William tells Adso at the end of the book,
‘I arrived at Jorge through an apocalyptic pattern that seemed to underline all the crimes, and yet it was accidental. I arrived at Jorge pursuing the plan of a perverse and rational mind, and there was no plan’. William believes that signs ‘are the only things man has with which to orient himself in the world’’, but he knows that one can never be certain about the relation among signs.
Umberto Eco says in Reflections of the Name of the Rose the uncertainty begins with the book title, which Eco chose because it:
‘‘Rightly disorientated the reader, who was unable to choose just one interpretation’’.
The opening paragraph of Adso's memoir warns of the impossibility of certainty, which stem from biblical illusions. Adso begins by quoting the first verse of the gospel of John, ‘‘In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God’’. In this world one sees God, and hence the word, whether in the form of language or other signs, as through a glass darkly sensory perception and even logic are therefore untrustworthy. This stems from a quotation in Corinthians 13:12 which suggests we will never understand the meaning of historical events until the end of time. Adso thus appropriates Paul’s writing in Corinthians as part of his apocalyptic vision.
The novel opens with a clever bit of deduction, as William determines from a knowledge of literature, and the presence of several agitated monks, broken branches and horsehair, that the abbots’ favainte horse has escaped from the monastery and its hiding nearby. Signs are not, however, always as clear. When a friar is condemned as a heretic, various spectators comment on his behavior. ‘‘He is a madman, he is possessed by the devil, swollen with pride,’’ some say. Others maintain that ‘‘ he is not a saint, he was sent by Louis to stir up discord among the citizens’’. A third group disagrees, ‘‘All Christians should be like him’’. Given such confusion, the proper course is good-natured tolerance. As William tells Adso, ‘‘The only truth lies in learning to free ourselves from insane passion for the truth’’.
The novel is no more a 20th Century book than it is medieval. The 18th Century novelist Henry Fielding, defending the realism of his characters, observed that not only were they living as he wrote, they had been alive for the past 2,000 years so, too, with Eco’s characters. The historical background helps clarify the plot, but it also reveals how history repeats itself. Each period has its orthodoxy and its heresies, which may well change places in the succeeding age. Indeed, at any moment it may not be clear which is which. When Nicholas of Morimondo says he would be willing to destroy those who are the ‘‘enemies of the people of God’’ William asks, ‘‘But who today is the enemy of the people of God? Louis the Emperor or John the Pope?
Michael Cunningham discusses Reflections on The Name of the Rose in his Essential Collection:
“Books always speak of other books, and every story tells a story that has already been told”, he explains. Michael is saying Eco’s story would be a narrative on fourth level of encasement, inside three other narratives. “I am saying what Vallet said that Mabillon said that Adso said….”.
This again reveals Eco’s multi-layered method of construction, his skills as a storyteller. He wants to make his readers work, to draw them in and make them work hard, think for themselves, but all the time entertaining and thought provoking. Ellis Peters also an authority on the medieval period works in a similar way with her Cadfael mysteries and both can easily transfer to the future. The historical setting is an aid to imagination but this story could have been set far into the future, in a more fantastic setting and the story still would have had integrity.
Another major theme is that of labyrinths. Eco also talks about the different types of labyrinth. There are also some neat illustrations, particularly of the labyrinth on the floor of the cathedral at Rheims, which is the basis for the library in the novel. It appeared on the jacket of the original Italian hardback. Part of its appeal for Eco is that it was obliterated by the canon in the 18th Century. It was destroyed but is still visible/usable. It is a classical maze, surprisingly, rather than mannerist one. The library in the novel is essentially mannerist and both types seem superceded by the rhizomatic novel of Deleuze and Guattan in Rose. So, the Rheims labyrinth has only one route.
As Eco put it in Reflections:
‘But if you unravel the classical labyrinth, you find a thread in your hand, the thread of Ariadne. The classical labyrinth is the Ariadnes thread of itself’.
He goes on to say that this reminds him of the final exchange between Lonnot and Red Scharlach in Borges’ Death and the Compass, which of course, was a mirror plot source for Rose. He also points out that interestingly, while in the novel William uses mathematical analysis to solve the mannerist maze but this is misleading as classical labyrinths were usually pictorial, like Celtic ones and you wouldn’t need a thread to find your way out – you just keep going. The minataur’s maze would have to be mannerist, with lots of dead ends, despite what Eco says, hence the need for a thread all routes as it runs in all sorts of directions like a WC Escher work.
Before they solve the mystery of the murders the main characters and the reader have to encounter many philosophical questions about faith, the truth of the Christian church, and the many different truths of numerous heresies. Who is right, the heretics who argue against private ownership in the name of Christ who never owned anything or the inquisitors of the Christian church who burn them alive.
The questions and controversies are for the reader to answer, or, rather, to consider, because there are no ultimate solutions. The monastery is the place that seems to breed sinister plots while it supposedly remains one of the best and richest dwellings of the spirit of God. Horrible crimes that take place are committed for very noble purposes. Brother William solves the mystery like Sherlock Holmes, often having to disobey the rules of the monastery in order to find the murderer. Adso questions William his teacher has lost his faith. The old biblical problem, whether passion for knowledge is a sin, finds no answer. In this book, all the monks who strove to enter the secrets of the labyrinth of the library in search of knowledge found themselves killed by the fatal book, who poisons its reader at the rate according to how absolved he is by the book.
The Names of the Rose, and its enigmatic title is mysterious, puzzling, is always hinting at subtext enticing you to peel away the layers. The Rose symbolises something beautiful, hiding something ugly or possibly something beautiful overlaying something wonderful. The beauty of mystery is that it will never be fully revealed and yet the reader does not feel cheated because the novel satisfies all tastes and one realises that the mystery should always remain a mystery – The Sphinx, the Holy Grail etc.
Rocco Capozzi makes interesting points in Reading Eco and likens Eco’s work to many classical and modern works where the protagonist is a mixture of philosopher and adventurer. He considers Eco to make use of devices interweaving classical and medieval themes and settings with modern techniques, interpretation and detection. He considers Eco a master of the use of semiotics who has honed his craft to perfection in. Capozzi is embounded in Praise of Eco’s works and he is right in celebrating Eco’s skills as a superior storyteller.
He gives ample and generous descriptions of Eco’s rich and diverse use of complicated devices, which are indeed in the hand of a master. He also alludes to labyrinths and architecture and the belief and journey towards discovery. It is the lessons learned and the enrichment of that journey which is more important than the journey’s end or any conclusion.
The Name of the Rose allows the reader to be drawn into the book in a mysterious labyrinth of spiritual intrigue and politic. The murders and the protagonist alongside Adso and William of Baskerville make a complex, exciting mystery/detective tale interwoven with medieval intrigue and sensibilities. The reader is allowed to make deductions as to the truth about the murders and the reasons for them eventually revealed. The readers are expected to investigate themselves in an attempt to reveal the truth. However, despite the mystery remaining partially cloaked the reader is never cheated. Whilst many mysteries are answered the ultimate one involving a deep secret of faith and philosophy should remain an ancient secret. The reader is therefore given many roles and is free to enjoy them depending on their own literary history, traditions and cultures and background.
2,000 words
Bibliography
Borges, Jorge Luis, Labyrinths, London: Penguin Books, 2000.
Capozzi, Rocco, Reading Eco, Indiana University Press, 1997.
Cunningham, Michael, Essential Collection, http/www.p.45.net/book/columns/3.html
Eco, Umberto, The Name of the Rose, London: Vintage, 1998.
Eco, Umberto, Reflections on The Name of the Rose, London: Minerva, 1994.
