Student Question
Who dies from poison in The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco?
Quick answer:
In The Name of the Rose, several monks die from touching poisoned pages of a rare book. Jorge of Burgos, a monk who believes laughter is sinful, poisons the pages of Aristotle's Poetics to prevent others from reading it. This results in the deaths of Berengar of Arundel, the assistant librarian, and Venantius of Salvermec, a manuscript translator, who both come into contact with the poisoned book.
In Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, William of
Baskerville, a Franciscan monk, is sent to an abbey in the Apennines
of Italy to negotiate for Pope John XXII with factions of monks who oppose the
pope for his wealth and want to advocate living in poverty instead. When he
arrives, he finds that Adelmo of Otranto, a monk who is the library's
manuscript scholar, has died mysteriously and is next also
commissioned to investigate Adelmo's death. The mystery grows
more complicated as more monks die.
What William discovers is that Jorge of
Burgos frequently leaves the monastery to travel the European
countries in search of books to bring back to the monastery's library. One one
occasion, Jorge returned with a rare copy of Aristotle's Poetics, in
which Aristotle asserts his theories concerning drama, especially theories
related to both comedy and tragedy. As a monk, Jorge believed
laughter to be a "weakness, corruption, the foolishness of our flesh";
hence, in order to prevent anyone else from ever reading the book, he hid it
deep in the library and locked it away (p. 474). He also poisoned the
pages to further prevent anyone from reading it.
William further discovers that Adelmo got himself entangled in
a sex scandal with Berengar of Arundel, the
assistant librarian, just because Berengar so desperately wanted to see the
book. Ridden with guilt, Adelmo committed suicide. In addition, since Jorge had
poisoned the book's pages, both Berengar and Venantius
of Salvermec, a manuscript translator, were killed by Jorge's
poison.
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