On one level, The Name of the Rose is a murder mystery solved by a clever detective. However, like the clues that William and Adso find, there are many layers of meaning. Before publishing the novel, Umberto Eco earned the distinction of being a leading literary theorist, best known for his work in semiotics. Semiotics, the study of signs, is a way of understanding how meaning is created or understood, whether in a work of literature or in life. A sign can be any unit of information that conveys meaning—a word, an article of clothing, a drop of blood at a murder scene. Eco theorized both that signs have multiple meanings and that a methodical approach is the best way of comprehending a series of signs. Many aspects of Eco’s semiotic theory are evident in the novel. Eco theorized that meaning is created in literature in part through reference to other works of literature. In the novel, William’s and Adso’s method of solving the crimes owes an obvious debt to Sherlock Holmes and his friend Dr. Watson.

The church history and theological debates of the Middle Ages are important factors of the novel’s setting in a medieval abbey. The monks are caught in a political conflict between the pope and the king of France and engaged in power struggles between groups of clergy. They also face the issue of how or whether to remain celibate, and, if they do not, must choose between women, seen as sources of evil and temptation, and fellow monks. However, the monks, who spend their days working on copying and preserving manuscripts, are most interested in intellectual issues. In fact, the murders occur largely because those who die are seeking knowledge that has been declared inappropriate for them.

This theme of seeking forbidden knowledge extends throughout the novel. Although the abbey houses one of the finest libraries in the world, monks who live and work there cannot enter and must request books from the librarian. The abbot himself must approve some requests, and no one is allowed to see certain books. Even the library’s floor plan is designed to discourage access to materials. Knowledge is potentially dangerous and threatening to religious belief. Jorge, by poisoning the pages, makes the work of Aristotle literally deadly. The cause of most of the deaths, he is in some respects most guilty of intellectual pride. The Bible refers to Jesus as the Word made flesh. In the sacrament of the Eucharist, the body of Christ is consumed in the form of bread. Jorge and other monks kills themselves by eating the pages of the forbidden book that he has smeared with poison; the narrator contrasts this act of eating printed words with consuming the body of Christ in the Eucharist.

At the end of the novel, William and Adso are left with the question of whether events occur in a knowable order or at random, with an order that is imposed by the observer. Every clue they study has more than one meaning. This uncertainty in determining truth applies not only to the novel’s murder mystery but also to the religious truths the monks attempt to decipher. God’s ways are not easily revealed to man; Eco thus reinforces the theme that intellectual pride is a sin, inadequate to reveal God’s mystery.