The Name Of The Rose Essays - Films, The Name Of The Rose

The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco has an interesting and fascinating style of writing as he, in great detail, tells of a series of crimes and unbelievable murders in a wealthy Italian abbey in the year1327. A monk, William of Baskerville, and his assistant, Adso, are assigned the challenge of decoding the numerous secret symbols to unravel the mysteries. They will have to explore the unusual labyrinth of a library to solve the crimes. The two monks have a lot of logic, wit, curiosity, and intelligence and find themselves up against a clever enemy, a murderer with all the appearance of the Antichrist. The original reason for William's being asked to come was to investigate the death of Adelmo, a young monk, who had apparently committed suicide. The abbot had heard of William's great knowledge and invited him to come and try to figure out the reason if or how this young monk had been killed. The abbot instructed him to bring a novice with him because the abbey had no one extra to spare. William had previously met a young monk named Adso during his travels and wanted him to come along so that he could later learn from William. The two traveled to the abbey, high on top of a mountain. When they arrived, the abbot showed his appreciation by preparing a large dinner in their honor. They were then informed of the details of the death of Adelmo. His body had been found at the bottom of a cliff on the side of the mountain. It was assumed that he had committed suicide, but they had no way of proving this hypothesis. If he had jumped, the only possible window would be from the library. This would be nearly impossible because entry to the library was forbidden to everyone except the librarian, and the assistant librarian; not even the abbot was allowed in this place. This explains why William was asked to come and investigate the death. If he didn't jump, who killed him and why? Another variable added to this whole problem was that someone had brought up the fact that the signs of the Antichrist were possibly being acted out. The Book of the Apostle said at the first sound of the trumpet came the hail, and Adelmo's body was found in the snow after a hailstorm; which was later found out from the abbot. Later that day, William and Adso had a brief encounter with Severinus, the herbalist. They asked him many questions about the abbey and what kinds of herbs he grew. They were trying to find out what, if any, herbs Adelmo may have gotten his hands on in order to kill himself. The only herbs that Severinus knew about that had that kind of power and that he had in his infirmary were still in their respective cases that had never been opened. After discussing this briefly, they asked Severinus to give them a tour of the Aedificium. Severinus took them up onto the second floor of the Aedificium, the Scriptorium. There they meet many copyists, scholars, rubricators, and the head librarian. They were also introduced to an old, blind monk named Jorge. They talked to Malachi, the librarian, about the books in the library. They had a very detailed talk with all of the people in the Scriptorium on the topic of laughter, which brings out the worst in some present, Jorge especially. He mentions that the Antichrist is on his way to the world because certain signs had been lurking around the abbey. He says, ? He is coming! .......Do not squander the last seven days!? At supper they were invited to the abbot's table to eat with Jorge; Alinardo, another older monk believed to have gone mad; the abbot; Malachi, the librarian; and Berengar, the assistant librarian. After dinner they went back into the church for Compline, the service before bed. They noted that Malachi had come in from a different door than all the rest of the monks. They then concluded that there must be an alternate entrance( an ossarium ) somewhere that he passed through the Aedificium to get out of the library. The next day they discovered something very gruesome. They were in the opening services when they noticed that Venantius was missing. During the service, a few swineherds came rushing in, which was very unusual, and went straight to the abbot. He rushed outside as the swineherds told all the other monks what had happened. They had seen legs sticking out of a barrel