ABSTRACT
In Reflections on lThe Name of the Rose \ Umberto Eco describes his novel as ‘a story of labyrinths, and not only of spatial labyrinths’.1 Indeed, the labyrinth is of tremendous importance within the text not only in relation to the form of the abbey library, but also in terms of the structure of the medieval society in which the events take place. However, while the labyrinth as a semiotic device has been well documented, little has been said about the labyrinth as a literary motif in the novel. It is the aim of this essay to show the importance of what I believe is the central labyrinth of the text, that is, the labyrinth of the abbey library. For, while it is recognised that the library stands at the heart of the story in The Name of the Rose, I will be arguing that it also connects to all the other labyrinthine structures in the novel, including those of belief and heresy, intertextuality and conjecture. It is through the library labyrinth that the theme of the world as a labyrinth is raised, and the library’s destruction is the key to understanding the novel’s views on universal order. There will also be a discussion on how the labyrinth is involved in the interpretation of signs within the novel, for the events of the text demonstrate that every sign carries multiple meanings, and that life within the abbey is founded on the labyrinthine structures of interpretation which these signs require. The web of connections outlined by this essay illustrates that the abbey library serves as the key to the mental and spiritual labyrinths mentioned above, and demonstrates how these structures give an impression of order in society while actually reflecting the sense of chaos that marks man’s experience of the world.
