Essay Topic Suggestion on the Song of Roland

Essay topic suggestion on The Song of Roland

* Write an essay in which you demonstrate the importance of the feudal relationship of vassal to lord (and perhaps at times vice versa) in The Song of Roland. The primary value in this relationship is of course loyalty, with such attendant values as service, honor, reliability, determination, and prowess in battle. This is a huge and extremely generalized subject area by itself, and you'll need to narrow it down to something much more focused in order to produce an effective essay. So it's especially important to understand that the following are, again, questions designed to get you thinking about potentially important subtopic areas, and that you're not expected to answer all of them: How do issues of loyalty, allegiance, and service to one's lord (or maybe at times the lack thereof) drive the plot action of the poem, make things happen? Which characters in the poem seem to be exemplars of the best kind of vassal and which ones examples of the worst kind? Why? In the comparison between Roland and Oliver, which one do you think the poem itself wants us to view as the best vassal, and why? Given the involved nature of the feudal structure, a man can be--in fact almost always is--both lord and vassal in different contexts. How favorably is Roland depicted as a lord? What character does the poem present as the most exemplary lord, and why? How, in the poem, do issues of religion and Christian values figure into the vassal-lord structure and its defining values? Do they cause conflict in it, or are the two ethics effectively merged together, or even, finally, identical with each other? What function does Archbishop Turpin serve in this area? Again, it's crucial that you locate among these issues a point of focus that will enable you to produce a good, limited thesis statement and therefore a truly unified essay.