Courage, intelligence and success: three typical characteristics that could easily be attributed to the hero of any story. Take the trickery, manipulation, and eventual failure, and you get the typical villain. In The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco decided to take the usual theme of "good triumphs over evil" and twist it in such a way that readers see their apparent hero, William of Baskerville, ultimately failing in everything he does. undertakes. do, and his sworn enemy, Bernard Gui, succeeds. Why did Eco so deliberately choose to reverse the usual roles, and how is it that he succeeds so well? To be able to answer such questions, it is necessary to closely examine the literary techniques chosen by the author. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essay William of Baskerville is clearly Eco's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in The Name of the Rose, and Holmes' adversary, Moriarty, is embodied in the character of Bernard Gui. Throughout the novel, readers see constant demonstrations of William's similarity to Holmes. He's a detective, he has Adso de Melk's Watson-type persona and has a Moriarty-type adversary, Bernard Gui. Gui is an inquisitor, the same job William once had. In fact, they were on the same team. However, William left the Inquisition, realizing that his rational, enlightened and humanist character was not suited to this work, and that he was unable to bring himself to condemn people to death simply on the basis of suspicion. of heresy. It is interesting to see that against his rival, William fails. The first of many examples occurs during the debate over Christ's poverty: initially, William's task is to protect Michael of Cesena, ensuring that he is not forced to attend the pope in Avignon (where he would surely be executed under the pretext of being a heretic), and essentially, so that the meeting with the papal delegation would go as smoothly as possible. It is interesting to see William's first and main mission fail: the meeting ends in chaos, and Michael finally finds himself in Avignon, in mortal peril. In this case, Bernard Gui, sent by the Pope in the hope of provoking such disorder, succeeded. Gui's victory in this sense is linked to another of his achievements: he is an inquisitor, and the job of an inquisitor is to find heretics and sentence them to death. At the abbey, Bernard Gui discovers several “heretics”, some of whom are completely innocent. This fact is of no importance, because all that matters is that Bernard Gui does his job. By having these people killed, he is doing his job well and thus succeeds once again. The fact that Michael of Cesena found himself in Avignon shortly after his arrival warns the reader that this character is quickly on the path to success, while at the same time, William of Baskerville seems on a series of defeats. After failing to keep the meeting with the papal delegation in order, and thus having Michael of Cesena in Avignon, "fearing for his life", William's second major task is to solve the mysteries surrounding the murders occurring at the abbey. Mainly, the abbot asks Guillaume to investigate Adelme's unsolved death, the first in a possible series of seven. One of the abbot's first remarks is: "I was very pleased to learn that in many cases you decided that the accused was innocent", a statement which tells readers not only that the humanitarian character of Guillaume was a major factor in his departure from the Inquisition, but also that his character is entirelyfact opposite to that of Bernard Gui. At the time of this character's introduction, there have been four murders, and William has only managed to identify the circumstances after the deaths of these four people, which is naturally too late: he is assigned to solve the mystery, and thus avoid other deaths, but once again, does not succeed. However, through his use of logical thinking and superior intellect to solve crimes (albeit too late), readers see further similarities with the character Sherlock Holmes, who is also renowned for his use of same qualities. Looking at the stories (and even character) of Sherlock Holmes, readers can perhaps understand why Eco would choose to see his hero fail so regularly throughout his novel, rather than succeed in the typical epic way. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the famous Sherlock Holmes series, actually had the character of Holmes killed in a fight against his nemesis, Moriarty: A few words may be enough to tell what little remains. An examination by experts leaves no doubt that a personal struggle between the two men ended, as it could not fail to end in such a situation, by their wobbling, locked in each other's arms. on the other. Any attempt to find the bodies was absolutely futile, and there, at the bottom of this terrible cauldron of swirling water and seething foam, will forever lie the most dangerous criminal and greatest defender of the law of his generation. ...whom I will always consider the best and wisest man I have ever known. Through this excerpt, we can see that Holmes, a much-loved character, is ultimately defeated. The narrator, Watson, remembers Holmes as an intelligent and wise man, similar to how Adso views William throughout the novel. Indeed, the only reason the Holmes character was revived was due to popular audience demand. In Holmes' defeat, we see the author's original intention for his villain to triumph over his hero, and we can see that Eco's decision to have a Sherlock Holmes-like character results in a similar story in The Name of the Rose. Rose is undoubtedly heavily influenced by religion: it contains many references to the Bible (mostly to the books of Genesis and Revelation), and the theme that evil will sometimes triumph over good can be seen in several Psalms: His ways are ever prosperous; he is haughty and your laws are far from him; he mocks all his enemies. He said to himself: “Nothing will shake me; I will always be happy and I will never have problems. » This Psalm alludes to the idea that good does not always triumph, as do the following verses: Do not worry when men succeed. in their ways, when they carry out their evil plans... A little more time, and the wicked will be no more; even if you look for them, they will not be found... The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash his teeth against them. Eco's use of religious allusions throughout the novel may well explain why he chooses to have William fail where Gui succeeds. By using references to the Bible, which alludes to the idea that good does not necessarily always triumph over evil, he can make his story depict the same concept, where although the hero fails to in many ways while the villain succeeds, William is still seen as heroic. . He gains knowledge and understanding, and in that sense, regardless of everything else, he is remembered as the hero. 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