Song of Roland, Celestina, and Voltaire

This research will compare and contrast the social values articulated by The Song of Roland, Rojas's Celestina, and selected works of Voltaire. The research will set forth the context in which the various works emerged and discuss the extent to which Roland reinforces prevailing social values, whereas Celestina and Voltaire's Zadig depart from the views of social conservatism of their respective periods.

To say that Roland celebrates the exploits of Charlemagne in behalf of his kingdom and the Catholic Church says that the poem is an artifact of the social establishment in which it emerged. Virtually every part of Roland compasses Charlemagne, the Church, destiny, and Rome. Even when Roland's dear companion Oliver is in the throes of death, his thoughts are of "God, / For Charles his glorious King, and for sweet France" (Song of Roland 69). The themes of Roland are grand and of high seriousness.

By the time of Celestina, written in the period just after Columbus's discovery of the New World and thus on the brink of the Renaissance, the literary preoccupation is not of noble deeds and high-born princes but rather of domestic activity. In Celestina, the focus of characterization is not on high moral purpose of holy war but on seduction. Bentley (1ff) includes Celestina in an anthology of Spanish plays without comment about its form. However, Celestina criticism appears to agree that the work is a novel written in dialogue form, or a closet drama (Wardropper 795; Varey 159) rath

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