Orlando furioso: essential themes

The central theme of the Furioso is the theme of folly. It is the thematic nucleus of the work around which rotates Ariosto’s narrative invention. The paladin Orlando, whom Boiardo had already presented as in love, in contrast with the traditional image of a wise man for this hero, here reaches the extreme of going crazy for love, with an evident paradoxical and subversive result: ‘Dirò d’Orlando in un medesmo tratto / cosa non detta in prosa mai né in rima: /che per amor venne in furore e matto’ (Furioso I, 2, 1-4). Folly, that culminates with Orlando’s madness, jealous of Angelica, is reabsorbed thanks to Astolfo’s intervention, who, flying to the moon, finds the paladin’s sanity in the valley where one finds the things lost by men. Another central theme is that of war and heroism, which culminates with the episodes of the encounters between Christian and Saracen champions at Lipadusa, where Brandimarte dies, and the final duel between Ruggero (Christian) and  Rodomonte (Saracen). Also of great importance is the theme of desire that drives Orlando, but also the poet, to chase something that cannot be grasped, in a continual play of flights and pursuits, according to the narrative mechanism of the  quête. Angelica is the image of desire that gives impulse to the narrative of the romance. No less important is the theme of magic and marvel, with the description of fantastic places and objects with great powers, as well as the apparition of wizards such as Atlante. The culmination of ‘marvel’ indeed comes with the description of Atlante’s enchanted palace, in which the knights remain trapped when in pursuit of the false semblance of their objects of desire. Among the other ‘great themes’ there is also the theme of the encomium, relative to the dynastic exaltation of the House of Este. The dedication to Ippolito d’Este, defined as ‘generosa Erculea prole’, denotes the strategic value of this courtly theme. Ariosto mythically reconstructs the origins of the House, born, after many adventures, of the marriage of Bradamante and the Saracen converted to Christianity Ruggiero.