The novella opens with the narrator’s dream of Venus. Perform a close reading of this dream and pull out the details that explain the narrator’s view of love and the ways Venus counters those ideas. How does the narrator’s view of love compare with Severin’s? How does Venus’s view compare with Wanda’s?

Venus is often depicted through art in the novella, such as Titian’s painting, Severin’s painting with Wanda, and multiple statues of Venus. What is the significance of these depictions? How do statues and paintings differ in the way they portray Venus as an entity?

Both Severin and Wanda are obsessed with Greco-Roman ideologies and lifestyles, focusing on the ways in which gods and goddesses interact with mortals. How do their views of Greco-Roman ideology influence their own behavior? How do these view compare or contrast with Christian moral conceptions in the novella?