Week 8 Powerpoint English 203

1. WEEK 8 POWER POINT
The Decameron and The Heptameron

2. BOCCACCIO’S
DECAMERON
 Frame story: seven young women and three
young men retreat to a countryside castle to
protect themselves from the Black Death
that’s decimating the city. They engage in a
story game to pass the time. They are in a
much more desperate situation than
Chaucer’s pilgrims, but they aren’t as
individuated.
 “In this work overflowing with multiple
narratives of priests and sailors, merchants
and princesses, Boccaccio disregarded all
conceivable rules of decorum in order to
celebrate the variety and fecundity of
Mediterranean culture.” (Norton 1796)

3. THE
DECAMERON --
THEMES
Day 1 Story 1
1) the role of grace in salvation
2) the emerging merchant/moneylending class; the protagonist
does a merchant’s dirty work.
3) deception:
A) Ciappelletto’s sins are described in detail
B) when his merchant landlords fear what will happen if he
dies in their house, he tells them he’ll take care of it. (What
are we to make of this element of generosity?)
C) his “confession” is an elaborate lie, his words chosen for
maximum desired effect on the friar.
The conclusion suggests that illusion may be transformed into
reality.

4. THE DECAMERON
THEMES
Day 10, Story 10
Note that at the beginning of the story the narrator declares he
does not condone Gualtieri’s behavior (1839)
Deception is a major theme once again, as Gualtieri puts very
cruel illusions into place.
Misogyny (hatred or mistrust of women) – Gualtieri doesn’t want
to get married (1840), so he looks for ways to guarantee his wife
will give him no trouble.
1) He chooses a woman of lower rank, humble and
unafraid of hard work;
2) He tests her repeatedly to be sure she won’t oppose him
in anything. He repeatedly attacks her in the place she’s
most vulnerable, her lower social station;
3) p. 1844 – when she’s sent away, Griselda asks only for a
shift (undergarment) to go to her father’s house, so she
won’t suffer the degradation of nakedness.
Are we meant to admire Griselda?

5. MARGUERITE DE
NAVARRE AND
THE HEPTAMERON
Frame story: five men and five women flee
various natural disasters and end up at an
abbey.
Parlamente (possible avatar of de Navarre
herself) lays out the rules of the story game
through which they can ward off boredom.
Marguerite de Navarre was directly
influenced by Boccaccio, part of France’s
“discovery” of Italy.

6. THE HEPTAMERON
-- THEMES
A recurring theme
is “antagonism
between the sexes”
Story 8 takes on the
double standard
directly.
Female sexuality
continues to be a
battleground; the wife
challenges the notion
that respectable
women don’t
experience sexual
desire or enjoy sex as
much as men.
The conversation
treats the nature of
love itself – what we
want from it vs. what
we’re willing to give
up for it.