The Comparison Of Job And The Decameron By Giovanni Boccaccio

In the Holy Bible, there is verse that reads “Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws, and his commands always” (The Holy Bible, Deu. 11.1). The meaning of this is that if God’s children obey him and remain steadfast in their faith, God will bless them in ways that they could never have imagined. In the Book of Job, this promise is exemplified when Job, who is perfect in all ways, is cursed twice by Satan (with God’s permission), only to later be rewarded for his faith. A wise lesson on the merits of obedience, Giovanni Boccaccio wrote on a similar theme in “Story 10, Day 10” in The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio. In the short story, Gualtieri, a wifeless, childless marquis, takes a beautiful, poor, village girl, Griselda, as his wife and, in order to test her devotion to him, forces her to endure years of emotional and verbal abuse from him. Instead of breaking the vow of obedience she made to him, Griselda continuously displays impossible patience with him, and as a result, their story ends happily. There are dissimilarities between the stories, such the reasons why Job and Griselda are tested and how they are expected to react. However, these two tales are similar in that they convey the same …show more content…
Job passes because he understands one of the fundamental doctrines of his faith, which is that suffering does not last forever because joy will eventually come. Job obeys the Lord because he loves his God and knows what is expected of him, no matter what kind of suffering he endures. Similarly, Griselda remains true to her vow because she loves her husband and is a patient, perhaps even virtuous, woman. Job’s story is an example of the rewards of faith and obedience. Story serves the same purpose, with the addition that Griselda also serves as a model of the perfect wife during the Renaissance