The Decameron Analysis

As discussed in lecture The Decameron written by Giovanni Boccaccio is an obvious source of entertainment used to bring light to the tragic Black Death in 1348. Many of the stories within the book display jokes aimed towards religion and women. Perhaps one of my favorite of the assigned stories is the fourth day introduction. Boccaccio begins to describe a story that claims “its very incompleteness will separate it from any others in my book” (Boccaccio, 287). The story describes a man whom has been dated back before Boccaccio and was completely shattered by the loss of his wife. After her death, he would shelter his son so that he would have contact with nobody else. The less contact he had with the outside world, the less pain he would have to endure in the father’s eyes. Boccaccio hilariously describes when the son saw women for the first time and his father eagerly told him “My son, lower your eyes and do not look, for they are evil” (Boccaccio, 289). This perhaps was one of Boccaccio’s ways of displaying light humor on gender during the time of the Renaissance. Much of the theme of this introduction deals with Boccaccio’s argument on pleasing ladies with his writing and storytelling. I think it is essential to mention a quote in which he backs up his claim “I certainly would cite …show more content…
Rinaldo’s wishes to have her summoned to her death because of it leads to a court trial in which Madonna is honest and admits to her affair. Madonna argues “ask my husband whether or not I have ever refused, whenever and however many times he wished, to yield my entire body to him” (Boccaccio, 464). This statement similarly explains how women were portrayed as inferior to men during the time, even in relation to sex. But the story itself pleases and sympathizes with women ending with Rinaldo confused and exiting the