Boccaccio Test #3 Part 2

Question 1

3rd DAY: People obtain what they want through ingenuity.

FIRST STORY: Masetto (the “deaf-mute” gardener) and the nuns.

Answer 1

• Themes: Civilizing, regulative function of language.
• Absence of language leads to chaos and rule of instinct
• Women have desires too, and a right to sexual fulfillment.
• Boccaccio criticizes the practice of sending young women to convent.
• Parody of courtly love themes: See William IX’s Red Cat poem.

Question 2

4th DAY—Filostrato, the first male narrator, proposes a tragic theme: love stories that end in disaster. Day Four will remain the only exception to the comedic mode employed in the rest of the Decameron.

INTRODUCTION: Boccaccio responds to his critics with the half-story of hermit Filippo Balducci and his son, who can’t be shielded from knowledge of women.

Answer 2

• Theme: Father tries to suppress son’s desire for women.
• There is no eradicating desire, it’s part of human nature.

Question 3

FIRST STORY: Prince Tancredi kills his daughter’s lover, cuts out his heart

Answer 3

• Themes: Women suffer under male rule, are denied autonomy and sexual/emotional fulfillment.
• Reference to Filippo Balducci. You cannot suppress sexual desire.

Question 4

FIFTH STORY: Lisabetta and the Pot of Basil.

Answer 4

• Themes: Love across the class divide is doomed.
• Elements of the plague haunt Lisabetta’s story (decomposition, unmarked graves, stench, etc.).
• Reality, banished from the countryside retreat, comes back in a displaced form as traumatic elements within the narrative.

Question 5

5th DAY: Love stories that end well, in spite of hardship.

FIRST STORY: Cimone, a brute, is apparently “transformed” by love. When he can’t have the woman, however, he quickly reverts to his true nature.

Answer 5

• Theme: Deconstruction of courtly love. Critique of the supposedly “transformative, civilizing” power of love.
• As it turns out, Cimone’s transformation was only skin-deep.
• The woman is terrorized into marrying Cimone. “Happy” ending?

Question 6

FOURTH STORY: Father “forgives” his daughter’s transgression by forcing marriage upon her. (AKA The “nightingale” story)

Answer 6

• Theme: A story of a daughter laboring under patriarchal rule.
• The different ending hinges entirely on class considerations: the lover has a pedigree.

Question 7

EIGHTH STORY: Nastagio, unrequited lover, teaches the woman a lesson by having her witness the gruesome eternal punishment inflicted upon a cruel woman.

Answer 7

• Themes: The story references the Forest of Suicides, from Dante’s Inferno XIII (where destroyers of property are chased by hounds).
• Nastagio is a squanderer, but the scene is not intended for his moral edification.
• He uses it ruthlessly to advance his designs on the girl.
• The huge difference from Dante lies in the moral indeterminacy of the infernal scene.
• In Dante the scene conveys a clear moral message. Here it is a tool that can be used for manipulation. Woman terrorized into marrying Nastagio. (“Happy” ending?)

Question 8

NINTH STORY: Federigo, the widow, and the falcon.

Answer 8

• Theme: Widow forced to remarry by her brothers.
• Women could not be trusted to handle their own property. Woman “guilted” into marrying Federigo. (“Happy” ending?)

Question 9

Overall, the Fifth Day clarifies Boccaccio’s stance on Courtly Love:

Answer 9

• Boccaccio repeatedly sets up Courtly Love scenarios only to deconstruct them.
• He strips off the romantic façade to uncover a crude reality dominated by class rigidity, financial calculation, and – for a woman – lack of choice and the constant threat of male violence.
• In other words, Boccaccio uses Courtly Love as a “tool” to cast light on the power dynamics, and the social/gender imbalances of his time.