Boccaccio Test #3 Part 3

Question 1

6th DAY: a witty retort gets you out of trouble.

TENTH STORY: Brother Cipolla hoodwinks his congregation while outsmarting two pranksters.

Answer 1

• Themes: Language used for manipulation and for getting out of trouble.
• Gullibility of the faithful.
• Superstition and idolatry encouraged by the church.

Question 2

**7th DAY: Women play tricks on their husbands. **

FIRST STORY: Monna Tessa and the ghost. (Donkey skull. Alternate ending.)

Answer 2

• Theme: Instability of language, openness to misinterpretation.
• This instability is also reflected by Emilia’s insistence that her tale is really a piece of gossip.

Question 3

TENTH STORY: Two men in love with the same woman.

Answer 3

• Themes: The two friends want solid proof that church teachings are true. (Proof is what the scientific revolution will be based upon.
• We are no longer in the Middle Ages.)
• Opportunism: another “revelation” from the afterlife used as a means to an end (see Nastagio’s story).
• Recurring theme: divine things are beyond our reach, and we can’t presume to know about them

Question 4

**10th DAY: Deeds of generosity. **

TENTH STORY: Patient Griselda (Narrator: Dioneo, who tells a story of misogynistic cruelty.)

Answer 4

• Theme: Storytellers (women especially) must now prepare to get back to reality.
• They will be returning to patriarchal oppression, to social and gender conflict.
• Allegorical reading: God is (gratuitously) testing humans (with the plague).

Question 5

Dante’s Notion of Language

Answer 5

For Dante (and the Medieval person) language is a gift God bestowed
upon humans so that they could spread His truth.
* When humans misuse this gift (by lying, deceiving, etc.), they are
perverting language’s primary function, which is to convey God’s truth.
* Conveying God’s truth is precisely what Dante is attempting to do in
the Divine Comedy. If Dante did not believe that language was created
to convey God’s truth, his great poem would have no meaning.

Question 6

Boccaccio’s Reassessment of Language

Answer 6

• In Boccaccio, language is a man-made tool that can be used for good
  or ill depending on the speaker’s intentions.
• Its primary function is not to convey God’s truth, but rather to
  negotiate human desire.
• Whenever we use language, we are either making our desire known to
  others, or reacting to their own desire. In either case, we use language
  to persuade others.
• For Boccaccio, language is a human institution, and as such it can only
  convey human (not divine) truths.

Question 7

3 overarching themes that Boccaccio will explore
throughout the 100 stories of his Decameron

Answer 7

• The function and power of LANGUAGE
• The extent of WOMEN’S AGENCY in Medieval society.
• The nature of HUMAN DESIRE (Deconstruction of Courtly Love)

Question 8

Comparing Dante and Boccaccio

Answer 8

In Dante’s Inferno, every episode is conceived as a morality tale
designed to teach us right from wrong.
In Nastagio’s story, Boccaccio creates his own infernal scene to
make a social commentary: too often morality tales are tools that
men use to reinforce their power over women.
Boccaccio borrows elements from Dante’s Inferno not to reflect on
right and wrong, but rather to explore gender relations in his
society.
Boccaccio’s constant preoccupation with gender dynamics is part
of what makes the Decameron an astonishingly modern work.