Post date: Apr 8, 2017 7:48:31 PM
Reading more of The Decameron while also have had time to discuss some previous parts of the book I feel more able to tackle this post. Doing this reading, I was struck between some of the connections happening in the introduction and then the later stories. With The Canterbury Tales written in the same time period but a little later, I think he heightened this idea of the introduction of prologue and adapted it to his own purposes. I wanted to take some time to explore the connections I found between the intro and stories told that day.
Fourth Day
This is Filostrato's day where stories are told about those whose love comes to an unhappy end. Ironically, the introduction has a story that's never finished where a boy sees a women for the first time but can't do anything about it. To me, this seems like unhappiest end to love there could be: to never have tried. Yes you avoid heartbreak but you also avoid all of the good memories that might have come out of the relationship too.
Fifth Day
Now we move on to Fiammetta's day where the theme is lovers who go through unhappiness eventually get...you guessed it, happiness. The intro opens with our group waking up to a brand new day where people are just lazily getting moving and getting the day started. So after Filostrato's day of unhappiness, Fiammetta swoops in like a fresh spring breeze or new start to the day.
Sixth Day
Elissa is the head of the sixth day and centers around stories about people who have had to defend themselves. In the intro, Licisca and Tindaro are arguing with Licisca just tearing him a new one. I don't think Boccaccio was being as subtle here.
Seventh Day
Dioneo is king with the theme of wives tricking their husbands. The first paragraph begins with the "not offensive metaphor at all" of comparing women to Satan. I mean really. This comes across a little excessive, although from a literary perspective it was just subtle enough to set the tone.
Eighth Day (aka kinda Seventh Day the Sequel)
Again with the religion metaphors. So the Eighth day seems to build off the Seventh but now these are tricks that anyone readily plays on each other. This day perhaps reminds me the most of The Canterbury tales as, at least from the intro, I get the feeling of Boccaccio almost seeing religion as the grandest of all tricks. I mean this would be during the Avignon Papacy where Italy was not too happy about the church being literally anywhere else but Italy.
Ninth Day
All hail queen Emilia who lets people do whatever they want. This into was more straight forward where they are taking a leisurely stroll, everyone is enjoying nature and then they get to tell stories on whatever.
Just some side notes to conclude my post. One of the things I found interesting when really examining the intros was how impersonal the king or queen became on their day. They seemed to turn into a figurehead and lost a lot of the individuality and importance that went along with their name. Maybe this was just me or this was to employ some sort of literary device that I didn't pick up on.