A Critical Analysis of The Decameron and a Comparison to the Canterbury Tales - Term Paper Example

A Critical Analysis of The Decameron and a Comparison to the Canterbury Tales Literature has continued to progress as time has moved on but the beautiful thing about works of art is that they never fade into blackness of obscurity no matter how much time passes by as their portrayal is something that one can say will linger forever. This is especially true in the art of written words and two collections that can prove the opening statement to be true are The Decameron and The Canterbury Tales. These two books have withstood the test of time and still remain relevant in today’s modern world despite the fact that the stories are set in a time that no living man can remember. The authors of these tales were able to create a work of art that will live on for a long time and will be enjoyed by the present and future generations to come. The Decameron is a book that was written by an Italian named Giovanni Boccaccio and is also known as the Book of Prince Galehaut. Giovanni is an author who existed in the 14th century and the book itself is said to have been composed around the mid 1300s though an exact date has not been established beyond doubt on the period Giovanni began to write it and when it was completed (Marilyn Pg8). Be that as it may, it has still played a large role in the literary world up to this point in time and it is for this that its author should be given credit. The Decameron is a collection of 100 stories containing different characters and is based on the kind of life that individuals living in the 14th century Italy experienced (Marilyn 16). The stories have different characters in them and contain a number of themes and styles depending on the particular story giving the reader a wide range of material that they are able to enjoy when they read the book. The Canterbury tales are also a collection of stories gathered into one book that was written by an Englishman named Geoffrey Chaucer nearing the end of the 14th century. The stories in the book are presented in the context of a contest between a number of pilgrims, where their story telling abilities come into play as they travel together on their way to Canterbury Cathedral to visit Saint Thomas Becket’s shrine from Southwark (Kolve & Glending 56). The aim of the contest is to tell the most interesting story and the winner will receive a free meal upon their return to Sothwark. The tales also serve to provide its readers with a depiction of life in an English society during the 14th century and focuses on a number of major factions that had an influential role in the community at that time such as the church (Collette 38). The tales are largely written in the form of verses though there are a number of stories that are provided in the form of prose. Though Chaucer wrote a number of other works in his life time, The Canterbury Tales can be considered to be his most popular production by far. These two books (that is, The Decameron and The Canterbury tales) can be considered to be two of the more popular literary works that emerged into the scene during the 14th century and were largely widespread in their places of origin, that is, England and Italy (Bignel 45). Both authors had written other works but they were mostly known for these two particular productions. There are a number of similarities as well as differences that an individual can come across when they compare and contrast the two books and it can be said that by doing so one is able to learn the differences and variations in style of the two authors as well as observe the different ways that an author is able to present their work to an audience. Some of the similarities that can be found in both The Decameron and The Canterbury Tales include: Period of Publication Though both books were not published at the exact time and as a matter of fact, the two literary works were years apart in their production it can be said that they were both published around the same period of time. That is to say that they both came out during the 14th century and thus can be classed in the same time period. It should be noted however as mentioned earlier that The Decameron was the first to be published followed by The Canterbury Tales which came out later towards the end of the 14th century (Kolve & Glending 23). This was after The Decameron had been present in the market for a number of years and as a result there was speculation that Geoffrey Chaucer had received his inspiration to write his collection of stories after reading the works of Giovanni Boccaccio while he was in Italy. Content and Layout The layout of the two books can be said to be the most obvious factor that they have in common as both works are comprised of a collection of tales based on a number of various characters. The Decameron is a collection of 100 short stories while it has never been clearly established what the true number of The Canterbury Tales should be as an argument exists about whether the book was ever actually completed (Kolve & Glending 12). This does not change the fact that Chaucer’s work was indeed made up of a number of stories, similar to the layout of Boccaccio’s publication. The content of the two books may not be exactly the same as the stories are different and are based in different locations as well as slightly different periods of time; there are still similarities to be found in the overall basis of the two books however (Trigg 56). Each book was based on the life that the individuals in that area experienced at that time. That is, Boccaccio’s book was based on life in Italy during the 14th century while Chaucer’s publication was based on the type of life experienced by individual’s residing within an English society during its time of production (Bignel 56). Thus it can be said that that overall content of both books were similar in nature, which was a depiction of the kind of life experienced by individual’s during the period of time of the book’s publication. Variation Another similarity that can be found between The Decameron and The Canterbury Tales is the variety of topics that are explored by both books on different subject matters in the different tales that are present within the book (Ohlgren 42). Both books deal with a number of different themes in different stories based on the various issues that were experienced by individuals in their areas at that period of time. For example, The Decameron explored various issues such as death and betrayal while The Canterbury Tales dealt with various issues afflicting the English society such as the large divide between the various social classes as well as the influence that the Church had on the society (Collette 32). The variation makes for good reading and ensures that an individual will not get bored midway through the tales and allows the authors to explore the different topics that they may have wished to address at that time. There are also a number of differences that can be found between the two books, some of them include: Language The language that is used in the two books can be said to be the most notable difference between the publications. The Decameron though initially published in Italian uses what can be referred to as formal or “correct” language in the sense that it uses what can be considered to be academically acceptable words and phrases in the telling of its stories (Ohlgren 61). In The Canterbury Tales however, Geoffrey Chaucer uses what can be considered to be the old dialect in English societies during that period of time and thus the language used cannot be said to academically correct (Collette 76). Chaucer uses words that were mostly used in during his generation such as pronouncing “e’ at the end which for a while stopped happening and thus those who copied his manuscripts tended to leave inconsistencies as they copied it out in their own form of English (Bignel 78). It should however be noted that this was not Geoffrey Chaucer’s doing but that of the individual’s who were responsible for copying the stories down and thus the language found in some of the manuscripts should not be considered to be the language that Chaucer was accustomed to. Themes and Historical Context The themes used in the books though at times may be similar in a few cases are mostly cases as they are based in different settings. The Decameron is set in 14th Century Italy while The Canterbury Tales is set within an English societal frame (Collette 91). The historical context is also different once again due to the setting of the stories and where they take place (Trigg 28). For example The Canterbury Tales is based on a group of pilgrims on a religious mission while The Decameron is based on a number of individuals traveling to escape the black plague. Works Cited Bignell, Jonathan. Postmodern Media Culture. Delhi: Aakar Books, 2007. Print. Collette, Carolyn. Species, Phantasms and Images: Vision and Medieval Psychology in the Canterbury Tales. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001. Kolve, V. Alan and Glending Olson (Eds.) . The Canterbury Tales: Fifteen Tales and The General Prologue; Authoritative Text, Sources and Backgrounds, Criticism. A Norton Critical Edition (2nd ed.). New York, London: W.W. Norton and Company, 2005. Marilyn Migiel. A Rhetoric of the Decameron. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003. Ohlgren, Thomas et al. Medieval Outlaws. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press, 2005. Trigg, Stephanie. Congenial Souls: Reading Chaucer from Medieval to Postmodern. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002. Read More