Giovanni Boccaccios The Decameron - Essay Example

In Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron, three young men and seven young women living in Florence during the period when the plague was ravaging Europeare drawn together in a church. Rather than waiting in the city for their imminent death, they decide it is best to leave together for the countryside and take up residence in a country villa. To pass the time, they spend their days taking turns at storytelling. The stories range in topics, dealing with adultery, passion, wit, unrequited love, revenge and sins within the church. The one overarching message in the collection of stories deals with the sinful nature of man. The book shows that even the most noble or holy people in title are still prone to sin and vice. Living the best life possible, according to The Decameron, is a personal endeavor which can best be undertaken by fortifying one's mind with tales of the moral shortfalls of others. The story begins with a narrator discussing the various ways in which the people of Florence were coping with the overwhelming death toll and destruction of social order brought about by the bubonic plague. Some people chose to behave "as though each day was to be their last" (16). The narrator notes that "nowadays, laws relating to pleasure are somewhat restrictive, whereas at that timethey were exceptionally lax." In contrast, however, the seven ladies of our story are found "more or less in a circle, in one part of the church, reciting their paternosters" (17). The eldest of the women, Pampinea, determines it is in their best interests to leave town to protect their lives and virtue. She states that the townspeople, "prompted by their appetites, they will do whatever affords them the greatest pleasureIt is not only of lay people I speak, but also of those enclosed in monasteries[that have] given themselves over to carnal pleasures" (18-19) She asks the other six women, "If this be so (and we plainly perceive that it is), what are we doing here" (19). In this manner, the seven women decided to leave town, asking "three young men of courage and intelligence" to accompany them as "guides and servants" (21). In this manner, the group sets itself apart from the others in Florence that are just interested in fulfilling sinful desires before their imminent demise. Upon arriving at a well-appointed and vacant country villa, the group and their accompanying servants set up camp. To provide entertainment, they decide they will appoint a group leader each day that will determine how they will pass their time (24). For each of the ten days they are in the villa, they end up telling stories - both lighthearted and tragic - that convey different moral shortcomings of men, women and clergy alike. They each usually preface each tale with a comment on how to avoid the same wretched and sinful natures of the people in the stories, thus making the collection of tales a type of instruction manual on the devious temptations one should avoid in life. For instance, the third story on the first day tells the tale of Saladen, a sultan from Egypt, and "a rich Jew, Melchizedek by name." Saladen asks Melchizedek to choose which religion is authentic, the "Jewish, the Saracen, or the Christian" (42). Because Melchizedek wisely sidesteps Saladen's wicked trap, he avoids giving an answer that would lose him money and possibly his life. He states that he could not choose among them, just like he could not choose among three children. Saladen only asked this question because he coveted Melchizedek's money. Because his wisdom and prudence inspired Saladen, the sultan borrowed money from the man instead of entrapping him as he had originally intended ( 43-44). Many stories in The Decameron point out the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church of plague-era Europe. In this manner, the stories show that even church leaders are not without sinful temptation. In the sixth story, a money-hungry friar comes after "people with bulging purseswhom he deemed to be lacking in faith" (50-51). At the end of the story, the money-hungry friar is reminded that the Bible states "for every one you shall receive a hundredfold" (52). A man the friar intended to guilt out of his money turns the guilt back on to the friar when he points out that the friar gives out only one kettle of vegetable broth to the poor. The man makes a clever remark that the friar will likely drown in vegetable broth in the next world for all he's given (or rather failed to give) to the poor (52). Other stories that illustrate The Decameron's disdain for fraudulent religious leaders is the fifth story of the second day. It tells the story of a man named Andreuccio, who - after being duped by a clever lady out of his money - runs into some tomb raiders that seek to rob the grave of a recently deceased archbishop. The tomb raiders leave Andreuccio in the tomb after they get most of the valuable goods out, and he believes he will either die there or be found and hanged as a grave robber. Instead, a group of priests come and open the tomb to rob it themselves, thus allowing Andreuccio to make an escape. Having priests actually robbing the grave of an archbishop shows how money-hungry Boccaccio perceived them to be. The third story of the third day plays a friar as a fool when he unwittingly helps a married woman attract the attention of a friend of the friar's by accusing the man of unwelcome advances. His scolds his friend after "gleefully pocket[ing] the money" given to him by the woman for alms (97). In this way, he is made to look foolish. The eighth story of the third day shows the church in an even worse light, when an abbot and a housewife conspire to teach her husband a lesson in jealousy by sending him to purgatory. They fake his death and imprison him with a monk that whips him twice a day for ten months, while all this time the abbot and the wife are sleeping together (241). They let him out of "purgatory" once the wife was impregnated with the abbot's child. The abbot is described as "a veritable saint of a man in all his ways except for his womanizing" (235). In the third story of the seventh day, a friar takes a housewife to bed and convinces her husband that he was trying to rid their child of worms. In the tenth story of the third day, a holy man takes a girl's virginity by telling her he needs to "put the devil back in Hell" (256). Clearly, Boccaccio was fairly certain that the Catholic church in Italy was less than chaste during his lifetime. In the second story of the fourth day, Friar Alberto impersonates the angel Gabriel to sleep with a less-than-bright woman. He is humiliated in front of the whole city for this deed. The preface states that this tale is meant to "illustrate the extraordinary and perverse hypocrisy of members of religious orders" (281). It continues to indict their sins, stating, "to hear them talk, one would think they were excused, unlike the rest of us, from working their way to Heaven on their merits" (282). This passages serves to summarize all of the stories The Decameron offers about the sins and foolishness of the church. Clearly, the author wants the reader to see that title alone does not make one's life holy or righteous. It encourages the reader to learn from the folly of others and choose a path that is fulfilling and good, despite the notion that church leaders were corrupt, lusty and money-hungry in Boccaccio's time. Examples of sinful behavior are not reserved exclusively to clergy in The Decameron. The eighth story of the fifth day tells a tale of a woman that is scornful to a man that loves her. The man sees the ghosts of a knight and a naked woman eternally being pursued by hounds, and he learns that this event is doomed to unfold for eternity because of her "cruelty andgloating over [his] sufferings" from his unrequited love for her (391). The ghosts' tale makes the scornful woman reconsider the love of the man as well as her own spiritual state. The eighth story of the sixth day warns against judging others and vanity when it talks of the folly of a dimwitted girl that could not understand the insult when told, "If you can't bear the sight of horrid peoplenever...look at yourself in the glass" (434). The third story of the tenth day warns against revenge, rage and murder with the tale of Mithridanes. The man he nearly kills ends up to be his advisor and friend. The Decameron is an insightful look into the private lives of both noblemen and common people, showing that all human beings are subject to the same temptations. Greed and lust can occur in clergy and laypeople alike. In illustrating the less noble aspects of the human existence, the book serves as a good instruction manual for what not to do with one's life. The stories are good for teaching the right path by illustrating the folly of others. Works Cited Boccaccio, Giovanni. McWilliam, G.H. trans. The Decameron. London: Penguin Books, 1972. Read More