Sunday, October 9, 2011

the decameron DAY TWO


1.      Story 5 (pg. 99) – This story had a theme of wicked trickery and misplaced trust. Andreuccio was a man who had trusted the people around him too easily. He was very open with himself, his mental state, and his money, which got him into this problem in the first place. His “sister” had very easily tricked him into to believing he was kin to her, with the help of an old woman. It would appear that Andreuccio’s intelligence level is very low, or at least when it comes to street smarts. Towards the end of the story, after misplacing trust in two using groups of individuals, Andreuccio learns from his previous mistakes, and takes his fate into his own hands. There are two morals of this story for me. The first moral that stands out to me, is the fact that you can not trust anyone, such as when Andreuccio trusted the woman about being his sister. The final moral that stands out to me is that intelligence is more than just books. The whole story is centered on human behavior and the outward expressions of inner motives. For Andreuccio to interpret the situations surrounding him, he would have needed street smarts.
2. Story 7 (pg. 127) – This story strongly relies on the gender roles of the time. Many of the men did not know the soon-to-be Queen. The men were fixated on the beauty of the woman, and not the personality. Men were killed left and right, for no reason other than to sleep with this girl. It says a lot about the male character. The female was portrayed as a simple minded girl who was easy. She wanted to hide her past when she found her old servant. I feel the roles in this story explained the sexual desires of humans, but not the actual bonds people need. This also showed the power lust has over an individual. To commit murder, over a chance to get with a girl is quite shocking and disturbing. There is no real connection, or even common thread. The body is what was pleasing, and the males thrived over that. They couldn’t even communicate because of the language barrier. It was astounding they fell in love, but I guess it shows the strength of a good intimate life.

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