Role of Women in the Boccaccio’s Decameron Stories
Decameron, possibly one of the few remarkable works of Western Literature that was authored by Giovanni Boccaccio is actually a collection of hundred different stories. The tales in this collection are narrated by several speakers who have escaped the city of Florence, which was plague-ridden. The narrators are seen recounting the tales in the host countries to which they escaped, as they aim to kill time by recounting each other’s tales. In this book, Boccaccio sets out from the awe-inspiring poetic idealism of Dante Alighieri as well as Francesco Petrarch, giving life to literature as well as the same realism which was brought to life by the Italian artists of the 14th century through their paintings.
Having been written in complete Italian prose dialect, this book of Boccaccio expresses the offensiveness, uncertainty, absurdity, inconsistency as well as the elusiveness that depict the human experience at large. In addition to this, another significant aspect of this work of Boccaccio is that the stories present contradictory explanations as opposed to the highly moral view that was common in the Middle Ages, ultimately signaling the historical shift from an integrated, God-centered view of the whole universe to a diverse world that was more focused on the human beings, while presenting an all-encompassing and yet often disagreeing perspectives. This essay essentially focuses on the varied roles that women played in the stories of Boccaccio, as presented in the book Decameron.
In this book, Boccaccio displays a great degree of sympathy towards women and is seen to be highly supportive of women. There was a lot of debate surrounding the fact about why Boccaccio, being a male writer, holds such a balanced and optimistic approach toward women, that too in a society that is heavily dominated by men. The answer to this debate, as opined by a few scholars was that it was actually a result of his personal experiences in his life, along with the social context, though were partially attributed. Boccaccio’s father was formerly an affluent businessman who led a highly unconventional life in Paris.
Eventually, in the year 1313, Boccaccio was born out of matrimony in Paris and led his growing up years in Florence. Because of him being had an illegitimate birth, he experienced a lot of humiliation by the society in which he lived. Thus, he led a life of a playboy during his youth years, though he was also interested heavily in reading, the classic Greek and Roman literature in particular.
Having been heavily influenced by these works, he grew up into becoming a greatly open-minded individually with a number of innovative ideas and philosophies, which were mostly contradictory to those days in which he penned books. In addition, he also is known to have stated in Italy at a time when humanism as a concept started spreading across the Italian society. Ultimately, he started believing strongly that men were a greatly fortunate set of souls who were born to just enjoy their lives with no kind of suffering and to live for themselves and not for the sake of anybody else – not even God. It is upon this strong opinion that Boccaccio’s Decameron is founded on.
In the Prome given in Decameron, Boccaccio highlights all those people to whom his work is intended, as he states “Who will deny, that it should be given, for all that it may be worth, to gentle ladies much rather than to men?(Boccaccio, 1955, Vol. 1, p. 2).” This clearly denotes that his book is wroth devoting to women than men and he substantiates this opinion by stating:
“Within their soft bosoms, betwixt fear and shame, they harbor secret fire of love, and how much of strength concealment adds to those fires moreover, restricted by the will, the caprice, the commandment of fathers, mothers, brothers, and husbands, confined part of their time within life of vacant ease, , unless it be dispelled by a change of ideas (Boccaccio, 1955, Vol. 1, p. 2).”
Boccaccio is extremely empathetic of the sad and pitiable situation of women and the kind of mental and physical strain that they undergo because of such circumstances. According to his quotes in the Prome of the book, as mentioned above, it is very clear that the author has visualized women being the primary readers of his work and thus fills his work with great degree of empathy, consideration, care, and understanding – all directed towards women.
Boccaccio also supports female sex by depicting a number of female characters whom he portrays as being highly audacious, valiant, and adequately passionate in their pursuit to satiating their desire for sex. Rather than feeling shameful about this intense desire of theirs for sex, the female characters in Boccaccio’s work are brave enough to exclaim their desire before the fathers as well as in the open public, which ultimately denotes the awakening of female cognizance and awareness.
There are a number of tales in Boccaccio’s Decameron that aptly suit this subject. For example, if the Seventh story of the Sixth day is considered, the female character of Madonna Flippa, having been discovered by her husband in company with her lover, is summoned before the court of law. While in the courtroom, Flipppa states, “If he has ever had of me as much as sufficed for his solace; what was I to cast it to the dogs? Is it not much better to bestow it on a gentleman that loves me more dearly than himself, than to suffer it to come to nought or worse (Boccaccio, 1955, Vol. 2, p. 78).”
The above declaration of Flippa is a rather audacious declaration! We can also find a similar audacious female character in the Tenth tale of the Fifth day as well, wherein she was caught redhandedly by her husband, being in company of a boy in their bedroom. Upon being confronted by her husband in that situation, the lady complains to her husband by stating that “For, granted that thou givest me garments and shoes to my mind, thou knowest how otherwise ill bested I am, and how long it is since last thou didst lie with me; and far lie far had I go foot and in rages, and have thy benevolence abed, (Boccaccio, 1955, Vol. 2, p. 78).”
It is undoubtedly clear from the above analysis that Decameron of Boccaccio is possibly one of the first work of literature, while being unique in its own way, supports and empathizes with women as opposed to a majority of Middle-age literature that is more male centric. The degree of consideration and sympathy dedicated by Boccaccio in this work actually is believed to have served as an awakening and liberty for not just women alone, but also to the entire humankind. Boccaccio’s work and consideration towards women is absolutely commendable.
Works Cited
Boccaccio, Giovanni. Decameron. New York: Start Publishing LLC, 2012. Web. 21 February 2016. <https://books.google.co.in/books?id=3DzsAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=decameron&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=decameron&f=false>.
—. The Decameron (Vols. 1 & 2). Vol. 1. London: J. M. Dant & Sons Ltd, 1955. Print.
