The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron

Giovanni Boccaccio was born in Paris, in 1313, the illegitimate son of a Florentine merchant and a French noblewoman. Reared in Florence, he was sent to study accounting in Naples around 1323. He abandoned accounting for canon law and gave that up for classical and scientific studies. Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron could be summed up in one word - sex. Sex is found in nearly every one of the seven hundred odd pages it seems, and its depiction varies from humorous to serious. If I were to try and summarize the varying representations of sex in the book I would end writing a book in itself. Hence, instead of summarizing I will instead focus my essay on the elaboration of what I feel are the three main influences on the depiction of sexual intercourse in the narrative. First, the freedom of sex in the narrative is a direct result of the ideals that accompanied the plague. Second, The Decameron is influenced by the widespread norms that existed towards lust, sex and marriage during that time. And thirdly, Boccaccio's personal beliefs must have played an important role in the construction of sex within the tales. While each of these influences are separate and distinct, it also important to note that each of them are intertwined and always manipulating each other. Therefore, it is impossible to attribute specific perspectives on sex within Boccaccio's stories to one influence, and I can only make educated

Finally, after accounting for the two major outside influences on the depiction of sex within the stories we are left with only Boccaccio himself to deal with as a major contributor. It is rather difficult to pinpoint exactly what exactly Boccaccio is attempting to convey about sex throughout the narrative because instead of a philosophical argument we only have a compilation of stories. Therefore, Boccaccio's personal beliefs must be interpreted through identification of currents of thought within the various stories. All throughout The Decameron, women and men are portrayed as too weak to be able to reject sexual desire. While it's already been established that many people really did not care to reject this desire, there is still something to be said about the belief that there is an inherent weakness within people. There are many quotes that can be taken from the narrative to exemplify this thought. For example in day two, story eight we hear, “ The fact is that I am unable, in my husband's absence, to withstand the promptings of the flesh and the powers of Love, which are so irresistible that even the strongest of men, not to mention frail women like myself, have often succumbed to them in the past and will always continue to do so (150).” Or how about when it is said, “all things are subject to his sway (love)(274)” or that “Neither you nor I can resist the power of Love (295).” Overall, it appears as if Boccaccio is pointing out that as humans ...