Category: Post 3

Women Outwitting Men in the Decameron; 3.9 & 2.5

The Decameron is a collection of stories or novellas by the 14th-century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio. In this series of stories, women outwitting men is something that happened pretty often. Two of these instances happen to fall on Day 3 story 9, and Day 2 story 5. 

    On the second day, fifth story, Fiammetta is the storyteller, and the protagonist is Andreuccio. The story starts off with him going down to Naples with his merchant friends to buy horses. Andreuccio takes 500 gold florins with him, but despite the horses being cheap, he failed to strike a bargain with anyone. He kept opening his purse for everyone to see, and this was his way of saying that he meant business when it came to buying one of these horses. Consequently, the horse traders were not the only ones to see the purse because a young and beautiful Sicilian woman named Madonna Fiordaliso also sees it, and decides that she wants to take it from him. She has an older woman with her that recognizes Andreuccio, and the older woman states that she knows everything about him. Fiordaliso uses all the information that her companion stated to devise a devious plan, inviting him into her home, and tricking him into believing that they are siblings. When he goes to the restroom, he falls into her trap, quite literally because he steps onto a loose plank and drops into an alley. He is left high and dry, while his wallet stayed in her home.

          On the third day, ninth story, Neifile is the storyteller, and the protagonist is Gillette. She is the daughter of a doctor that Count Roussillon has on standby. She is very infatuated and crazy in love with his son, Bertrand. Unfortunately, both of their fathers pass away, and Bertrand moves away to Paris, while she stays home. She is very distraught by this but somehow, fortune is on her side when the king of France has a chest tumor. She used this as a bargaining tool to finally reunite with Bertrand. Luckily for both Gillette and the King, she watched and learned her father’s medical skills. By successfully curing him in one week, she was able to get married to whomever she chose, which unsurprisingly was Bertrand. However, he wasn’t too happy with this because she was a working-class woman and not of a higher class. Ultimately, the only way for him to live with her is if she were to have his kids and a ring from him (which he thinks would never happen.) Since he is actually cheating on her with someone, she tricks him into giving her his ring & sleeping with her by pretending to be her. 

          All things considered, Boccaccio seemed to have been feminist, as seen by a lot of these stories. He tends to showcase women as coming out on top in most predicaments that they’re in, or doing things that at that time were probably frowned upon (like Fiordaliso taking Andreuccio’s wallet). He also showcases these women as very loyal, in these stories, enduring things that many of us would have most likely walked away from. These two stories differ in this aspect because 2.5 shows a woman outwitting a man negatively, to get his wallet, while 3.9 shows a woman outwitting a man to get a positive outcome. As Monica Donaggio stated in Implications of Gender Reversal Disguise, “The idea of “putting oneself to the test/mettersi alla prova” is one of the main narrative situations in the Decameron. The character is able to use his or her disguise to accomplish something specific, but, as Donaggio carefully notes, when this is done, the character is able to return to his or her previous identity (which hasn’t ever really been forgotten).“ In these stories Boccaccio had these women go through great lengths and detailed plans to get what they want from these men, masking their true intentions.

Citation;

  • (L.G.) Donaggio, Monica. “Il Travestimento nel Decameron,” Studi sul Decameron. Firenze: Le Lettere, 1988.

Blog Post 3: Disguises and Their Effect on Women

Illustration from the Decameron, Day 2 (Sicurano pleading to the Sultan)
Miniature from The Decameron by Master Jean Mansel (1430-1450) and copyist Guillebert de Mets, Parigi, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, 5070.

Throughout The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio, I noticed several recurring themes, but in particular, the topic of disguises caught my attention. Characters in the story often took part in changing their identity in order to experiment or get things that they longed for.

One example of this in the male perspective is Day 3, Story 2. In this story, recounted by Pampinea, King Agilulf finds out that the groom impersonates him in order to fall in love with his wife, and she knew nothing of this. Because of this, the King goes on a mission to uncover who the man is, but the groom cleverly gets away with it for some time. However, the King learns of the groom’s scheme. On line 24 of Day 3, Story 2, Pampinea states, “So, angered and incensed beyond measure by the trick which, he saw, had been played upon him, he resumed his mantle and quitted the room with the intention of privily detecting the offender, deeming that he must belong to the palace, and that, whoever he might be, he could not have quitted it. [ 024 ].” The King then warns the townspeople of the groom’s trick in order to save his and his wife’s reputation.

An example of this in the female perspective is Day 2, Story 9. In this story, narrated by Filomena, a merchant name Bernabò places a bet with Ambroguiolo on his wife’s loyalty to their relationship. Ambroguiolo wins and Bernabò seeks revenge on Zinevra, his wife, for committing adultery by demanding a servant to kill her, though Ambroguiolo was in fact deceiving him. As a result, she dresses as a man in order to convince the servant to not do so and to lie to Bernabò. She later finds out that Ambroguiolo was the one who made this lie against her and bring him and her husband to the sultan. She pleads for forgiveness from her husband and Ambroguiolo is murdered for lying. Filomena (Day 2, Story 9) states, “…Sicurano, weeping, threw herself on her knees at his feet, and discarding the tones, as she would fain have divested herself of the outward semblance, of a man, said: [068]. ‘ My lord, that forlorn, hapless Zinevra am I, falsely and foully slandered by this traitor Ambrogiuolo, and by my cruel and unjust husband delivered over to his servant to slaughter and cast out as a prey to the wolves; for which cause I have now for six years been a wanderer on the face of the earth in the guise of a man.’ [069].”

Overall, these two stories are similar in the sense that the two individuals were successful in using the power of disguise in order to get something that they need/want. Nevertheless, it is clear what role men and women each play in society. In this instance, Zinerva had to disguise herself as a man in order to save herself from being murdered, while the groom disguised himself as another man for his own sexual pleasure. The Decameron web states, “When a male dresses as a female, he is ‘lowering’ his status; when a female dresses as a male, she is ‘raising’ hers.” (Decameron Web | Themes & Motifs, n.d.). Clearly, being a woman during this time was looked down upon and were submissive to men, and Boccacio may or may not have agreed with this. He wrote several stories showing women having to disguise themselves as males in order to “save themselves” from doing something that they did not want to do. Evidently, he understood the hardships that women faced, but it’s difficult to state his overall position.

Citations:

  • Donaggio, Monica. “Il Travestimento nel Decameron.” Studi sul Decameron. Firenze: Le Lettere, 1988.
  • Decameron Web | Texts. (n.d.). The Decameron: Day 3, Story 2. https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/texts/DecShowText.php?lang=eng&myID=nov0302&expand=day03
  • Decameron Web | Texts. (n.d.-b). The Decameron: Day 2, Story 9. https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/texts/DecShowText.php?lang=eng&myID=nov0209&expand=day02