The Decameron as a Satire of 14th Century Society

 The decameron is a satirical novel by Baccaccio comprising a collection of over one hundred short stories. The title, “Decameron,” literally simply means, “The ten day’s work.” In his story, Baccaccio brought to us the achievement of the Renaissance movement that lead to the end of the Black Death, a plaque outbreak in Florence that causes the death of many people. The ten people comprised of seven young ladies and three young lovers who had moved away from their city to sought refuge from the plaque. They live there for 15 days by which they participated in story telling base on various subject affecting the society. A king or a queen was named to govern their meeting and give the theme of the story for the ten days (Aberth, 2005). The stories had so many subject covered, including adventurous, tragic comic, and contemporary issues. Baccaccio reflect the nature of human in its heroic virtue and weakness base on the characters, from the noble personalities and to the foolish low class members of the society. The narrative also depicts the human intelligence that people employ to come out of a difficult situation (Cantor, 2007). The narrative is a satire that brings things the way they are in a normal life situation. There is no indication of any moral intentions directed to a particular individual or group by the author.  

The love stories that end happily after some difficulties

 The story of Federigo, a young weathy man, revealed how he loved a married woman, Giovanna with persion. All his weath, land and his valuable falcon are not as important as his lady and choosing to give them up all for her, is a better option to him than to lose her. Federigo host many “tournament” events in her honour and sending many lavish gift, but Giovanna is a woman of vartue and does not response to Federigo’s advances, but she just opted to remain faithful to his husband. Eventualy it happens that federigo spends all of his money on her and force to retire to his only remaining farm where he lives in abject poverty. He only had a Falcon that was most valuable in the land. It reached a time when Giovanni’s husband felt ill and dies and went to her estate near Federigo’s farm. Her son had also gotted acquinted to Federigo when he suddenly felt ill. However, Federigo helped her by giving out his falcon as demanded. The son sucummbs to his illness after a while, and she fortunately resort to marry Federigo despite his state of poverty. Federigo then regain his lose leading to a happy ending. This story shows the cortecy in their character to cope with life situation (Aberth, 2005).

The story of Ricciardo and caterina (v.4)with the repetitive use of the obscene nihtingale metaphor represent the natural things that happen in one’s life. This reflect the sense of emotion and feelings that one has towards the other member of the opposite sex. Catherina and Ghismonda are two fellows who are so much in love, but they are over protected by their parents. Both the two were got in flagrante delicto by their respective fathers on  arrange clandestine meetings with their lovers that evidence the existence their relationship. The betrayed fathers bear a stricking likeness to one another. Messer Lizio had to understand the situation of his son Ricciardo, he was shocked when he told Ricciardo that, his love and trust, he had in him did not merithis act (Kuhns, 2005). This echo that of Ghismonda, tellimg his daughther that the kindness he had for her does not merit the outrange and shame she had caused him. The parternal understanding replaces the gelous range of tracredi resultig to impromptu wedding on the varanda.

Cipolla is so resourceful in language, and his character depicts his personality as one who can deal with hard situation in life­­­­­­. He has the capacity of ingenuity in telling stories wit several meaning and the quick-witted capability to confront surprise situation in real life. He demonstrates that he has all the guild and technical agility of the story teller” (Kuhns, 2005). This shows that he can wave people to believe his own ideas easily using his ability of a flexible mind to make a trick.

Baccaccio also provide critics about patriarchy, women’s marginalization and the dominance and the abuse of the Church. “Large numbers of women and men abandoned their city” because they imagine that the wrath of God would only be arouse on those who found themselves around the city walls.

Conclusion

The Black Death helps to spawn the many social movements in the fourteen century and beyond concerning social realism. The social realism has helped to shape the renaissance and continues to be seen to this day.