Some thoughts about Bocaccio's and his book "Decameron"

godflesh (73)in #book • 6 years ago (edited)

Love is an artistic problem that excites the creative thought of Giovanni Bocaccio. The natural manifestation of feelings is an essential sign of the new Renaissance essence of man. The feeling of inner freedom is also reflected in the world of emotions. Often they are impulsive and rude. Especially in times of crisis, when man is divided mentally with life, the desire for sensual pleasure grows. The joy of experiencing is of particular value, and the only way for the soul to touch the memory is the living tale of that beautiful moment of love delight in which man discovers the hell and the paradise of his soul. The narrator is embodied in the storylines, they are full of life, and the reader comes to life with unforgettable scenes from Giovanni Bocaccio's "Decameron".

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In 1348, the plague was flooded in Florence. Fear stiffens human souls. The depressive state of general mass psychosis, Giovanni Bocaccio, uses as a kind of psychological motivation the narrative action of his heroes. They leave Florence and secluded in a country house, trying to forget the horror their fellow citizens experience, remembering beautiful and interesting days from the near-cloudy past. These are actually seven maidens and three young men from prominent Patrician families. For ten days, each of them tells an interesting story, defined in genre as a novel. The total number of Bocaccio's novels in Decameron is a hundred. Hence the very title of the work - the "ten-day", which comes from the Greek language, ie. Decameron. The origins for writing the work are different. There are elements of French fables, eastern legends and colorful stories from the life of Florence, long transformed into fairy-tale legends and traditions. But the artistic idea, once born in the creator's mind, has its own inner development. It reflects the dynamics and natural rhythm of life with all the jealousy and colorfulness of manners during that distant epoch in which Giovanni Bocaccio lives. He spoke casually about everything surrounding him. It does not hide spicy detail from the sensual intentions and desires of its heroes. Laughter purifies the soul. The nightmare experiences of the plague have remained aside. Man is born again - complete and wholeheartedly committed to life and his temptations.

Boccaccio's heroes in Decameron are representatives of various social strata: citizens, peasants, merchants, craftsmen, thieves, prostitutes, bishops, and monks. The painting is colorful and versatile. All heroes, regardless of the social situation, artistically embody the vital nature of the Renaissance era. They are people of flesh and blood - bright and original as characters. Everyone with their human personality. Love is a leading topic in most of the novels. But this holy feeling, almost forbidden by the church in the Middle Ages, was interpreted by a new, unexpected angle. The woman is an equal participant in the love dialogue. Sometimes it even has a leading role. Funny and pathetic are the medieval preconceptions about the "chastity belts", which, with exquisite irony, rejects Boccaccio. Others are the mores, and the love experience is different. The author of Decameron is looking for a humane explanation of the natural nature imposed by nature between man and woman. The harmonious union between the spirit and the flesh implies an active equality of male and female vitality in the full experience of the love feeling. Dynastic and caste prejudices, inherited from the Middle Ages, deprive the woman of freedom of love choice. It is part of the world of intimate, but rather as a subject of possession by the man. Her sensual nature is suppressed, and the woman herself - deliberately isolated from public life.

6 years ago in #book by godflesh (73)

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aydogdy (57) 6 years ago

The most embarrassing element of the Decameron becomes the ending. And not to say that Boccaccio was not familiar with the composition of the work, not without reason the last novel of each day tells Dioneo to a fun joke in the end to smooth the impression of sad or failed stories. But in the tenth day of Dionea catches the bloody madness. The history of Griselda is not entertaining, moreover, does not teach anything. It is clear that in more strict times it has become the most successful, as "the humility of the flesh" (as well as the psyche) practice with much more fanaticism than easy sex, but the meaning of the story still eludes. The Marquis of Salutsky, whom no one forced to marry a simple woman, chooses a slightly feeble-minded Griselda, who carries all his bullying. When he pretends he killed her children, she's resigned. And this "test" lasts for ten years. When he throws her out, she gets over it. When he pretends to want to marry his own daughter, Griselda wishes them happiness. What is strange, "Griselda complex" is called sexual attraction of the father to the daughter, although it is not clear and here the behavior of Griselda and in General in the novel the father did not want to fuck the daughter, he continued to mock the wife.
Boccaccio himself also says that the Marquis should have been subjected to punishment. But why, then, Boccaccio did not change the story at will? And in any case, if he was well aware of the impact of the last story on the audience, why all this bacchanalia between the masochistic with Munchausen syndrome by proxy and a long-term crazy sadist, put in the end? Ten storytellers return to the enchanted city and, apparently, the novel "accept what is happening" should indicate that they all have to die. And it's a very scary ending. It is unlikely customers of the book didn't understand it.
The fact that events occur during the plague can be not only a method of contrast, but also a justification for why other relatives of young people do not. The benefit of it is hints, and also it is directly said that people have ceased to worry about the dead. This is a double dance on the bones: it is not an escape from the plague, it is an escape from memories and from previous life. And the fact that young people are returning to the blacked-out city indicates that these two weeks were a respite, an attempt on their own to arrange a little Paradise before death.
And that's why I want to believe that Boccaccio was just wrong. What was required to put something in final fantasy has to slip, so he took some people's nonsense without much meaning, intended only to please the most basest human qualities, eager unquestioning obedience to himself. Or this story he was forced to deliver, precisely because aware of what it gives the effect that the mouths of the characters he voiced his disgust to this story. And the characters obey their demiurge-Creator. Because the characters went through a period of plague and continued to pluck the fruits of love, while they built their Renaissance Paradise.

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metametheus (66) 6 years ago

I think your critique is well-founded, but placed in context of what was happening in Florence at the time - aside from the plague - make this work a great example of the kind of creative thinking that was happening in this city at this time.

Don't forget, until this era Rome was the cultural centre. Boccaccio, like so many other creatives, was helping Florence to stand as an independent city-state, and challenge the autocratic rule of Christendom.

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literaturkritik (51) 6 years ago

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Kind regards, Literaturkritik