1. The Tenth Story of the Tenth Day: Why is Griselda being tested?
Griselda is being tested to prove her loyalty to her husband. He put her loyalty to test by pretending to divorce, kill their children and find a new wife. However, he realized that she stayed loyal through those test and realized that she was a good wife.
2. Compare the frame tales in the Decameron, and The Thousand and One Nights. In each case, what is the reason for telling stories? Do the stories accomplish the purpose for which they are intended? How important is the relationship between the tale and the teller?
In both tales the stories were used as a distraction. However, in The Thousand and One Nights the stories had a purpose of not only keeping the king from killing more woman, the stories were used to eventually change that person. In the Decameron the stories were being told to take their mind off of the plague that was going on around them, the stories were used as break from reality. To summarize the stories were used in The Thousand and One Nights to change stop the king, they weren’t intended to be stories being told for pleasure, in the Decameron they were used more for pleasure of the stories.
3. In Laustic, what does the nightingale symbolize? Explain your answer.
The nightingale symbolized love. Love between the wife and the best friend. Once the king captured and killed the nightingale it symbolized that the relationship through the windows with the best friend was no longer. However, when she sent him the small casket with the nightingale inside, it showed that she loved him and wanted him to know that.
The 1001 nights was definitely had more of a life or death sort of requirement. Because the longer she could tell the stories the longer she could live. I wonder if through all of her stories she did not really intend on changing the kings hear, but rather it was a purely accidental side effect. In the Decameron it was as you said more for entertainment, but it almost seemed like they were testing the other tellers views on morality, because many topics were brought up which I think they wanted to know how others felt about such events or characters which were depicted. I sort of wonder if the bird being sent to the knight could be interpreted as insult to injury, almost a “your not worth anymore effort, because now the bird is dead.”