1. The Tenth Story of the Tenth Day: Why is Griselda being tested?

This was the tale of Gualtieri who picked a wife but does not necessarily believe in the need for having a wife. Thus he tries to show that his wife (Griselda, would not stick with him through thick and thin. He first forces the notion that he killed their two children, and still she stays by his side. He then tries to get her to believe that he has found love else where, yet still she persists to be totally dedicated to their marriage. So after his various escapades of testing Griselda he finds that she truly is worth being his wife and reintroduces her to the two children that he never killed. The test he seemed to be poking at women and had a tone of male superiority, such as commanding of women. It seems to me that the mane test was how much hurt a woman could take from her husband and still remain 100% dedicated to him alone. Interesting story, but certainly not expectable action by modern standards.

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?

I think what was most interesting bout both stories is that there are female perspectives being told, because 1001 nights is told by a female and Decameron is told from the perspective of 7 women and three men. In 1001 nights the stories are an aversion of death from the king, but Decameron is not necessarily an aversion but a way to pass time as the tellers stay hidden from the Black Death. There is certainly a form of gender bias in the stories, where females told tales with happy endings and males spoke stories where women played tricks on men. I do believe there is a degree of importance between the tale and the teller, because the stories tell the views of the teller played out using various characters and plots. I do think the stories give the intended perspective which get the readers to ponder on real issues through fictional stories.

3. In Laustic, what does the nightingale symbolize? Explain your answer.

Well, in the story the nightingale held some “love” based symbolic meaning. The poor nightingale was killed because Marie used it as an excuse for why she would leave her and her husbands bed at night. Because she claimed she would go to her window at night to her the beautiful songs of the bird, her husband had the bird caught and killed it in front of Marie to dissolve any further disturbance. The death of the bird, symbolized the death of her love affair. The end of the bird meant the end of their meetings, and when Marie had the bird sent to the neighbor knight of the affair, he understood that the beauty of their relationship was dead. I am not sure why the knight kept the birds body, but maybe it symbolized the love he could not have or the love he always wants to remember.