Girselda is being tested by her husband to  prove her worth. Gualtieri  is persuaded to take a wife by his vassals  and puts his new wife to his test. He feigns to kill their children, divorces her, and even makes it appear to take a new wife. But Grisalda is patient and Gualtieri sees how loyal she has been and rewards her so.

The frame for the Decameron and The Thousand and One Nights is very important. In Thousand and One Nights the stories are being told like parables for people to learn from. To try and change the kings mind and make him realize his errors. The Decameron felt more like a drama to me.  With each story teller trying to distract themselves from the plague around them.

In the story Laustic the nightingale symbolizes the love between the wife and the other knight. While its free the lady is happy and is able to love the other night through their windows. When the husband murders the nightingale it not only represents the end of the lovers but of the ladies hopes or fantasies.

1. In the tenth story of the tenth day, I find Gualtieri treated Griselda poorly. Gaultier did this to test her patience. He knew that he was a “hot head’ so to speak. He wanted to make sure that she could withstand his antics because he knew what he would put her through so testing her was the best way to see what kind of patience she really had.
2. When comparing these two stories there are two different reasons for each tale. They seem to start building up into more and more stories. When the Black Plague was just coming around the in the Decamoron story the people where told to flee to the hills to escape the plague. Struggling through life and death seemed to be the theme of this story. This story is told in the eyes of a women which sets off the vibe that women are more adaptable to harmful situations than men which was not right for the time frame of the story. In “The Thousand and One Nights,’ I find that it is the opposite. Women are not to be treated with any respect what so ever until death is warded off in the process of the story. I feel that the tone of this story showed a better picture of the women in that day and age.
3. It symbolizes the love between two people, a wife and a knight. When good things come she knows that it is okay to be with him but when bad things arise she is quick to determine that their love can be no more.

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.

1. Griselda is being tested, because according to her husband, Gualtieri, he “wished to show [Griselda] how to be a wife, to teach these people ho to choose and keep a wife, and to guarantee [his] own peace and quiet.” Gualtieri wanted to make sure his wife was perfectly patient.

2. In both The Decameron and The Thousand and One Nights, telling stories is the main event happening in each. In The Decameron, it is a way to pass the time for the ten young people who are trying to get their minds off of the horrible effects of the black plague. In The Thousand and One Nights, stories are used to get the king’s attention away from his destructive streak. In this way the two uses of stories are the same, in that they are being used to distract people from a bad situation. However, in the first case it is intentional, and in the second the person who is affected is not aware of the situation he is in. The tellers in both stories are aware of what they are trying to achieve and both do so successfully.

3. The nightingale is a symbol of the unattainable love between the two neighbors. This is seen in when the husband asks her for an explanation for her sitting by the window. She says that she likes to hear the nightingale sing, when in actuality it is to spend time with the knight she loves. When her husband kills the bird, it represents his putting an end to the relationship. When the other knight receives the bird and makes a golden coffin for it, this shows the ultimate end to the love and possible relationship, but also how important it was to both people, because gold shows importance.

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.

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

The wedding day of Gualieri and Griselda. He has her strip naked in front of everyone and redress in new clothes.

Griselda’s patience is being tested by her husband, the Marquis Gualtieri. This story has strong biblical undertones. Ephesians 5:22 states, “Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord,’ and Griselda follows the commands of her husband without resentment and with the upmost grace (p. 1360). When Gualtieri complains how disgruntled his subjects are about their daughter, she tells him to deal with her as he sees best, referencing the Virgin Mary’s response to Gabriel, “Be it unto me according to thy word.’ Then she hands over her children as instructed, as Abraham did his son Isaac. After learning that Gualtieri planned to divorce her and kick her out, she tells him, “It is to God and to yourself that I owe whatever standing I possess…for it has not escaped me that you took me naked as on the day I was born,’ (p. 1361). This alludes to Job, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord have, and the Lord hath taken away.’ That the readers do not even understand what exactly possessed Gualtieri to test Griselda is even less information than what we received in the story of Job, because we knew it was a challenge set by Satan. However, it is a similar situation in that Griselda perseveres through the trials her lord sets with poise.

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?

The reason for telling the stories in the Decameron and the Thousand and One Nights are to escape death. In the Decameron, the tellers are trying to escape that death is all around them in the form of the Plague. Enjoying themselves telling stories takes their minds off of it. In the Thousand and One Nights, Shahrazad is trying to deter the imminent death she and her sisters face at the hand of the king. She is also trying to change the king’s way of thinking, steering him through the morals of her stories, which she succeeds at in the end. In Decameron, the lessons are open-ended, each allowing the reader to interpret and take the values which fit them.

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

In Laustic, the nightingale’s song symbolizes love, and it’s death represents how that love can never come to fruition. The lady tells her husband, “Anyone who does not hear the song of the nightingale knows none of the joys of this world.’ In other words, the nightingale’s song represents love, which is the origin of joy. Those who do not feel love are not living happily. The nightingale’s death meant the end of their nightly meetings, since she no longer had the excuse of the nightingale keeping her up at night. However, the death did not mean the end of their love. The knight encased the bird’s body in gold showing that even thought they could not be together physically their doomed love would forever be cherished and held to the highest standard.

1.Gualtieri was not one who necessarily believed in marriages a whole lot. He wanted a girl that would basically change her whole ways for him and did not believe that this kind of girl existed (which I’m pretty sure they don’t).  Anyway, he ends up marrying a girl named Griselda even though she seemed to me like she would be the least likely of all the candidates for Gualtieri.  The test in the story was when Gualtieri was trying to make his point that women are not right for getting married to and treated Griselda like crap for a long time to try and get her to break.  Griselda never did break but rather acted very obediently and well mannered to her husband.  Basically all of this testing was for Gualtieri to test her limits of being a wife and to try and prove his point that women are not worth marrying.

2.  I think that both of the stories, One Thousand and One Nights and Decameron, were meant to allow readers to pass some time and still allow somehow throw in a hidden lesson into the reading.  In One Thousand and One Nights Sharazad is able to keep the king from killing the young women and is able to gain his trust.  In Decameron, it is kind of a different story because it does not try to really accomplish anything it just lets the readers mind wander.  I think the bridge between the tale and the teller is very important because I think in stories such as these the teller has to find a way to keep the reader intrigued while also throwing in a lesson through a metaphor usually.

3.The nightingale symbolizes a love that could never be.  At night the wife would sneak of bed with her husband to go see her knight.  When confronted why she left, she would say that she liked listening to the nightingales song.  The husband, being very weary of the situation, had the nightingale killed so that the lady would not have a reason to leave anymore.  After it was killed the lady gave the nightingale corpse to her knight to tell him that she cannot see him anymore.  I think that this symbolizes the meaning of karma and how they apply to morals.  The fact that she was cheating on her husband basically and lying about it, makes it very ironic when she gives the dead bird to her behind the scenes boyfriend.

1. I think the initial reason Griselda is being tested by her husband, the King, is because he finds the idea of testing her amusing and fun. However, later the reason becomes that he wanted to make see if she would stay loyal to him in any and every situation. In the beginning of the story when he is talking about marriage with his friends he says, ‘My friends, you are pressing me to do something that I had always set my mind firmly against…’ ( 1357) From this quote we can see that he was skeptical about getting married in the first place. I think that when people are skeptical they feel the need to test whatever or whomever they are skeptical about, and that is exactly what Griselda’s husband did. He tried to make it like a joke at first but it had more meaning to him than that. To his surprise Griselda “passed’ all his tests, I must say they were pretty horrific in my opinion, and for this he took her back so to speak.

2. Both the tales told in the Decameron and The Thousand and One Nights were meant to pass the time. In The Thousand and One Nights they were meant to pass time in order to keep the King from having time to kill someone. In the Decameron the people were telling tales to pass time in order to keep people from thinking about the black plague. I think that in both cases they sort of worked. The relationship between the tale and the teller is very important because I think it helps give meaning to the tale. When a tale has more meaning, more people listen and reflect on what the tale is trying to tell them.

3. I think that the nightingale represents joy. In the story the wife talks about how she loves the songs of the nightingale but what she is really talking about is staying up to look across to her neighbor. However, I think the nightingale was a representation of the joy she felt when she thought about being in love with the knight. Towards the end of the story it says, “The lady took the tiny corpse, wept profusely and cursed those who had betrayed the nightingale by constructing the traps and snares for they had taken so much joy from her’ (1204). When her husband killed the nightingale he killed the hope of a relationship with the knight that she had. The knight buried the bird in a gold casket because he wanted to preserve the joy that she brought to him even though he could not have her.

Discussion Questions 9 — De France; Decameron

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

Griselda was being tested to truly see her loyalty as a wife. Gualtieri pretends to divorce her and pretends to kill their children and even pretends to have a new wife come into their home just to test her loyalty. Griselda was passive through the whole thing and Gualtieri gives up and admits to Griselda that he was pretending the whole time.

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 the Decameron the stories are being told to help them forget about the plague that has been brought down on them. In The Thousand and One Nights, the stories are also being told to help someone ignore or forget an impending death. The stories in The Thousand and One Nights were being directed towards Shahrayar and putting off and distracting him killing Shahrazad just like in the Decameron where the stories were just that, a distraction.

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

In Laustic birds represent joy and hope, the married wife uses a nightingale to send out messages to her loved one. What I took from this was that she didn’t find Joy in her current loved one and was unhappy, because nightingales usually represent yearning and pain.