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Literary devices used in the plague
Bubonic plague during the Renaissance era and how it affected literature
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: What is woman perception for Boccaccio , How women represented in Decameron,Why is sexuality used in the Decameron?What are the differences between Chaucer and Boccaccio?What are the references of Dante take places in the Decameron INTRODUCTION About DECAMERON “The Decameron Stories” written by Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio between years 1348-1351 take place in the period of plague epidemic which devastated Europe. He narrates how plague was suffered in Firenze and reactions of people against collective deaths as a close observer at introduction of the book to his readers. Aldo S .Bernardo states “ In short, the plaque in the “Decameron” resembles the voice of Augustine in Petrarch’s “ Secretum” reminding his protégé not only of the fragility of human condition but of the fearfulness of the final moment of life and of the evanescent nature of human love.’’ At brief introduction of Boccaccio, we feel how the great epidemic which terrorized humans and confronted them with death, deeply affected human’s psychology and shaken their value judgments and beliefs to their …show more content…
Importance of lost human being showed up. In this respect, plague which spread fear until second half of 14th century was at the same time important for planting seeds of Humanist Philosophy and Renaissance movement. In 14th century, humanism first started to develop in Italy. Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio of Italian origin were pioneers of humanism thought. Mariengala Causa-Steindler and Thomas Mauch express that “ Boccaccio loved to experiment and was not afraid to challenge traditional bounds. They implement by interpreting “ His trust in the freedom of fantasy made him unafraid of the overstatements of the grotesque.’’ (Causa-Steindler, Mauch,
There are many different roles for women shown in “The Canterbury Tales” and “The Decameron”. Both books take place around the same time frame, 1300AD. “The Canterbury Tales”, takes place in London, England and “The Decameron” takes place in Florence, Italy. It would be just to think that since both books take place in a western civilization, both books would reflect the same morals and daily life styles. This is not the case at all. Throughout this paper I will attempt to show how these two books portrayed a totally different lifestyle.
Established in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to counter the limited ideals of medieval scholasticism, Renaissance Humanism were educational and social reform ideals that sought to emphasize individualism as a central value in contrast to religious beliefs. Humanists revered the dignity of human kind and called for a life of virtuous action. The writings of Petrarch and Pico exemplify humanist thought by displaying the values of self-knowledge, individualism, and studying lessons from the past; appealing to the authorities of the Greek and Latin classics by Cicero, Vergil, Horace, Plato and Livy. Petrarch and Pico’s thinking can be constituted as a marked departure from medieval attitudes and beliefs, due to the origins of humanist resources being classical and biblical rather stemmed from medieval philosophers and theologians.
Disease may primarily be a health deteriorating agents but it will also bring social change. In The Decameron, Giovanni Boccaccio elaborates on the social changes and extraordinary behavior of the people in the City of Florence during the 14th century A.D. Similarly Thucydides tells of his personal experience with the plague in Athens during the 5th century B.C. in "The Plague"; History of the Peloponnesian War. He focuses on the effects it had on peoples behaviors and religious beliefs. By comparing Boccaccio and Thucydides work, one is able to understand the perspective each one has on the links between the spread of the disease and social change, while Boccaccio focuses on the people whose behavior caused them to abandon others to death and this exemplifying a lack of morality, Thucydides is more concerned with the change in religious beliefs caused by the plague.
Aberth’s comprehensive analysis regards the reactions of a diverse variety of people during the era of the Black Plague. The geographical documents contribute to the overall non-discriminatory sense of The Black Death by unmistakably agreeing that the plague consumed every country, town, and home within its grasp. Whether it was a large town or a small community of homes, the plague could disturb any area. While different professionals have varying ideas of where the plague originated, it is collectively agreed upon between the geographical contributors that the plague, at its peak, had extended to every region. This understanding suggests that even those who chose to leave their homes in an attempt to escape the plague would probably not be spared. One writer in particular represents the overall non-discriminatory sense by proclaiming, “How amazingly does it [the plague] pursue the people of each house,” (18).
Wray, S. K. (2004). Boccaccio and the doctors: Medicine and compassion in the face of the plague. Journal of Medieval History 30(3), 301-322. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Decameron is a "fictional record of the stories that ten Florentine men and women told to entertain
The question of women’s agency, in moving history holds a long history dating back to the ancients, then turning away from that in small degrees during the Renaissance. Most notable in this change comes from the capital of education, the Italianate states. Home to rife differences in attitudes towards women, it also hosts the origins of the discussion around women’s purpose. The current field largely finds inspiration from writers during the American 1970s women’s rights movement, and it shows in the modern origins and their influence. However, the field’s creation date loom farther back than such a recent movement, easily dating back to Plato and Aristotle. Beginning with a negative view of the female sex as inferiority, the study of women and their rights progressed to Giovanni Boccaccio’s creation of female biography in 1374, and further developed with a female voice in 1405 under the pen of Christine de Pizan. Clearly, none of the prestigious scholars could have predicted the alterations and growth of the discussion surrounding a people group often considered subhuman.
The Black Death affected the peasants in several ways. The disease killed everyone and anyone it reached, regardless of their age, religion, or beliefs. The people began to question what God’s purpose was and wondered why he would send such disaster and harm to their towns and cities. The peasants alread...
Petrarch brought a new way of thinking and living into the Medieval minds. Petrarch is considered the father of humanism. Although he reiterated the basic ideas of Dante’s early signs of humanism in the Inferno, he developed them more fully to become the doctrine of Italian Renaissance. These ideals then evolved to be much more intricate and detailed, with the help of Pico della Mirandola.
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio is about a group of seven women and three men who go to the countryside to avoid the black plague. During their stay in the countryside, they tell stories to each other to keep themselves entertained. On the eighth day of their stay, the theme for all of the stories is “tricks which women always seem to be playing on men or men on women” (Boccaccio VIII), which followed along the same lines as day seven which was about tricks wives played on their husbands. From these two days, Boccaccio provides the reader with many details on gender relations during the medieval period. Boccaccio differs from a lot of writers during his time because he shows how both men and women are equally affected by feelings of passion and provides examples of women and men being equally intelligent.
In 1348, people from all around the world suffered from one of the most deadliest and cruel diseases known as the Black Death. The plague killed so many people in Europe that some of the villages were abandoned and the population of some cities was decreased by half. Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian writer and poet who eye-witnessed and described the horrors caused by the Black Death in his novels Decameron. In Boccaccio’s work, the sick people were left behind to survive on their own and even children were left behind by their parents because they were sick. Unfortunately, from all the people who died during the epidemic, the peasants were those who actually benefited from it. The Black Death end up with political,
Humanism Humanism was a new way of thinking that came about in the fourteenth century, the time of the Renaissance. Many scholars refer to it as the "Spirit of the Renaissance. " Humanism was a lay phenomenon that emphasized human beings as opposed to deities as well as their interests, achievements and capabilities. Humanism is derived from the Latin word humanitas, which Cicero, the noted orator of the Roman Empire, referred to as the "literary culture needed by anyone who would be considered educated and civilized. " Humanism and Literature Humanists search for wisdom from the past.
Statement of intent: The role of women in William Shakespeare’s play Othello is portrayed through the behaviors and actions of Desdemona, Emilia, and Bianca. William Shakespeare integrates his Elizabethan society to create the patriarchal Venetian society in the play. Women in his society were seen as inferior to the men. The three women play a significant role in different social stratification. How are women submissive, possessions, bold, and degraded to sex objects and whores? How have they displayed unconventional acts and boldness?
The Middle Ages is often associated as a time of religious dominance. The Church became powerful and the people strived for a simple contemplative life. The active life went against Christian values and was discouraged. This becomes a problem for early humanist who through their recovery of literature from antiquity learn the benefits of an active lifestyle. This is seen through humanist such as Francesco Petrarch, Coluccio Salutati, and Leonardo Bruni, who battle with the ideas of a contemplative life and active life. Their interest in human aspects led them to combine Classical-pagan and Christian-medieval elements into a comprehensive humanism, where feelings, morality and reflection as part of every human being.
The Renaissance is the guidance of ideology for the Western European from the medieval society to the modern excessive cultural and ideological movements. Humanism is the core of thought. Humanism is a people-oriented rational thought, mainly concern about human and human nature. It includes human dignity, the value of the human being. The humanism was based on the ancient Greek and Roman literature study, advocate the basis of man’ dignity, think that a man can control his/her own destiny and confirm the value of human. As the rebirth of literature, scholars found out importance of thinking and the power of reason. Therefore, many significant literatures had written by scholars during the Renaissance. Pico della Mirandola and Niccolo Machiavelli were the two of the important humanists during the Renaissance. Pico della Mirandola wrote about the human dignity. His work “Oration On The Dignity Of Man” has brought a new view of belief and influenced the later scholars. Niccolo Machiavelli’s work “The Prince” pointed out the significant being as a king.