Dante and Boccaccio

Paper Summary:

The paper compares the works of Dante Alighieri and Giovanni Boccaccio. The writer describes how they both derived much of their view of the world and its relation to the next world from their Catholic faith. The writer further examines how the two writers look at the world in different ways, though both are Italian, both Catholic, and both medieval in world view for the most part. The writer concludes that Boccaccio tends to be more humorous, more expansive, more varied, and more secular in his stories, while Dante is more spiritual and more focused on the darker aspects of the human spirit.

From the Paper:

"This is one reason why Boccaccio is more often compared to Chaucer than to Dante. Of course, Chaucer derived a number of plots from stories in The Decameron and also used many of the same story forms, notably the fabliau derived from the French. The love triangle is the most common plot for both Chaucer and Boccaccio, with numerous variations, while Dante's unrequited love for Beatrice never involves a third party but only shows that distance is maintained between the man and the woman he loves from afar."

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