Dissimulation in "Decameron" and "Heptameron"

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses the differences and similarities between Boccaccio's "Decameron" and Marguerite of Navarre's "Heptameron". The paper focuses on the theme of "dissimulation" in both works, that is the deliberate withholding of information in order to deceive for a specific purpose. The paper looks at two stories from both works in order to highlight this theme and concludes that both works contain a mixture of fact and fiction, but both use this mixture with the higher goal of showing human hypocrisy and that deceit and dissimulation often rebound against the errant.

From the Paper:

"The are large differences as well as strong similarities between Boccaccio's Decameron and the Heptameron of Marguerite of Navarre. The works are separated by about two hundred years in time, and also by the difference between the French culture of Marguerite and the Italian culture of Boccaccio. Also, Boccaccio wrote in the time before the Protestant Reformation, and his work is clearly of a strong Catholic bent, despite his constant criticism and poking of fun at clerics and church bureaucrats. Marguerite, on the other hand, wrote during the time of the Reformation and put strong Protestant leanings in her work, which caused some controversy at the time and put her into a certain amount of danger, according to the introduction in the anthology. Even so, the cynicism and critiques that both writers express toward the established churches of their day show strong similarities and suggest that clerical corruption and hypocrisy is a ripe topic of satire in nearly any century."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Lawall, Sarah, Gen. Ed. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. 8th Ed. New York: W.W. Norton 2006, pp 1598-1641, 2101-2137.

More papers on Dissimulation in "Decameron" and "Heptameron":

• Comparison Essay # 134130 : "Boccaccio's "Decameron" and Marguerite's "Heptameron"
• Comparison Essay # 69393 : "In-groups and Out-groups"
• Essay # 73878 : "The Decameron" and The "Inferno"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: