Happy Endings? Resisting Women and the Economy of Love in Day Five of Boccaccio's Decameron

Fiammetta, in her role as queen of the fifth day of storytelling in Boccaccio's Decameron, announces that the general theme for all the stories of her reign will be “ciò che ad alcuno amante, dopo alcuni fieri o sventurati accidenti, felicemente avvenisse” (318).1 While this description gives us little indication of the variety of the tales of “love” that will actually constitute the fifth day of storytelling in the Decameron, it does, nevertheless, indicate that a particular “sense of an ending,” the traditional “happy ending,” will characterize these stories. What may at first glance appear to belong to a specifically literary taxonomy reveals itself in the total context of day five as an ideological category that largely seeks to define “happy” or “successful” according to the perceived interests and perspectives of the male characters in the stories. Many of the stories of the fifth day seem to have an almost fairytale-like quality, in which the goal of narrative, both structurally and ideologically, is to achieve a “and they all lived happily ever after” closure. The two most famous and most anthologized stories from the fifth day are the eighth and ninth stories, often referred to, respectively, as the tales of Nastagio degli Onesti and Federigo degli Alberighi. It will be my intention to subject the traditional, and ideologically charged concept of a “happy ending” concluding in matrimony in stories eight and nine to a feminist examination which will reveal that the apparently serene and happy endings of these tales can only be termed such in light of masculine priorities and values that totally, in the case of Nastagio, and partially, in the case of Federigo, exclude the implicit and explicit wishes or priorities of the resisting female characters in the texts.I wish to suggest that the fairytale conclusion in marriage and living “happily ever after” is often a reflection of a patriarchal value system that confirms the power of men in culture to equate their own interests and perspectives with universals. Both tales eight and nine are concerned with strategies for romancing the stone, i.e., overcoming the resistance of women who reject the attentions of men who pursue them.2 It was Kate Millett in her book Sexual Politics who observed that “the courtly and romantic versions of love are ‘grants’ which the male concedes out of his total power” (37). Certainly within the patriarchal tradition of Western literature the common representations of love are more often than not products of a particular power relationship in which masculine desire and masculine priorities are legitimized, as in these Boccaccian novelle, in which the structural and ideological interests of an androcentric value system “naturally” coincide. Masculine desires and priorities are, within the novella, seen to subsume feminine desires and values.While there are essential structural, thematic, and ideological similarities in stories eight and nine, I intend to show that the power configuration, i.e., the nature of the “grants” in the two stories is different and accounts, in large measure, for the different qualitative images of the women in the two narratives. Within the masculine system of values that frames the actions of the two male protagonists the conclusions of the narratives of Nastagio and of Federigo can be seen as variations and exemplifications of the happy endings proscribed by Fiammetta. From the perspectives of the female characters whose voices are all but silenced in tale eight and marginalized by society in tale nine, there is an enormous ideological and qualitative difference between the chivalrous ideals represented by Nastagio and Federigo. Nastagio represents an aggressive ideal that is immediately willing to offer violence to oppose the violence he sees inflicted upon the unknown woman in the woods, an aggressive ideal that in the face of female resistance refuses to ever seriously relinquish the pursuit of the beautiful daughter of Paolo Traversaro.3 Thus his subsequent refusal to accept the woman's offer of mere sexual gratification allows him to assert his power in their relationship by instead insisting upon marriage as a public acknowledgment of the legitimacy and success of his sexual conquest and claim to her body. The public ritual of marriage also serves here to prove his success in conquering her resistance and bending her will to his own. Federigo, on the other hand, who confronts Monna Giovanna's virtue and his own poverty and then chooses to relinquish his pursuit and claims upon her, represents a less aggressive or less egotistical chivalrous ideal that enables a distinctly feminine voice and set of priorities to emerge as a subtext to the male text that offers itself as the chronicle of masculine desire seeking fulfillment in what its culture has predetermined as a universal happy ending.In the story of Nastagio degli Onesti (Decameron, V, 8), we do not know the name of the woman whose rejection of Nastagio has reduced him to a state of near suicidal depression cruda e dura e salvatica gli si mostrava la giovinetta amata, forse per la sua singular bellezza o per la sua nobiltà sí altiera e disdegnosa divenuta, che né egli né cosa che gli piacesse le piaceva. La qual cosa era tanto a Nastagio gravosa a comportare, che per dolore più volte dopo essersi doluto gli venne in desidero d'uccidersi (363).Nastagio's beloved lady is variously termed “figliuola di messer Paolo Traversaro” (362), “la giovinetta amata” (363), and the “crudel donna’’ [363). What we know of her is the result of her relation toothers, i.e., what she is to and for the males in the story. The adjectives that introduce the recalcitrant young woman are all negative: “cruda e dura e salvatica,” and thus predispose the reader to an unsympathetic view of her character. Although these adjectives constitute a harsh judgment of her, we are provided no objective basis for such a negative depiction other than the facts that she is proud and indifferent to Nastagio. Even the charge that she hated him, “d'averla in odio come ella aveva lui” (363) seems to be more a peevish reaction to rejection, and is not objectively supported by the text. This feminine object of masculine desire reveals that the true concern of narrative here is the masculine assertion of the power to shape and influence not only the resisting woman in the text, but also the power to shape and influence events, decisions and values in both the public and private spheres of society. Feminist historians and anthropologists such as Mary Erler, Maryanne Kowaleski, Michelle Rosaldo, and Louise Lamphere have pointed out how men have traditionally exercised power and authority in the public sphere, and how women, while generally lacking authority, have sometimes exercised limited, but significant power in the private sphere.4 The tale of Nastagio is the chronicle of masculine will to power to assert itself in both spheres and to be dominant in both spheres. If at the end of this story the terrified woman agrees to accept Nastagio as her lover and husband we then see that she functions as the vehicle that confirms the reality and legitimacy of the masculine exercise of power in all spheres of patriarchal society. If courtly behavior does not make the woman yield, then perhaps fear will do so! Otis Redding in his classic soul song advises the lover to “Try a Little Tenderness,” but the Western tradition of wooing the beloved lady would suggest that subtle and sometimes not so subtle forms of coercion and violence are as common as “tenderness.” The seeming naturalness of the more subtle forms of coercion is precisely the quality that ordinarily allows that coercion to escape critical attention. The literary notion that violence against the inflexible woman is often not only effective, but, ultimately, precisely what she needs, is a notion endorsed over and over again by much of canonical literature.Nastagio's nameless lady then has no self that is not defined by male perspectives. She exists as an implied object of exchange. She has no name and functions within Boccaccio's novella without a name because this “crudel donna” is not important as a person or character within the masculine economy that defines her. She is not important to the narrator as a character because her assigned role in the male text is merely a symbolic function: her figure serves as both the object and source of masculine desire. By allowing her mere physical existence to be both the end of passion and the cause of man's temptation, the narrator has no need to focus upon some in the male character to his The of and is to The lover does not of his because within the context of the male text no such is and the that is is how to or the object of his and not his passion is or It is not that the nameless woman or the male critical his own but she as the end of passion and sua singular it for Nastagio as lover to the of such role as object in the canonical text is often an to the male fear of his own and role in the male text is also a of the refusal or to come to with the notion of a masculine Thus the woman who functions as object of or desire can be as a of essential male The woman's resistance and to we not him to of as to the of some or in his character or behavior that her rejection, but instead her resistance the for him to to the of the violence of and the story to the resisting to a passion for a woman that is so that the of that passion the to is in and of itself of a desire that is both and what to as in Boccaccio's chivalrous and are to characterize the woman's resisting The end of the male text confirms not only the power of masculine to female but it also to the as he her offer of a in which she the to her sexual in of the more and public power of is here that in the tale the woman of the degli also has no in the face of for her is the she is her to be by the and by in the of While we that has from of and from the of the soul by the of who the what we may not is how much more almost is Boccaccio's description of woman the while and the subsequent out of her and by her a in la e gli e a sua per e qual come la e e ad e e cosa passion and her to him make a of but in there is this in which love is and and that the beloved the who for may or may not be the here that passion is but the other face of and but has the in this novella that a is not Boccaccio's as there is between the and his characters the story. I that is he that his as of is more in the of behavior than in to shape While have generally seen this as in Boccaccio's Decameron, it from the tradition of the or the of such is that in this to in which the and of are in these stories, the as to the ideal critical reader of the Decameron, this reader who much as that is to for is more to be by the than to the violence against women in tale are lady not or in her own only at the end of the story to her her to sexual Within this masculine economy there is no for the narrator to who these women are, as the of the of only to suggest the of other desires and other priorities that may not be with the fulfillment of the male the of the essential of the women to or to in the story is the ideological as as structural of the of their It is a of and literary in which women are not represented as because it is that they have to and it is that they have to because they are not represented as in his that in the Western tradition of both and literature the woman is often a of The in which the woman of degli is over and over again merely explicit the of the woman with The physical of the women in the tale is by as to feminine with an not be with the that and in Boccaccio's Nastagio story the theme is so with the theme of that an relationship is Within this Western or for be seen as a for the male than as a for the ideal is more less than a to the a that the of love or her symbolic is also often the of What and most male seem to is that such a is no more than a but It is the of what women are or have to men Western It is not an of what women actually are in and for If that this is but a then woman no the object of but the need to her to a of symbolic the and of both desire and woman reveals the and fear that she represents for It not us then to that much of the Western canonical tradition of literature is a tradition in which men women both to the notion of masculine and to male It is this of that is in male for male The of not from a beloved but from other This implicit of male and often the ideological of “and they all lived happily ever as in the eighth and ninth tales of day five of the Decameron, in which the men achieve their desire and the women largely to of tale is a of the and the and that is not the of the is to this in the and not to the of the The tale of Federigo degli that of Nastagio, but in the story of Federigo in this the of cause and and of and this but by no ideal the beloved Monna has not only a but a and that woman in the story. The that we do know her name that she is more than a mere in an indifferent She is an in the novella, seeking to define in the face of patriarchal to to desire to shape and define her for Monna does not an because as is to of her as but she this in the tale as a result of an of narrative, a of for of character and that a the tradition of is and the and values of Monna and Federigo. an Monna a and that beloved the woman of can as they are no more than symbolic who are who his his for Monna may seem to much Nastagio, romancing the stone, the resisting woman in the text, but in the end him to be not male Nastagio and is to his but a more figure of a in view of his particular of the his of more often with women, from his and to the of public and a need not be an or accept the that these define women more than they do men to that Federigo is a more and character than Nastagio precisely because of his more of the It is because of his own as a character that he his own narrative as a that is to that he Monna a more figure of a a figure of who can not be as the women of the as merely an object of masculine desire. It be that Nastagio, who his beloved to to his Federigo does not to implicit of violence to Monna Nastagio resistance from the “crudel donna” his to attentions are by Monna he her If Federigo is a it is also true that his a for Monna to make decisions and be The is a in within the masculine The and pursuit of the woman a of the that is at with the male who and “grants” woman what is by an to in her own with her own and to be The of the aggressive male whose assertion of and gives no for feminine character to is also an of The of the male character the woman's in the text, but this an of the him to be a character. The of this are the of the what he in and his i.e., he his the case of Nastagio, his and show him to be both reaction to his can only be termed and that can indicate and to the woman who by to her wishes or than his own desires that passion for Monna is a passion that is by its to his own The value system implicit in to the woman's wishes his own is to the masculine priorities of a system of values at the of the a system that that aggressive assertion of the male character in the forms of and in pursuit of the of the woman's is with the concept of to then that Federigo to Monna within this chivalrous tale in no less than the that as to a to the the to her rejection of the of From the of view of traditional male the of and in the story is the of his from a feminist of the of his and of is his to and accept Monna Giovanna's rejection of his a feminist Federigo a he not have within the masculine economy in which an his be as or the for his feminine resistance Nastagio and to of and Monna Giovanna's rejection of Federigo will only from him total rejection of the that she has to him or him in per tanto di cosa per e per che woman was as “cruda e dura e salvatica,” Monna is as che that without Nastagio it would be to his but we know from the of the tale that the adjectives to Monna to a of and she will define the of the on the other hand, was only in of her object as a symbolic of that to define the relationship of men to other men in the story. The that are merely to Monna at the of the story are defined by her actions and by her actions and decisions that from a of what are her own priorities and within a or is to that in to Monna Federigo is more than a little and he may che egli di e e Federigo a e si come di le e Federigo is by as e in di and thus his as a of his and this and of are to be i.e., lacking in measure, lacking in and is the the ideal of Boccaccio's society from the Federigo, represents a and at the of this a between the chivalrous ideals of and on the hand, and the of the values of and on the Federigo, the but chivalrous the and of Monna not is the of and and often of a of Monna in is with but she allows to merely its It is important to that she the of and in this story as a result of the of her husband and but it is Federigo who to he her with the she has Monna does near the end of the novella, the of her but she the of a Federigo. and have not to make her a Boccaccian character traditional it has upon female characters of the Decameron, more to such as the who without the of her or the who immediately the sexual of such as and see Monna as and It would appear then that we have not from the masculine that the resisting woman with the figure in Western to the ninth story of the fifth day the novella of Federigo degli but it is Monna who this narrative in virtue of the she She to be a and to Federigo. She to Federigo for his only that her more important to her than her Monna a of chooses the Federigo to be her she would to a and the for the of Federigo to her they her for che di che che is her own of the that in the to This woman who to her own reveals that the patriarchal in an to male in the of a woman who the to which she will her to influence her Federigo degli The that in the from the is or not we a character or a as more important in which person to this that to the is a than to by The then that gives us is of a woman who in a and from the to the end of this What us as here we not by the all but of authority with the name or the voice of the and of his is not the that a woman who in such an can be termed but also the that precisely because of her be to Monna both the power and the authority to reject out of hand, as does in Decameron, the of his refusal to to their that upon itself and his to an the and nature of that is patriarchal society gives males power and authority over her, Monna does not have such an i.e., the rejection of her judgment of her and to her, but in the of to she the essential of the power and authority that society has exercised over the of Monna Giovanna's a character that with the masculine of her as is also as ideologically of all in The of is of or with her as a this judgment of her essential it is not that in the will to her as as she no but only a that by itself confirms male of Monna to the of the text is of traditional and the of her the to a from of is in there is a a the and male critical of the legitimacy and of the male in this tale and it as a that it is to see it would a of and the subtle with which Monna and so of the other women characters in the it would appear to more to be to that as a character and to that she does not critical attention. assertion an to and woman as the whose in the text the text and the notion of an male self that is not by her of a as to the of the is in by the do not know Federigo is as as Nastagio who two or he more to his but we do know that has as to more in because the in with a to without to or and in his the of this to with who the to a of public on it his own may also be a between the behavior of Nastagio and Federigo and the figure of the for degli Monna that and thus the of his can be as a of at the end of the Monna chooses to have a who than to have that a she is merely her for her need to be in a to have and to exercise some influence over the decisions that her Within the context of she defines Federigo, much as Nastagio defined his for Monna it to as of a with a as his can no be as merely or she to his actions with a they do not have she that his need not they may him for the she has in us of how she has the of for at his to his with the in need than with the more as a result of his of the characters that the of character than the more and a more and a si the other hand, the that what do for him is out of for his character and not for his to show that he is not only to the person who has to him in the but also to for he will need in the If then he gives to he will do so without Giovanna's of her to her as young has to do with this is the of that on a woman within a masculine that is to as a woman with within such a patriarchal she us of how Boccaccio's apparently happy in gli is a of male priorities and as we know that desire for her is and his us that of the in a a for and the context of the Nastagio and Federigo tales marriage the of the male power to the object of his desire. the ideal goal of the narrative marriage also serves to masculine that desire is to be both and that is both and has often with and has as an of her and and as us in V, such passion to If Nastagio and Federigo have this of a that with women then they have so with this their of the of what has largely as feminine passion that a If we know at all Monna Giovanna's desires or woman's desires within this masculine economy we know only that these desires are by that economy that the fulfillment of the desire with a universal happy and feminist of these stories reveals that only not all lived happily ever

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