Though I'm not sure whether Boccaccio would have read History of the Peloponnesian War, his description of the Plague at the beginning of the Decameron certainly mirrors Thucydides' description of the plague in Athens. Both authors describe the physical infliction of the plague in grotesque detail, but also focus on the accompanying degeneration of social order. Examples of this abound in the Prologue, but I felt that Boccaccio epitomized this chaos in his mention of the animals who are given free reign to eat and roam, but "after a whole day's feasting, many of these animals, as though posessing the power of reason, would return glutted in the evening to their own quarters, without any shepherd to guide them" (12). This is on contrast to many of the people who, believing they have no time to live, are able to exercise no restraint. This description of animals having more reason and control than humans emphasizes the extent to which societal values, rationality, and civility have collapsed as a result of the plague.
I noticed an obvious contrast between the world of the plague and the characters/setting in which the tales of the Decameron are told. The four women and three men are all described as exceptionally tidy, polite, beautiful, and civilized, and the house that they retreat to is luxurious and appealing (19). The group even unanimously decides to have a ruler, and fairly divides up the power by allowing each member to be queen for a day (20). This is the epitome of civilization and order. Initially, I was confused by this dichotomy: why bother setting the book amidst the plague if the "action" occurs in such a removed setting? However, judging by the baseness of some of the stories told, I felt like Boccaccio may use this physical removal to emphasize that the impossibility of actually escaping the chaos, brutishness, and carnal emotions that arise as part of the plague, regardless of apparent physical civility and well-being.
Corruption
Another theme relating to disruption of social order is corruption in religious institutions. It is evident from the levity with which Boccaccio tells these stories that he is not as serious a Catholic as, say, Dante or Augustine, and that his purpose, while maybe not directly to mock the church, is far more light-hearted than that of Inferno or Confessions. For instance, in the second novella of the first day, the narrator describes how Jehannot knew that if his Jewish friend visited the court of Rome, "not only will he not become Christian, but, if he had already turned Christian, he would become a Jew again without fail" (39). Jehannot recognizes the immense corruption within the Church, yet somewhat paradoxically still wants to a) remain a member himself (conversion is not even mentioned), and b) recruit other people to the corrupt institution. To me, this was quite humorous, but I think also illustrates the high level of awareness of corruption, and may be a comment on the necessity of reform (unlike the Jew in this story, most people will not join the church if it remains so corrupt).
Perhaps an even more direct mockery of religious institutions is the story about the nuns seducing a man who works at the convent. The former garden helper, Nuto, says of the nuns: "they seem to me to have the devil in them" (193), which immediately sets up the irony of their alleged religious devotion and actual sexual deviance. In deciding to seduce the gardener, one of the nuns says, "we are constantly making Him promises that we never keep! What does it matter if we fail to keep this one?" (196). In addition to pointing out the lack of adherence to Christian ideals within the church, the nuns devil-may- care (pun intended) attitude to their promises to God echoes the lack of restraint and morality exercised by individuals during the plague. Furthermore, the nuns emphasize the universality and relative harmlessness of human "carnal desires," perhaps suggesting that it is unrealistic for the Catholic church to regulate and limit sexuality (similar to Ovid's comment on the feasibility of regulating human sexuality through the Lex Julia).
One other, hilarious, episode that somewhat ridicules Christianity is of course the "devil in hell" episode (277), depicts two people using religion to justify sex- a perverse but remarkably biting depiction of how individuals can essentially justify anything they want via religion, which, most of the time, is somewhat illegitimate.
Truth
Amidst these descriptions of chaos and corruption, both within and without the Church, I did find an implicit emphasis on truthfulness in these early novellas. For instance, in the third story of the first novella, Saladin's attempts to deceive the Jew fail entirely, but when he simply asks for money straight out, his requests are happily granted. Similarly, Messer Riciardo's former wife initially pretends not to recognize him, but, when confronted, gives him the brutally honest reason for why she doesn't want to come back to him (his impotence), and as a result lives relatively happily ever after (183). He is somewhat upset, but she gets to remain married to her new husband. In both of these cases, everyone ends up better off when truth prevails over deception, which seems to argue for the importance of truth as a basic human value, and perhaps also to contrast the lack of transparency and accompanying hidden corruption in the Church.
Desire
A final theme that is extremely prevalent is desire. Generally, the men telling the stories have a consensus that female desire is more potent than male desire, and that females are less loyal. For example, Dioneo laments "the stupidity . . . of all the other men who are given to thinking . . . that while they are gadding about in various parts of the world with one woman and another, the wives they left behind are simply twiddling their thumbs" (179), emphasizing the infidelity of women. However, the fact that Dioneo laments the "stupidity" rather than the acts themselves, and points out that the men are also "gadding about . . . with one woman and another" illustrates a perspective that this female infidelity is neither surprising nor particularly wrong- a view very different from what we've seen in Roman and Greek value systems.
Another interesting counterpoint to this depiction of human desire is the story of the woman who was married nine times. In one of the many exchanges from husband to husband,
"the flames of his desire burned correspondingly fiercer, and, unperturbed by the crime he had just committed, he lay down at her side, his hands still dripping with blood, and made love to the woman who was half-asleep and believed him to be the Prince" (135). This grotesque image that so graphically combines blood and desire casts love as a dangerous force, and echoes a similar perverse combination of sex and violence that occurs when women are captured as "booty" of war. This episode puts a damper on the otherwise humorous and lighthearted tone with which Boccaccio addresses desire, and even offers a bit of insight and sympathy into the powerlessness of females in the context of love and desire- again, a perspective we have rarely seen.
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