The Decameron Analysis

The Tale of the Falcon from the Decameron
The Decameron was penned by medieval Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio. Giovanni initially went after a law degree at the University of Naples, however after his father hit upon hard financial times, he returned to Florence. Once there, he met the infamous poet Francesco Petrarch, who became an influential figure in Giovanni’s life, both as a close friend and literary advisor. Giovanni also experienced the most catastrophic, and arguably influential, occurrence of his life, the Black Death. This allowed for the backdrop for his first and most notable literary work, “The Decameron.” Although “The Decameron” is now viewed as a literary masterpiece, and has been used as a model for many other famous authors

Reflecting on his first work, he felt it to be lacking in significance and everted his attention to scholarly works. “The Decameron,” which was written in Italian rather than Latin, is composed of one hundred separate tales. These tales are, within the backdrop, being told by some wealthy young Florentines who have taken refuge from the Black Death in a country villa. These stories are a manner of passing the time as they stay for ten days, each day allowing for ten stories. Each day, member is allowed to choose the theme of the stories, which results in great diversity among the tales. For example, “The Tale of the Falcon,” is the ninth tale told on the fifth day. “The Tale of the Falcon” is a tale that describes the attempted courting of the beautiful Monna Giovanna by a young man by the name of Federigo Alberighi. The tale unfurls as the frivolous young man wastes away his riches on the maiden, who is not impressed. Having wasted all his wealth, he becomes poor. He then retreats to the country to live a modest life, his poverty

It operates on irony, for you expect the son to survive after receiving the falcon. That, however, is not the case. Instead, Federigo commits an act he sees as noble, but is rather quite unhelpful to his cause. The story also reflects the times. In medieval ages, death was a common issue. So for Monna Giovanna’s troubles to be rooted in death, both of her son and husband, reflects issues of the time. Lastly, the story suggests what the Italians of the time valued. The story projects that one can have all the riches in the world, but is only rich when they have humbled themselves and become wise. In the end of the tale, the story says, “…when he found himself the husband of such a great lady, whom he had loved so much and who was so wealthy besides, he managed his financial affairs with more prudence than in the past and lived with her happily the rest of his days.” In the end, it is both his immense wealth, his wisdom and prudence, and his loved ones that have made him truly rich. Kind of reminds you of the American Dream,