There are many different roles for women shown in The Canterbury Tales and The Decameron. Both books take place around the same time frame, 1300AD. The Canterbury Tales, takes place in London, England and The Decameron takes place in Florence, Italy. It would be just to think that since both books take place in a western civilization, both books would reflect the same morals and daily life styles. This is not the case at all. Throughout this paper I will attempt to show how these two books portrayed a totally different lifestyle. In The Decameron, by Giovanni Boccaccio, the rolls of men and women are what you would expect of a western society in the 1300s. Women are generally seen as gentle beings that were somewhat nave. There was a very distinct line that separated men from women. Through out the stories I noticed a consistent story line of women being very loyal to their men. The men would end up doing terrible things to the woman. In some cases the husbands would actually put the wife through massive suffering and not even think a thing of it. The women seemed to just take what was thrown at them. They had no say in what went on, and they were to deal with the actions of their male friends, lovers, or relatives. For example on page seventy-nine of The Decameron, there is a story about a girl that is having a love affair with a man. When her father walks in on her and her lover in bed together, he takes action out of vengeance and kills her lover. He then sends the heart in a golden goblet to his daughter. The daughter then out of extreme sadness, fills the cup with her tears and a poisness solution and drinks it leaving herself dead. This story effectively shows the rolls that are placed upon women in this time and era. The women in this story were expected to, and dealt with her fathers decision. She did not try to stop him. I do not think that she would have been able to stand up to him. It seems that women in this time really d...
