An Inside View: Gendered Perspectives on Freedom in Decameron 7.5

Abstract

THE FIFTH TALE OF DAY 7 in Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron features a woman rebelling against her jealous husband, who has confined her in their home. From a structural viewpoint,Decameron 7.5 could be considered the very center of the collection’s feminist worldview. It is the central story set in the womb-like Valley ofWomen, the topic is the tricks thatwomen play upon their husbands, and the narrator is Fiammetta, whom Boccaccio often presents as an embodiment of a female perspective. The story begins with the brigata’s unanimous praise of the previous tale’s protagonist for having done to an evil man (her jealous husband) exactly what he deserved (defaming him and inciting an attack upon him).Whatever appreciation for women’s autonomy this reaction seems to suggest, however, is shattered by the intrusion, in midsentence, of this day’s ruler—il re: “Posto aveva fine la Lauretta al suo ragionamento; e avendo già ciascun commendata la donna che ella bene avesse fatto e come a quel cattivo si conveniva, il re, per non perder tempo, verso la Fiammetta voltatosi, piacevolmente il carico le ’mpose del novellare.” Day 7, after all, is not a