The Decameron - Day Two

We once again see the theme of love in these stories. Perhaps even more present however, is the theme of lust.

In the Third Day, First Story, a man pretends to be deaf and mute so that he may successfully fulfill his lustful plan of sleeping with young beautiful nuns, only to find out that they are much more lustful then he, which is something that he is physically not able to handle. In this first story, we also see another sub-theme regarding lust that has come up in the Decameron many times. This sub-theme is of unconventional relationships. The fact that many nun, who aren't even supposed to have sex, are all sharing one man would even today be considered a lustful, unconventional situation that would be scolded.

In the Fifth Day, Tenth Story, a married women cheats on his gay husband repeatedly at the advise of an older women. The married women is very lustful, but then again so is her gay husband who does not please her, but rather pleases many other men. After finding out that his wife is cheating on him, the husband does not get very angry at her, rather he prompts a threesome with the man that his wife was planning on having sex with anyway. Once again, here is a very unconventional relationship situation that would be considered strange by most even today.

There seems to be such an emphasis on sex, even in the stories from tonight that I have not discussed in full. Three are numerous sex scenes, and there always seem to be naked women involved. The Decameron is about ten young men and women who have escaped to the mountain (from the plague), and are telling stories in order to entertain each other. With the amount of sexual content involved in these stories, I wonder if there are any ulterior motives of each story teller. Possibly there is a bigger picture going on outside of just the stories that is between the storytellers ( a bunch of horney young men and women). Does anyone believe that the Decameron as a whole may be partially a commentary on young men and women's state of mind, despite their obvious knowledge?