The Decameron, part 5

Day Eight, Story Seven
1. Is Rinieri’s revenge justified and equal to the torture Elena subjected him to?
I do not believe that Rinieri’s revenge is justified. Though it is understandable to want to subject someone to the same discomfort that you have experienced, Rinieri takes his “punishment” too far. As Boccaccio notes at the beginning of the next story, “Grievous and painful as Elena’s misfortunes were for the ladies to hear, they listened to them with restrained pity, since they felt she had in part deserved them, although at the same time they did consider the scholar to have been somewhat rigid, and fiercely relentless, not to mention cruel” (614). What Rinieri forgets is that he easily- perhaps too easily- fell for Elena’s trap in the beginning, abandoning all of his scholarly logic for a taste of love. In a way, his torture is partly his fault, because it takes Rinieri far too long to discover that he has been duped. He becomes completely shamed and embarrassed, and in his mind, the only way to gain back his honor is by shaming Elena in return. He is so overcome by his uncontrollable wrath that he must destroy Elena in order to regain confidence in himself (a juvenile form of getting back at someone). Though their respective gullibility and punishments are very similar, Rinieri does not take the high road and instead lowers himself to her level, thus making him not better than her. It seems that Rinieri has never considered that “the greatest revenge is living well”.
Day Eight, Story Eight
2. Through most of these stories there is a common theme of the trickster being tricked. At the end of this story, unlike the others, the characters come to a content resolution. Is this a fair ending?
I think this is somewhat of a ridiculous ending. There is not much fairness in it due to the fact that they are all cheaters, and have forgotten the fundamentals of marriage. The reason one person marries another is to be committed to him or her and only that person, and these characters have no concept of this. I think the reason that this is the only trickster story with a peaceful ending is because it is unrealistic for people who have manipulated each other and then get over it so easily. There is also a lot of contradiction in their actions. For example, Zeppa criticizes and bemoans Spinelloccio for betraying their friendship, but by the next day he is taking Spinelloccio’s same path with his friend’s wife, which she points out to him: “Is this what you had in mind when you invited me over? Now what about the love you bear for Spinecolloccio and your loyal friendship for him?” (617). These characters degrade and demoralize themselves and each other, but let it all go in the end- an obviously very unlikely outcome.