The Decameron: Why People Like to be in Control

Day Four in The Decameron, is a day filled with stories of love and heartache. The stories were so tragically written that is was the inspiration for Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. In the majority of the stories when the lovers would die, usually the male leads, the female character would take her own life, because the thought of being without their one true love was too much to bear. In a time when death was common, due to the black plague, people in The Decameron still believed death was the best result. The characters used death as a controlling mechanism for their pain— instead of living out the rest of their lives in sorrow and pain they would solve their troubles by taking their own life.

In the novel one, Guiscardo and Ghismonda are two lovers that are separated when founded by her father, Tancred, Prince of Salerno. The father uses the guards of Guiscardo to strangle him in the night and then afterwards sends his heart to Ghismonda in a golden cup, which she uses to poison herself in the end. When Ghismonda is presented with the present from her father, the heart of Guiscardo, she looked to her servant, after kissing the heart, and said:

In all things and at all times, even to this last hour of my life, have I found my father tender in his love, but now more so than ever before; wherefore I now render him the last thanks which will ever be due from me to him for this goodly present.” (4.1)

Once she saw her lovers heart she instantly made up her mind to take her own life, as is explained in this quote above. The death of Guiscardo was out of her own control, but her own death was not. The death of her lover was too much to handle, so she felt that death was the only answer to her despair. The same could be said for novel nine, when Roussillon “slays” his wife’s lover, Cabestaing, and then feeds her his heart. After she discovers what she had eaten, she explained to the knight the injustice of Cabestaing’s death—

Twas the deed of a disloyal and recreant knight; for if I, unconstrained by him, made him lord of my love, and thereby did you wrong, ‘twas I, not he, should have borne the penalty. But God forbid that fare of such high excellence as the heart of a knight so true and courteous as Sieur Guillaume de Cabestraing be followed by aught else. (4.9)

Again, to control the unfairness of the situation towards the two lovers, Roussillon’s wife throws herself out of the window and falls to her death.

Most people have the need to control things and they will present this sense of control in other aspects of their lives when other areas prevent it. For instance, depression and anxiety, a lot of individuals I know have told me that when the result to self-mutilation or substance abuse it is because it is the only thing they know of that gives them some sort of control, such as their feelings of numbness or pain. It is the only way they know how to release their anxiety or depression and still give them control over their lives. This is just one example, but I feel a very powerful one and the most relatable to heartbreak, just because it is in relation to a person’s emotions.

When emotions are heightened in way that can’t be controlled, especially when it’s emotions similar to sadness, individuals become irrational and want to find a quick solution to end all pain. The one behavior I have found to be a common relapse in any situation that is related to that of the above: is the need to result to drastic measures such as death, self-mutilation, or substance abuse. In this case, being in control doesn’t mean to be logical or to be level-headed but to have a quick fix or to a permanent fix. However, these examples of control aren’t always the case with each individual, but for most individuals control is something of importance, whether it is the three listed above or a more pleasing result of control. The mass majority of people need control especially when they feel they have none.

Citation:

Boccaccio, Giovanni. The Decameron. Seltzer Books, 2017. EBook (e.g., Print).