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Day 7: Third Tale
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Decameron, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love and Sex
Men and Women
Moderation and Excess
Intelligence
Class and Character
Faith vs. Religion
Summary
Analysis
Lauretta begins her tale by praising Love, whose mighty powers regularly save his disciples. In Arezzo, a wealthy man named Tofano is unreasonably jealous of his beautiful wife, Monna Ghita. Frustrated by his baseless suspicions, she resolves to give him a reason to feel jealous, cultivates the affections of a young man, and becomes his lover. She takes advantage of Tofano’s “fondness for drink” by getting him “blind drunk” and putting him to bed before going to visit her lover.
Tofano, like others before and after him (for example, Ricciardo di Chinzica in II, 10; Ferondo in III, 8; Folco in IV, 3; the Jealous Merchant in VII, 5; and Arriguccio Berlinghieri in VII, 8), performs the stereotypical role of the jealous husband: he fears that his wife will stray sexually, and he keeps a close watch on her to prevent it. Unfortunately, it’s the jealousy itself that causes Ghita to stray. Tofano displays two forms of immoderation and excess for which he will be punished in the tale: excessive jealousy over a faithful wife (or, at least, faithful until he became jealous) and excessive drinking.
Active
Themes
But eventually, Tofano notices that Monna Ghita never drinks with him, and becomes suspicious. One night he pretends to be drunk, locking her out of the house when she leaves to visit her lover, and refusing to let her in when she comes home again. When pleading doesn’t work, Monna Ghita swears she will make him sorry and threatens to throw herself into a well. This way, she would avoid disgrace and make it look like he murdered her. Tofano refuses to give in, and she throws a rock into the well instead. When he rushes out to save her, she runs into the house and locks him out.
Initially, Ghita’s plan backfires on her and Tofano catches her in sneaking around. But Ghita has many more weapons in her arsenal, thanks to antifeminist stereotypes of the lying, cheating, shrewish (ill-natured) wife: when wheedling and pleading fail, she becomes angry and abusive and comes up with a second clever trick. Just as Tofano’s jealousy and drunkenness signaled his excessive personality and made him susceptible to his wife’s tricks, rushing headlong into Ghita’s trap demonstrates his devotion to his wife, despite her faults. It is also in character for a man who looks before he leaps and doesn’t consider the consequences of his actions moderately and rationally.
Active
Themes
Monna Ghita now heaps abuse on Tofano for his drunkenness, at such a loud volume that she draws the attention of the neighbors. She casts herself as the victim of his drunkenness; when he protests that she’s been sneaking out to visit her lover, she convinces the crowd of onlookers that he went out partying and then threatened to throw himself in the well if she didn’t let him in. Siding with her, the crowd maligns Tofano.
Active
Themes
Eventually, the commotion reaches Monna Ghita’s family, who come to their home, beat Tofano “black and blue,” then take her back with them. But because he loves her, Tofano eventually succeeds in arranging her return. He promises to never be jealous again and allows her to “amuse herself to her heart’s content” if she does it discreetly.
Active
Themes
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