Research Paper on:
5.10 and 7.4 of The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio and How Strong Females Are Portrayed in These Stories

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
properly! During the twelfth century, the Black Death, also known as the Plague, had a devastating impact upon Western Europe.  Author Giovanni Boccaccio witnessed first-hand its effects, and noted its impact upon the people and society of this time, and using the Plague as a backdrop, composed The Decameron, a  series of one-hundred stories told over a ten-day period. Perhaps because there was so much death, sexual behavior was considerably more permissive during the twelfth century, and The Decameron  contains several controversial tales of sexuality, including among the clergy, and acts of deviance such as homosexuality, rape and sodomy. Sexuality was considered an exclusively male domain, and according  to author Joyce E. Salisbury, "To take ones passion actively was the manly way" (85). Interestingly, despite the domineering patriarchy of the time, Boccaccio often portrayed women in The  Decameron as strong and assertive, equal to men in every way, and occasionally even superior, in terms of cunning. In stories 5.10 and 7.4, the theme of a strong  female was illustrated by the wives in these respective stories declaring their sexual independence, which, in essence, hurt men in their most vulnerable areas - their male egos. The tale  contained in the fifth day, the tenth novella, was that of Senora Pedro di Vinciolo. For years, this woman had endured the indignities of having a completely indifferent spouse.  Pedros wife was no shrinking violet, described by Boccaccio as, "a yong, lusty, and well enabled bodie, a red-haird Wench, hot and fiery spirited, standing more in neede of  three Husbands, then he, who could not any way well content one Wife, because his minde ran more on his mony, then those offices and duties belonging to wedlock, which