Example research essay topic: Sexual Objects Sexual Relations - 1,538 words

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Boccaccio's View of Woman For centuries Boccaccio's view of woman has been disputed by those who have read his work. Some state that Boccaccio was merely writing to entertain the people of his time, others believe that he was sexist and that his writings hold woman in an inferior, negative light. It is widely found that the people of the twentieth century find the constant downgrading of woman offensive. Throughout his stories Boccaccio tends to depict woman as sexual objects and not as people. There are also cases where woman are portrayed as unintelligent cheaters that are not loyal to their husbands nor to themselves.

This has began the debate whether or not Boccachio is a sexist. It may be the views of the culture and the time but for people of todays world it is offensive and sexist against woman. On the Seventh Day, Second Story, Boccachio shows Peronella as an evil women, who has no feelings for her husband and doesnt mind she is cheating on him. She is devoid of all morality, values, and love. It was all about sex for her, she was an object of lust and not of love. She even made her husband help her lover, which is a huge insult to him.

Then, if that wasnt enough, while her husband was cleaning the barrel, Peronella had sexual relations with her lover. No, the deal wont be called off for that; my husband will clean the whole thing. And her husband said: Of course; and laying down his tools and rolling up his to scrape it. And Peronella, pretending to be interested in what he was doing, put her head, one shoulder, and a arm into the mouth of the barrel, which was not very large and began saying to her husband Scrape here, and here, and also over there- and- see there where you This quote shows how conniving Peronella was and how she had no feelings for her husband. She did not just think of an excuse for why the man, who was her lover, was in the house but she added insult by making the husband work so hard on cleaning the barrel when it was not necessary.

She shows no remorse, no guilt, no feeling. She did not love her husband. Peronella says, Take this light my good man and see if is cleaned to your satisfaction. This quote may be the most bothersome quote in the entire book. She asked her lover to check if her husband had done a good job cleaning the barrel. The husband had no idea who the man was or what had transpired while he was busy cleaning.

Peronella did not care she had no values or morals. There are other instances where On the Ninth Day, Second Story, Boccachio once again shows how he feels about women. First, he shows them without morals and values as he does in the other stories, but he also shows them as not intelligent. Religion is a very sacred thing that is based upon morals, values, and the ten commandments.

There is nothing more sacred than being part of the holy order. The abbess, Madonna Usimbalda and Isabetta where part of the covenant which means they were not to have any sexual relations. Once again Boccachio shows woman as sexual objects, not as caring, loving, intelligent people. The Boccachio shows the abbess as not very intelligent because she puts on the priests pants as her veil.

There as a big difference between pants and a veil and the only reason Isabetta had any idea what was going on was because of she saw the pants on her head. That night the abbess was in the company of a priest whom she had often had brought into her bedroom in a chest, and when she heard the noise, fearing that the nuns, in their excessive haste and zeal, might beat down her door, she got up quickly, and dressed, in the dark as best she could; and thinking that she had picked up her folded nuns veil of the sort which is called psalters, she picked up the priests pants instead (p. 129) This quote makes two points. First is that the abbess is the leader of all the nuns. If any female in the whole world should have morals, respect, values it would be her.

Yet Boccachio portrays her as someone that wants sex as does everyone else. Boccachio also portrays her as un-intelligent. When she gets flustered, she mistakes the priests pants for her veil. Boccachio took the leader of the convent and shows her as a cheating, un-intelligent, sex lover.

This shows exactly how Boccachio felt about woman. He took the most holy sacred thing a woman can do and totally tainted it. Boccachio very clearly shows in his writings how he feels about women. He shows them in a very negative light. He takes some of the most sacred things such as marriage and religion and shows the females not caring about what they are supposed to do, having to values, no morals, no sense and doing what they want.

He also puts sex at the focal point for women in many of his stories. He shows women as people that are looking for sex and really do not care about anything else. These woman had no loyalty to God, no loyalty to their husbands and tried their best to cover up what they had done, only admitting after they were caught. No matter what Boccachio says about holding women in the highest esteem he clearly shows in his writing that his statement is not true. Many of his stories are degrading toward woman and in my personal opinion offending to women. It is obvious that Boccachio believed that the female sex was the weaker sex, he did not trust women, and he was sexist.

It is very clear by evaluating the past history of Italy during this time period that Boccachio's feelings were not unique to only him but were felt by all men. It was normal for men to view women as unable of handling money or holding any high political office. It is very difficult for a reader from modern times to view Boccaccio's writing in any other way but narrow minded, vulgar and offensive. This perception may be due to the fact that, historically the oppression of woman suffered by Italian woman because of their gender has been greater than the Anglo societies, especially as regards white women in those Italian women of this time could do very little to improve their situation. It was widely believed that a womans duty was to get married, be a mother and a wife. In our society where women have made so many contributions to the world and particularly to our society it is hard to accept the ideas that are conveyed in the Decameron.

Women of today are much more independant and have fought to be considered equal in a society which not long ago was dominated by men. The Decameron signifies the oppression that the In Europe at this time it was also considered beneficial to give birth to a male rather than a female. Males were considered to be special at birth and grew up with the belief that they more important that females. The men were the people who made the These Italian feminists say that neither laws nor rights conferred upon woman can give her freedom, because they cannot inspire her with self assurance or a deep sense of entitlement that bourgeois men Societies from the time women were very young forced them to be passive. It was unacceptable for a woman to strive to become rich or enter a higher class on her own. Often times the only way a woman could gain high stature in society being alone was to marry a wealthy man after he passed on, becoming a widow.

In this fashion she would inherit the money and become independant although society felt that, if the woman was As another source of information for this paper I spoke to a woman who teaches the Decameron every year to highschool seniors. She views the book as an excellant work to analyze and study. Over the years I have had a number of female students approach me with questions concerning the Decameron as a whole. They want to know why women are degraded in many of the stories. I try to tell the students that the writing is based on the cultural and social beliefs of the time. Over the ten years I have taught this book I have had an overwhelming negative responce to the material presented.

The students really read into the stories and dont think of it as a literal work but as a social problem. I like to see the reactions of the students. I must say as each year goes by there are more students who find the material sexist, and vulgar. As todays society progresses and woman feel more confident they will not stand for being oppressed.

This shows how in the modern times the society has progressed to a point where woman will not except Bibliography:

Research essay sample on Sexual Objects Sexual Relations