Celestina part 3

1.  Celestinas actions lead us to believe even more that she may be bi-sexual.  Celestina decides to "rub" Areusa to make her feel better.  And while she is rubbing Areusas chest Celestina makes a lot of comments about how beautiful and wonderful they are.  It seems as though she is molesting her.  It seems that Celestina is using playing her "mother" card to get whatever she wants.  Including feeling up people.  People may think Celestina is a perfect motherly type that is just trying to help but it is getting obvious that she is just trying to please herself.

The Celestina part 2

3.  Celestina seems very uptight about things pertaining to the potion.  Shy freaks out at Elicia for not finding the ingredients the first time.  She even calls her out on liking   Sempronio, Celistina is telling Elicia to not get all cocky, and act all high and mighty.  Then she proceeds to make Elicia feel worthless by teling her that Sempronio would rather have Celestina any day over Elicia.  Finally she starts to pray to a god (Pluto) for his help.  However she then proceeds to threaten a god.  Which is just ridiculous because gods are known to be completely over powering to a human.  She threatens to go down to the underworld and mess everything up which just is ridiculous there is no way she could accomplish this.  We do not normally see this darker side of Celestina it must be because she is super worried that things might go wrong.  So she has to act like a really mean person to make sure things go perfect.

Celestina part 1

1.  The first act takes place in a garden because a garden is generally used for a peaceful setting and a romantic setting.  Calisto uses this setting so that when he tells Melibea about how he loves her it will seem more romantic.  However Melibea is appalled and says that no man can talk to her like that.  Calisto makes it seem that he already has Melibea, and says that she is his reward, making it seem that Calisto and Melibea will already be together.  Melibea takes offense to this saying she is no ones awards, however it could be possible that she is a little flattered by his words.

4.  Celistina is a very interesting character.  She is old, has some money, and has been with a lot of people.  She has a whore house and is the lead woman in the whore house.  However she also still retains her religion seeing as how she goes to church often.  Also everyone in the town seems to know who she is showing that the whole town might go to her whore house.  Also she seems to be rather wise, seeing as how she has been with so many people.  

The Decameron day 6

9.2  The nuns reaction makes her seem like a hypocrite.  She is yelling at the girl for having sexual relations while at the same time the nun was discovered to be having sexual relations also.  It also makes sin not relevant at all.  They believe that as long as you do it discreetly its ok.  which is completely false seeing how god is all knowing and all seeing.  If people are not going to follow the rules then they might as well not have rules at all.

9.3  I would say Calandrino's friends are more guilty.  Their friend was given money and even though it was not a lot he just wanted to buy some land.  While his friends would rather have him spend it on them all.  His friends basically stole the money from him and thats just not right.  Its one thing to play a trick on someone for fun, but to make the person spend his money on you in the process is just messed up.  Also Calandrino was very mean to his wife making it seem like it was her fault he was pregnant which is just mean.  It shows how woman had a very small role in society in the time period.

Decameron day 5

7.3  Do you think that Agnesa was tricked into "being with Rinaldo" or would you say she wanted him?  

At first when I read this i thought for certain she wanted Rinaldo, and was not affected by his cunning ways.  I also figured she liked Rinaldo she does say he is good looking, but i find it hard to believe that a mother would sleep with her sons godfather.  However after i saw how easily her husband was tricked i had to second guess myself because maybe she was just as gullible as him. 

7.4   This story involves a lot of trickery to the Tofano, why do you think that in a lot of these stories the innocent people are the ones who have a down fall?

A lot of the stories will have the innocent person be tricked into the wrong.  In this one Tofano was just trying to live his life, and when he was suspicious about his wife's behavior he wanted to catch her for it.  Yet at the end of the story he gets locked out of his castle and he ends up allowing his wife to cheat on him as long as she does it discretely.  This is a common theme in a lot of the books and i think it is very wrong how they allow the "good guys" to be the ones who get screwed over.

5.9  What do you think about the irony in Federingo's choice to feed his love the bird?

I found it very ironic how all Federingo wanted was to have Monna be happy and impressed by him.  Yet all he needed to do was to give her his falcon to save her sons life, however Federingo thought it would be more important for Monna to have a great meal.  If Federingo knew that she wanted the falcon there is no doubt that he would have given it to her in a second.  Yet he wanted to impress her, when really she did not want to be impressed.  Its a sad story and it got me really mad that all he had to do was give Monna the falcon and her son would be healed.

6.7  Do you agreee with Madonna's case in cheating with her husband or do you think she was wrong?

In a perfect world no-one would cheat on their significant other and if you married someone you would be faithful to that person only.  However as this story shows we do not live in a perfect world.  Monna decided to sleep with another man because she was in love with him, not because he was "really good looking" or because she just needed another man.  In that case it could be understandable why she would cheat on him.  She also has a good argument as to why she did it.  She always "pleases" her man, and tries her hardest to make him happy, and all she wanted was to be with the one she loved, which is understandable to a degree.  I agree with Madonna's case and the only reason why i do is because she says she is in love with the person she cheated on her husband with.

Decameron Part 2

3.  The seventh story was one of the more interesting one.  This story shows us how a very good looking girl has immense power over men, whether people like to believe it or not.  She is able to be very flirtatious and uses her sexuality to gain what she wants, and it worked out very well. She is able to make men her slaves basically, she even gets brothers to fight for her, and one of the brothers kills the other.  It just goes to show how much woman have power over men.

2.  This story says a decent amount about humanity.  First off it shows how a mother who losses everyone she loves, decides it would be easiest to live in a cave and with deer.  It seems that she just needs to be around a "family", and also that she seems to need a male figure to help her out.  However it also shows how much a mother would do for her son, seeing as she will help him escape jail, no matter what.

The Decameron Questions 1

1.2 Bottom of page 41-42  "I don't like them one bit....I tell you most frankly that i would allow nothing to prevent me from becoming a Christian.  So, let us go to church, and there, according to the custom of your holy faith i shall be baptized.

This quote is a very interesting one.  It starts off with the jewish man saying how appalled he is with how the cardinols and the bishop acted, and that they were doing the devils work.  Yet at the end he decides to become a christian due to their views.  It is just ironic how he talks about how vile the catholic people were acting and how everything was against their religion yet he decides to become Catholic anyways.

1.3 Middle page 47.  "And let me say the same thing to you, my lord, concerning the three laws given to three peoples by God our Father which are the subject of the question you put to me: each believes itself to be the true heir to possess the true law, and to follow the true commandments, but whoever is right, just as in the case of the rings still undecided."

This quote is interesting because this quote shows how smart the rich jew was, and how he could not be easily tricked.  It also showed how generous the jew was because he still decided to give the Saladin the money anyways out of kindness.  It also shows how he was able to twist the Saladin's words around into a very clever story.

1.4 Page 49.  "But sir, i have not been a member of the order......I shall sin no more in this respect; on the contrary, i shall always behave as i have seen you behave."

This quote is actually very funny.  It shows how the Monk outsmarts the Abbot.  It is very funny how he was able to trick the abbot like this, however it does show how even and Abbot can sin.  Both the Abbot and the monk have done wrong in the church and both know it, which is why they decide to never let anyone no.