Read Boccaccio's account of the plague in Florence at the link below. What can you tell about Boccaccio's values and concerns from this account? In what ways might seeing the kinds of things he describes affect his writing and his general view of life?Thursday, April 5, 2012
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Boccaccio Extra Credit
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Kelsey Reis
After reading Boccaccio’s view on the plague I can tell he has good values and was concerned about what was happening to people during this time. He talked a lot about how people acted during the plague. During this time, many priest and nobles (officials) had either become too sick, or have died, to keep order in the town. Many people felt free to do as they pleased. Also once the plague started spreading, many doctors who were treating sick patients also became sick and died, so this opened the door for medical quacks, and very poor treatments for sick people. People knew that as soon as they seen the first symptoms (swelling in the groin or armpits, or bloody nose) they usually had about three days to live. Some people would lock themselves inside, away from everyone, and ration their food because they thought it would help them survive. Rich people would try to pay off their servants, or others to care for them, but not many people would just because they knew it would result in death.
People of Florence were living in fear! Many people didn’t touch things the sick had touched; because they would die instantly; like the two pigs and the rag. Others seen every day as their death, so they lived it up with drinking and partying constantly; and wanted to live a fulfilled life. Some people even went as far as abandoning their brothers, sisters, spouses, and children to promise their selves they will live. If people did keep in contact it would be from afar. You could tell that while Boccaccio was talking about the conditions, he didn’t agree and felt very merciful and sorrow for the living conditions and the people.
Another crazy thing was the deaths. Before this a death would have a funeral, with a proper burial and service. But once death became so common, priests were running out of sacred burial ground, and tired of giving each person a proper burial, they dug a huge pit to put the bodies in, and kept adding a layer of dirt until the pit was full.
I think this really affected Boccaccio’s life. For him to see all this things, and be able to live and write about it has to make him really respect and value his life. He wrote about some really crazy, and un-human like things, which I think gave him perspective and made him cherish his life. If he didn’t, I don’t think he would have written about this for other generations to read about and learn how valuable life is. I also this it affected his writing. When writing about the plaque, he didn’t show any disrespect for how the people acted. He simply wrote about what he seen or heard but didn’t site his opinion too much, or make it bias. He explained the plaque good, but not to much to where it would upset people reading about it, or make it not interesting enough.
Boccaccio makes many references that can point to his values and beliefs.
ReplyDeleteI, personally, liked Boccaccio's comment on how "huge numbers of men and women abandoned their rightful city, their rightful homes, their relatives and their parents and their things, and sought out the countryside, as if the wrath of God would punish the iniquities of men with this plague based on where they happened to be, as if the wrath of God was aroused against only those who unfortunately found themselves within the city walls." This comment greatly emphasizes Boccaccio's views on religion.
In the passages, one can also see Boccaccio's view of family and how he finds in sad, unfortunate, and terrible that parents would abandon visiting their children and siblings would lose contact to avoid the plague.
Along with this comes Boccaccio's view of how horrible it is that family members would be abandoned in times when they needed them most or were ill and needed care but had no one.
Boccaccio mentions how the plague leads to a decomposition of morals, whether through the incompetent physicians or the greedy gravediggers who, against the deceased's wishes would take them to whichever church was closest and then demand high wages.
The main things I see in Boccaccio's writing is his saddness toward all that's happening around him. This doesn't mean just the plague but what the plague did to the people of Florence. He is upset by watching such a beautiful city disintegrate before his eyes.
I feel the biggest value represented in Boccaccio's account of the plague is how humans abandoned humans in their darkest hours. He was most pained by the family unit being broken up. He gave examples of rich-poor, noble l-peasant, and rural-city, it didn't matter. The same thing was happening everywhere. Society was breaking down in the face of adversity and Boccaccio didn't like it....but he came to understand it. Shocking as his descriptions may be, he describes Florence and Europe as becoming desensitized. A word I know a lot about. When someone sees such horrible things on a regular basis or just knowing that one might see these things, causes the defense mechanism "desensitize." Cruel treatment of the dead, ones neighbors, even one's own family became acceptable as a mechanism for survival. Sad, but understandable.
ReplyDeleteHe also points out that no matter how one chose to live their life, everyone was equally affected. He gave a good description of the “partiers.” This is the group I like to think I’d be in, enjoying every day like it was my last…leaving it all on the field, but in all actuality I’d probably be the guy that grabbed the wife and kids and headed to the hills; Ted Kaczynski style without the pipe bombs.
I honestly think witnessing something of this nature would drive Baccaccio 'mad'. The theme for the Decameron is the struggle between the life and death in multiple ways for which life can assert itself. The brigade of young people abandon the hell of the plague-infested city, where death ruled and suffering was consequences. For the Eden of the country side where they formed a sweet and harmonious society.
ReplyDeleteSocial and economic effects were huge. People abandoned their friends and family to flee the city. They shut themselves off from the outside world. Funerals rites were stopped. Some felt that they should only live to eat, drink, and be happy, for they would die tomorrow. The faith in religion also decreased after the plague caused the death of so many clergy.
The economy underwent an abrupt and extreme inflation. It was dangerous to produce good. All animals that came in contact with the disease die almost right away. Like the two pig that started to smell one of the sicks rag, and then they started to chew it, with only a few seconds later they were dead. So all produced had to be imported from afar. People also want a rise in their wages.
I could not imagine living though all of this. The hardest part to overcome is the fact of mothers and fathers leaving their children and refusing to visit. It is just sad, and unthinkable.