Writing in Italy in the 14th century, Boccaccio is caught in the historical dichotomy between the blind adherence to the Church that permeated the Middle Ages and the emerging humanism that characterized the Renaissance. It is clear that Boccaccio chooses to look to the future, as he embraces frivolity and gives scathing portraits of men and women of the Church. He raises the issue of obscenity in his epilogue, anticipating a response of moral objection to his stories. Although Boccaccio acknowledges in his epilogue that his stories can be perceived as amoral, he ultimately argues that morality is not the point of his book and that readers can avoid being offended. Nevertheless, Boccaccio defends certain values ​​in his short stories, namely a personal morality of action and the importance of trifles and humor in life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Boccaccio's epilogue is essentially a defense against the charge of obscenity in his work. He first asserts that the cases of obscenity are slight and do not make the work immoral. His occasional "slight indiscretions of speech", he claims, are akin to the use of words that may have amoral connotations such as "mortar" and "sausage", a practice which he claims is common in the speech. He also lashes out at those who might have a problem with his work, calling them "precious prudes, who weigh words over actions, and care more about appearing good than being good" (005). who say his stories have immoral values ​​while claiming that the attackers could be even more immoral. He does this by saying that offended readers are shallow people who care more about the appearance of morality than actual moral action. It is hard not to consider that this may be an attack specifically on the Church, given its many stories of religious people living private lives of sin. He also compares his work to wine, fire, weapons and even the Bible, all of which are good for humans but also bad "being misused, can cause many mischiefs." And so, I say, so it is with my stories" (012). He then offers some pragmatic and perhaps superficial ways to avoid the problem, noting that stories which may be offensive to a particular reader can simply be ignored since the stories are independent and disconnected And “no one can be mistaken, each one carries on his forehead the summary of what he hides within himself” (019) So far, it seems that Boccaccio is mainly saying. to his audience that obscenity is not important and can be avoided Now he expresses the purpose of his work, contrasting it with more serious activities and asserting that his audience is ladies passing the time. There is also evidence at this point that his defense is superficial in the sense that he does not actually believe that simply skipping an offensive story makes his work harmless. In this way, the epilogue can be seen as a formality. for Boccaccio and an opportunity for him to subtly name those he considers truly immoral. He says that his work was not written seriously nor intended to be (ironically) part of a scientific study, but rather “it was to ladies of leisure that I shared my pain” (021). Interestingly enough, he states that his work has no intellectual purpose and is only intended to be read by women to pass the time. Boccaccio apparently does not seem opposed to having lowered hisstandards, because he does not consider spending ladies' time to be intellectually degrading or insulting. However, the reader gets the impression that Boccaccio is responding sarcastically when he pushes his supposed lack of seriousness in the work to the comic extreme: “I affirm that I am not serious; on the contrary, I am so light that I float. on the water surface; and considering that the sermons of the brethren, while they wanted to rebuke people for their sins, are today, for the most part, full of jokes, happy conceits and drolleries, I thought that similar things would be appropriate for my stories, written as they were, to ban women's dumps. However, if they laugh too much, they can be easily healed by the Lamentation of Jeremiah, the Passion of the Savior or the Lament of the Magdalene” (023-024). Boccaccio describes members of the Church as potentially immoral. His defense seems superficial because of its exaggeration and comedy, and there may be a lack of sincerity in telling the reader to skip the lewd parts and not take his work seriously. The accusations may suggest that he challenges the idea of ​​morality. We feel that even though Boccaccio openly claims that this is a frivolous work, he may attach some sort of value to his stories. This forces us to look at the specific stories. indications that Boccaccio not only had a respect for morality, but also had a purpose for his work other than a trivial hobby. First, there is evidence that Boccaccio values ​​a kind of basic morality in terms of human action in some of the tales. . A number of stories feature people who seem either rewarded for leading a moral life or ultimately punished for leading an amoral life. These characters are rewarded or punished in their real lives, not in the afterlife. In the Second Tale of the Fourth Day, a brother named Alberto is publicly humiliated and is permanently locked up after seducing a lady under the guise of being an angel. The Ninth Tale of the Fifth Day exemplifies this kind of action-based morality. . In this tale, a gentleman named Federigo falls in love with a beautiful and wealthy lady named Monna Giovanna. He spends his savings unsuccessfully courting her, until, after giving up and living in the countryside, she seeks his beloved falcon as a favor for her sick son. Federigo, ignoring this request and having nothing else to serve her, has already served his falcon to Giovanna for breakfast. Finally and thanks to her unwavering goodwill towards him, Giovanna marries Federigo to pay homage to him. The morality that Federigo exemplifies is unwavering despite his degraded situation, and he is ultimately rewarded for this morality. It is clear that this morality is not the result of faith or piety, but rather of simple ethical action. Likewise, Giovanna, to justify her marriage to poor Federigo, declares: “I would rather have a man without wealth than wealth without a man” (043). This stratification echoes Boccaccio's statements attacking those "who weigh words over deeds, and are more concerned with appearing good than being good" (005) discussed earlier, allowing us to assume that Boccaccio is indeed a supporter of this type of morality. Additionally, Boccaccio tends to portray many of his characters who are part of the Church as immoral by exploiting their status within the Church. Brother Alberto, as previously mentioned, uses his status as a priest to seduce a woman. In addition, he makes his mistress believe that the Archangel Gabriel is in love with her and comes to her through her body. In this sense, he directly uses figures from the Church to.