Page 186 - SUMMARIES OF BOCCACCIO’S DECAMERON - A Visionary Journey in 100 Stories and 100 Etchings by Petru Russu

The Scholar and the Widow

This novella recounts a tale of unrequited love, cunning, and poetic
justice. A scholar’s love for a widow turns from suffering to revenge,
showcasing themes of obsession, rejection, and retaliation.

In Bologna, a scholar falls hopelessly in love with a beautiful widow.
However, the widow, enamored of another, has no interest in the
scholar’s affection. Seeing an opportunity for cruel amusement, she
pretends to reciprocate his love and invites him to meet her on a cold

winter’s night.

The scholar, blinded by love, dutifully waits outside her home in the
freezing snow, but she never appears. Humiliated and frozen, he

realizes the widow has deceived him and begins to plot his revenge.

Months later, the scholar hatches a cunning plan. In the height of
summer, he invites the widow to an elaborate meeting, claiming it will

advance her romantic interests. Trusting him, she agrees. Under false
pretenses, she is led to a tower, where she is made to stand naked for
an entire day, exposed to the blazing sun, biting flies, and gadflies.

The widow, tormented and humiliated, endures her ordeal as
passersby witness her shame. The scholar’s calculated retaliation
mirrors her earlier cruelty, delivering a poignant and ironic twist.

Through his stratagem, the scholar achieves poetic justice, but the
tale leaves readers reflecting on the cyclical nature of vengeance and
EXPRESSIVE DISTORTIONS AND the complexities of human emotion.
STRIKING CONTRASTS AMPLIFY
THE EMOTIONAL EXTREMES OF
VENGEANCE AND POETIC JUSTICE
DECAMERON 186 187