Le identità di Griselda attraverso il suo rapporto coniugale in Boccaccio, Petrarca e Chaucer

Abstract

The last tale of Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron is especially famous for its illustration of the obedient wife. Griselda is the tale’s protagonist that undergoes the ordeals created by her husband, the Marquis of Saluzzo. Their marriage has been seen as the representation of male dominance and female submission in the Medieval period and has attracted many writers to reinterpret the complex relationship in the tale. Francis Petrarch and Geoffrey Chaucer are two of the later writers who have created their own versions of the tale. Petrarch’s Insignis obedientia et fides uxoria and Chaucer’s Clerk’s Tale reproduce the original plot, but add significant changes in their styles of narration. The purpose of my thesis is to analyze the different identities each author emphasized in Griselda’s character. I demonstrate how her relationship with her husband changes depending on the most prominent identity in her character and each author’s narrative strategy. This literary analysis makes use of a wide range of critical lenses, from biblical texts to 20th century French philosophers, to demonstrate Griselda’s identity, whether as a mother, a wife, or a female, in her relationship towards her husband. I show that her female submission renews itself depending on the identity that she takes on in each version of the tale.