LIT 231
Prof. G. Steinberg

Response Paper:  Heptameron, Prologue & First Day

Choose one of the following areas as the focus of your response paper:

1. How do the storytellers in the Heptameron compare to the storytellers in Boccaccio’s Decameron?  How does the opening of the Heptameron compare to Boccaccio’s opening?  Boccaccio’s discussion of the Black Death set the stage for his collection of stories, revealing  much about his view of the world.  What does Marguerite’s prologue imply about her view of the world?  How are the implications of the prologue borne out in the first day’s stories?
2. The storytellers on the first day give lots of different views of love, men, and women.  What does Marguerite want us to think by the day’s end?  Are some views of love privileged over others?  Is there a notable trajectory in the evolving viewpoints of the stories?  What is Marguerite’s last word on love?  How does Marguerite’s view of love compare to that of other writers we’ve read this semester?
3. What effect does the fact that each story in the Heptameron is supposed to be completely true have?  Each storyteller is supposed to “tell a story which he has either witnessed himself, or which he has heard from somebody worthy of belief” (p. 69).  Some of the stories have in fact been verified as having actually taken place.  Does their truthfulness matter?  How do these true stories differ from the fictional tales of Boccaccio and Chaucer?  What role has truth about real people played in other works we’ve read this semester (e.g., Dante’s Inferno)?  Is truth better than fiction?  Is truth really always true?

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