decameron day 2

         I like how the beginning we hear a very strong statement about nuns and how their beliefs about suppressing the urge to have sex are never full-proof, and that they cannot ever suppress the very human desire for love and lust. The reader knows right off the bat that the ensuing story is going to be really offensive to some. Unlike the stories of love in that the troubadours sung, or the poetry of the hispano-arabic kind, this story is all about lust, not love. It's theme is that everyone has the natural desire of sex, and one has to ask the question, is it forbidden because it is bad, or bad because it is forbidden? Nuns cannot have sex, but if no one knows about it (a sin hidden is a sin half forgiven), then it can will be easily wiped away at confession. but if the sin is known by others, it never will go away. Humans will have sex, it is just that if you must be celibate, you are, even if you;re not, by being discreet. It is only the facade that really matters.
          The story of the scholar and the widow seemed to me like a fantasy of a spurned man. Perhaps the author had troubles with deceitful women in the past, and either returned the betrayal is kind, or failed to. There was a part in the story where the scholar says that the value of a scholar in one day is worth more than a hundred thousand wicked women for all time. This is clearly objectively not true. This a good story to demonstrate when a human's base desires are kept in check with reason in the case of the scholar, and on the other hand, left unchecked and uncontrolled with the widow. The widow desires the scholar , either because she desires sex or love at the loss of her lover, and fails to recognize the danger of falling for one who has only contempt for her. She doesn't see it, because she hopes for his love, she falls for his facade because she could not believe otherwise. This story, and others stories I've noticed in the Decameron demonstrate that woman have the same desire as men, the only difference is that the men get the better deal.