Decameron Day 2

1. In the 5th tale of the 2nd day were here a story about a man named Andreuccio. Andreuccio starts out a somewhat naive man. He comes to Naples with the intention of buying a horse. However he is careless and is subsequently drawn into a series of adventures. He at first believed everything and soon the world made him cynical. However he also learned to accept personal responsibility and adapted to life in the city. He managed to get himself out of the particular situations he found himself in and for his competence he is ultimately rewarded, with a ruby. This story communicates to necessity to evolve, to change and to adapt. Throughout the story Andreuccio learns more about himself and those around him and when he treats situations properly and acts accordingly he is rewarded. The same is generally true for life, in a broad sense.

2. The 6th tale of the second day is rather interesting as well. The tale centers around a woman and loss. It deals with topics generally dealth with throughout literature. A woman has sons and is at first seems to be somewhat fortunate however due to events that could not be controlled she he relieved of these sons and they go on to find tragedy and eventually happiness.

Run Lola Run

Run Lola Run was an interesting film. The use of multiple episodes revolving around the same general objective was refreshing. As far as gender roles were concerned they were almost reversed, Lola, the female, was in this case attempting to save her boyfriend from a terrible fate instead of the usual damsel in distress set up. It explored a number of themes such as the fragility of fate and integrated a number of interesting conceptsm such as the scream. The film was almost like a true show of free will. Some say that there isn't free will (I for example never had the choice not to write this blog post) because free will implies that one can go back and change a decision they had already made. When in reality we never initially had a choice because we only made one choice. However in Lola rennt we see her go through the sam scenario a number of times, each one with a different outcome.

Last Third of Yvain

In the last third of the Knight of the Lion saw incredible character development. Yvain go caught up in his knightly duties and missed the date set forth by Laudine and is thus refused the right to turn home. This seems to be a result of his immaturity. However he then saves a lion from a serpent and fights many more knights after falling into despair he then decides to find himself and face his past and set forth on a quest to self discovery. He eventually finds a dragon and slays it with the help of the lion, who followed and helped him because his heart was pure and his intentions were noble. Yvain then saves his wife's servant and wins her back. It's an interesting turn of events and a typical plot, a man falls, regains his honor and gets his wife back. But I can't help but feel as if the narrative is a bit ordinary. Obviously he had a resppnsibility to protect the fountain and he quest was representative of his maturity. 

The Knight with the Lion (Day 2)

1. Gawain's speech manages, above all else, to convince Yvain to continue to protect his reputation instead of just take things easy. It promotes struggle above all else and says that a love put of will be much sweeter than a love embraced immiediately. He managed to make a few good points and hte speech does seem to convince Yvain to continue to struggle. Although I think that the agreement made with Laudine was noble there seems to be more in play, I would have certainly considered the offer.

2. Chretien shows Yvain slowly growing tired and the opinions of those around him falling. The great shame of Yvain is the fact that he does nothing and doesn't satisfy his honor or protect his reputation.

Last Third of Erec and Enide

In the last portion of Chretien de Troyes' Arthurian romance Erec and Enide we find a series of changes. Erec seems to grow as a character, becoming more appreciative and noble in a more understandable sense of the word while Enide comes out of her shel sort to speak. Erek starts to appreciate Enide for who she is and proves his love for her through his acts. Through his acts he an Enide bond and there seems to be progress within the story much like there is progress in any relationship or in a society. As he learns to appreciate Enide on a deper level so does Enide learn to appreaciate Erec, the bond then grows and is eventually realized with a number of noble acts. With the death of Erec's father you see a sort of acension from a shallow knight to a king who is ausually supposed to be wiser and wiser he is.

The nobleness of Erec's acts sem to almost correlate to his appreciation and the growth of his love for Enide, beyond just shallow lust. What seemed to be a traditional story had developed quite a bit and explored a umber of themes, from a story of a simple romance to as tory of a knight growinginto a king.