Laughter in The Heptameron (Navarre) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Laughter in The Heptameron (Navarre) - Essay ExampleIn First Day, Story One, humour can be found in the way the wife of St. Aignan juggled her husband, the Bishop of Ses and Du Mesnil as her savorrs. Navarre used the womans servant to demo the serving ladys reappraisal on her mistress familiar virtuousity when she wrote The good woman felt sorry for him (Du Mesnil). on that point he was, a good-looking, well-bred young man, so much in love, and so badly hard-boiled in return (Navarre 72). It could be noted that Navarre did not directly criticize the seemingly lack of familiar morality in her characters. The servant was her mouthpiece to point out the fact that Du Mesnil had no moral sexual practice in pursuing her mistress. He was described as good-looking and decidedly capable of finding suitable, eligible love interests. Since he chose to indulge in a married woman, he was partly responsible for the treatment he received when he had no access to his married lover. Du Mesn il had been made the comic fool by his saturnine trust in the woman. He fell into her trap and was slain by St. Aignans servants. It was funny how the wronged and weak brought close upon themselves. Navarre used a combination of dialogue and narrative to show showed how gullible Du Mesnil was Off he went, neer aspiration that she was planning to trap him, while she took his servant back to her house and gave him some supper. (Navarre 73). It was not a wonder that the woman who lacked sexual morality was also lacking in moral scruples. The weak St. Aignan made a fool of himself when we read that he showed off his pretended valor when he thrust his dagger a 12 or so times into the body of the man on whom he would never have dared baffle a finger had he been alive. (Navarre 74). St. Aignan made a risible figure with his false bravery. It was a critique on the weak huaband who could not comment nor do anything on his wifes moral sexuality while his Du Mesnil was alive. It was co mical how events did not turn out the way the characters planned them. St. Aignan planned to get rid of his wife. Navarres narration state that he made a wax doll to cast a spell of ill result on her because he felt that It was she who was at the bottom of all this trouble, and he was quite certain she would never renounce her wicked ways. (Navarre 77). He had no sexual morality because he did not want to prevent the sexual relations that bond him to his wife. The same could be said about the woman. She wanted to rid herself of the obstacle that imposed sexual morality on her so she devised her own measures to save her skin while condemning her husband. Although she did get past criminal jurisdiction for her wickedness, she did not enjoy a good life thereafter. At the end of the story, Navarre revealed that the story teller was Simontaut, whose objective was to chastise women who lacked sexual morality. Navarre incorporated the critique on sexual morality in the form of a witty exchange amongst her story tellers, Simontaut, Parlamente and Oisille. Since this story was a moral condemnation of a womans marital infidelity, Navarre had set the stage for the next story teller, Oisille, who said she was compelled to tell a story to contrast with this and redeem the virtues of good women with good sexual morality. (Navarre 71-78).