“Raven” Boccaccio in brief summary
The name of the work is symbolic: the raven is a bird, pecking out the eyes and the brain, that is, blinding and depriving the mind. We learn about such love from the story of the main character.
So, the rejected lover dreams a dream. He turns out to be alone at night in a gloomy valley and meets there a spirit that warns him that the entrance to this valley is open to everyone who is attracted to voluptuousness and recklessness, but it is not easy to get away from here, it will take both intelligence and courage. Our hero is interested in the name of such an unusual place in which he found himself, and he hears in response: there are several variants of the name of this valley – the Labyrinth of Love, the Enchanted Dol, the Pig of Venus; and the inhabitants of these places – unhappy, once consisted at the Court of Love, but rejected by it and exiled here in exile. The spirit promises to help the lover get out of the labyrinth, if he will be frank with him and tell
A few months before the events described, our hero, a forty-year-old philosopher, a connoisseur and connoisseur of poetry, talked with his friend. It was about outstanding women. In the beginning, the heroines of antiquity were mentioned, then the interlocutors switched to contemporaries. A friend began to praise a lady of the same name, listing her dignity, and while he was ranting, our narrator thought to himself: “The lucky one is someone who will be favored by Fortuna with the love of such a perfect lady.” Secretly deciding to try his luck in this field, he began to question her name, what rank she was, where she lived, and she received exhaustive answers to all questions. After parting with a friend, the hero immediately goes to where he hopes to meet her. Blinded by the beauty of the one about which he had only heard, the philosopher realizes that he has fallen into the network of love, and dares to admit his feelings. He writes a letter and receives a reply note, the essence and form of which leave no doubt that his friend, who so vigorously praised
A surprised spirit interrupts the narrator: “If the matter did not go any further, why did you burst into tears yesterday and with such deep sorrow called death?” The unfortunate responds that two reasons led him to the brink of despair. First, he realized how stupid he was when he believed that a woman could have such high virtues, and, entangled in the networks of love, gave her freedom and subdued reason, and without it his soul became a slave. Secondly, the deceived lover was disappointed in his lover when he found out that she had opened his love to others, and for this he considered her to be the most cruel and insidious of women. To one of her many lovers, she showed the letters of our hero, mocking him as a cuckold. The lover dissolved gossip all over Florence, and soon the unfortunate philosopher became a laughingstock in the city. The Spirit listened attentively and responded with his point of view. “I understood very well,” he said, “how and to whom you fell in love and what led you to such despair.” And now I will name two circumstances that can be reproached for you: your age and your occupation. teach you circumspection and warn against love temptations. You should know that love drains the soul, misleads the mind, takes away memory, destroys the ability. ” All this I experienced, “he continued. – My second wife, having mastered the art of deception, entered my house under the guise of a gentle dove, but soon turned into a snake. Ruthlessly oppressing relatives, running almost all my affairs and harvesting incomes, she brought peace and quiet to the house, but discord and misfortune. One day, unexpectedly, I saw her lover in our house and realized that he, alas, not the only one. Every day I had to endure more and more from this debauchee, whom my reproaches did not care, and so much agony and torment accumulated in my heart that it could not stand it. This insidious woman rejoiced at my death; she settled near the church to hide away from other people’s eyes, and gave vent to her insatiable lust. Here is the portrait of the one you were in love with. It so happened that I visited your world just the next night after you wrote your first letter to your lady. It was already past midnight when I went into the bedroom and saw her having fun with her lover. She read the letter out loud, mocking every word you said. This is how a wise lady laughed at you with her half-witted lover. But you must understand that this woman is not an exception among others. All of them are full of crookedness, the desire to dominate overflows them, no one compares to malice and suspicion with the female sex. And now I want you to avenge this unworthy woman for your offense, which will benefit you as well as her. “
The stunned hero tries to find out why the spirit of this particular man, whom he never knew during his lifetime, responded to his sufferings. The spirit responds to this question: “The guilt for which I am ordered to condemn you for your own good, partly lies on me, since this woman was once mine, and no one could know all of her inauspiciousness and tell you about it so, like I. That’s why I came to treat you for ailment. “
The hero woke up, began to reflect on what he had seen and heard, and made the decision to part with pernicious love forever.
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