SOURCE: Almansi, Guido. “Passion and Metaphor.” In The Writer as Liar: Narrative Technique in the “Decameron,” pp. 133-57. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975.

In the following excerpt, Almansi presents a psychological interpretation of Boccacio's first novella of the fourth day in the Decameron, theorizing that Tancredi's murder of his daughter's lover is rooted in his own incestuous feelings for her.

Here is an outline of the plot of the first novella of the Fourth Day. Tancredi, Prince of Salerno, has a deep affection for his daughter, Ghismonda. So at first he is slow to arrange a marriage for her. Later, when she returns to her father's palace as a widow at a still youthful age, he unwisely postpones any arrangements for her to re-marry. Ghismonda feels that she is left with no alternative but to take herself a lover, and after carefully reviewing all the young men who attend...