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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Ghismunda do when she sees her father will not look for another husband for her?

2. Where does the monk take a woman?

3. Where does Alibech set out on her quest?

4. Why does Rustico agree to allow Alibech to remain with him?

5. What does Giannotto di Civigni want to do?

Short Essay Questions

1. What eventually transpires between Masetto and one of the nuns?

2. What do the village women tell Alibech after she explains how she put the devil back into hell with Rustico.

3. What bothers Brother Alberto about one of the women who comes to him for confession?

4. How does Masetto come to the attention of the abbess?

5. Why does Isabetta cry over a pot of basil?

6. How dies Alatiel end up on the island of Majorca?

7. What does Alibech learn from Rustico?

8. Describe the happy occasion for Alatiel as she prepares to get married.

9. How does the handsome Masetto manage to become the gardener for a convent of eight nuns and an abbess?

10. How does Tancredi discover the affair between Ghismunda and Guiscardo?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay of at least two typewritten, double spaced pages on the topic, The Sin of Getting Caught. Use examples from THE DECAMERON to show how the thing people are often sorriest for is that of getting caught. Contrast Peronella and Brother Alberto to show how getting caught is what brings a person down.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay of at least two typewritten, double spaced pages on the topic, Women as the Weaker Sex in THE DECAMERON. Use at least three different examples of how women are seen as inferior to men and more susceptible to moral transgression than men as seen in the book. Discuss how this idea not only plays out in the tales but also in the acceptance of the women gathered in the group of story tellers.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay of at least two typewritten, double spaced pages on the topic, THE DECAMERON as a Forerunner to Novels with Sexual Themes. First discuss the largely sexual nature of THE DECAMERON. Then compare the work to Henry Fielding's TOM JONES, Daniel Defoe's MOLL FLANDERS, and Henry Miller's TROPIC OF CANCER.

(see the answer keys)

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