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Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Gardens of Paradise

In the frame story of The Decameron, the storytellers withdraw to idyllic country garden settings in which to escape the hell of the plague in the city and experience the illusion of paradise. On the third day, they move to a palace with a walled garden that symbolizes paradise on earth as well as the states of perfection and innocence. In this particular garden, the collections of animals and plants are an allusion to the biblical Garden of Eden, and the fountain is an allusion to the fountain of the water of life, a feature of heaven, according to the Book of Revelation. The walls shut out the sin and evil of the outside world and create a world of purity. On the seventh and eighth days, the companions visit the Valley of the Ladies, another form of paradise, in which wild animals act tame and humans immerse themselves in the clear waters of nature.

Music and Dancing

In the frame story of The Decameron, music and dancing create structure and texture, personify themes, and express emotions. The two pleasurable activities are constant elements of each day’s events, practiced impulsively as well as at predictable times. The storytellers sometimes dance during their daily walk at dawn. They sing and dance between breakfast and siesta and again after the day’s storytelling is complete. These intervals of music and dance add sensual texture to the story frame and help place the storytellers in an idyllic world of the imagination. A favorite dance, the carole, is performed in a ring, echoing the wheel of fortune and the cycle of time. The nightly scene of the companions dancing around a fountain is the most memorable image of the book. Every evening ends with an emotional song on the theme of love.

Travel

Characters in The Decameron stories travel frequently, and their travels are associated with story themes, especially fortune. On the second day, when all the stories are about fortune, several stories feature sea journeys, a particularly unpredictable way to travel at that time. In one of the stories from the third day, Gilette, the doctor’s daughter, travels to capture her husband. Her husband travels to escape his unwanted marriage, after which Gilette travels to follow him and convince him to love her. Gilette travels by her own choice, so her journeys reveal both her intelligence and her willingness to submit to the chances of fortune.

The frequency of travel in the stories helps fill in the overall picture of life in Boccaccio’s time. In the fourteenth century, Florence and other Italian cities had prosperous economies based on international trade. Then, as it is now, travel was a sign of individual and societal prosperity.

Money

Many of the stories in The Decameron revolve around money transactions that reflect the themes of fortune, love, and intelligence. Characters acquire fortunes because Fortune smiles upon them, and they lose their fortunes when Fortune turns against them. The Count of Antwerp recovers his riches as well as his honor after Fortune turns back in his favor. Because of Gilette’s wealth, not just her intelligence, she can buy her way to Paris and into the king’s presence and pay for travel and lodging when she pursues her husband. Money features in transactions of love as well, as when a woman charges 500 gold florins for a chance to sleep with her and her client borrows the money from the woman’s husband. 

As with travel, the recurring element of money sharpens the picture of fourteenth-century Florence, the setting in which Boccaccio’s stories flourish. In this prosperous city, the new wealth of merchants, bankers, and traders is gradually replacing the older wealth of aristocrats who own land.

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