The Decameron Fifth Day Summary & Analysis

Summary: All Fifth-Day Stories

Fiammetta’s day of rule begins at dawn when she escorts her companions onto a broad and grassy plain to listen to the songs of the birds. Late in the afternoon, they gather again by the fountain to tell stories. Fiammetta has asked for adventures of lovers who survive misfortune and attain happiness.

Panfilo, the first storyteller, tells of Cymon, whose father sends his love, Iphigenia, to Rhodes to marry another man. Cymon intercepts Iphigenia’s ship, captures his love, and marries her after more adventures at sea. The second speaker, Emilia, tells about a woman who sails off alone out of despair but reaches Tunis, where she finds her lost lover still alive. The other speakers also produce adventurous love stories with happy endings. Elissa tells of a lover who is captured by brigands. The lovers in Pampinea’s story almost get burned at the stake.

Summary of Selected Story: Fifth Day, Fourth Story

Filostrato promises that his story will make them laugh to make up for the sorrow he caused them the day before. He tells of a virtuous and reputable couple whose daughter, Caterina, grows up to be a great beauty. Caterina’s parents hope to marry her to a nobleman. She falls in love with Ricciardo, a young associate of her father.

Ricciardo returns Caterina’s love, but the lovers have nowhere they can meet privately. Ricciardo suggests that Caterina start sleeping on a balcony, where he can then climb up to meet her. Caterina begins complaining to her parents that she can’t sleep because her room is too hot. She claims she will sleep better if she can be outside, listening to the songs of the nightingale. Caterina persuades her parents to place a bed on the balcony. The bed has curtains around it for the sake of modesty. That night, Ricciardo climbs up and joins Caterina in bed, and they listen to the nightingale all night long.

The next morning Caterina’s father goes out on the balcony to see if Caterina has slept better. He draws back a corner of the curtain and sees Ricciardo and Caterina lying naked together. Caterina’s father retreats quietly, fetches his wife, and brings her to see the nightingale their daughter has captured. The sight shocks Caterina’s mother, but her husband reminds her that Ricciardo, who is rich and of noble blood, is just the sort of son-in-law they want. So Caterina’s parents awaken the lovers and insist that they get married right away. After a brief ceremony, everyone goes back to bed. Caterina and Ricciardo hear the nightingale several more times before they get up again.

Summary: Conclusion of the Fifth Day

After the tenth story of the fifth day, Fiammetta turns the crown over to Elissa. Elissa decrees that the next day’s stories will be about people who avoid danger and discomfiture with sharp retorts or shrewd actions. After supper, Emilia begins to dance, and Elissa asks Dioneo to sing. Dioneo makes several bawdy suggestions, which Elissa dismisses as not nice. Dioneo finally chooses a song that asks Cupid to make a lady fall in love.

Analysis: Fifth Day

Fiammetta, the ruler of the fifth day, continues her efforts to offset the negative effects of the day before, caused by Filostrato’s obsession with the sorrows of lost love. Fiammetta’s rules call for love stories with happy endings as well as for adventure. The ten companions still inhabit the enchanted palace and garden they reached on the third day, and Fiammetta directs her efforts toward restoring that sense of paradise and total isolation from the world.

All the tales on the fifth day illustrate the power of love. Love has the power to attract two lovers to each other and to help them meet challenges to their love. Differences in social status and lack of parental approval are the two most common obstacles to be overcome. The storytellers add more obstacles in the form of adventures, such as sailing across dangerous seas, being captured by brigands, and being tied to a stake. The lovers’ many close brushes with death expand on the theme of the fragility of life. These additional plot twists also add fantasy to the stories and move the tone of the day even farther from reality.

Filostrato, aware of the disapproval of Fiammetta and her supporters, makes amends with a sweet, romantic tale that also makes people laugh. Filostrato’s story has stock characters, two young lovers, and a conventional plot in which the lovers marry and live happily ever after. The young lovers do not have the usual differences in class and wealth. The only obstacles to their passion are normal parental oversight and prevailing morality. Filostrato uses the song of the nightingale as a euphemism for having sex, which is the source of many of his jokes. With the reaction of Caterina’s parents, Filostrato injects a note of pragmatism and cynicism into his sweet romance. The parents’ fear of scandal, combined with their greed for a wealthy son-in-law, leads to the instant wedding and happy ending.

Filostrato’s story continues his rivalry with Fiammetta and their argument over the purpose of their storytelling. On the fourth day, Fiammetta does not approve of Filostrato’s topic of love stories that end unhappily, so her story’s ending goes beyond unhappy to horrible (a basil plant grows out of the lover’s head). Now, on the fifth day, Filostrato produces the sweet romance and happy ending that Fiammetta wants, but he also reminds his listeners that marriage is a social contract negotiated for money and status, not mere love.

The conclusion to the fifth day exposes a conflict between Elissa, the new queen, and Dioneo. As in the conflict between Filostrato and Fiammetta, it is a disagreement over the subject matter of art. Dioneo, a charming scoundrel who loves to tease, suggests several songs with bawdy titles, knowing that Elissa, a conventional person, will disapprove. After teasing Elissa, Dioneo finally performs a “nice” song, a plea to Cupid to make a lady aware of Dioneo’s love. As usual, Boccaccio names no names when it comes to the companions’ private affairs, so the reader does not know if or why Dioneo’s song is directed toward Elissa. However, the way Dioneo teases her hints that he may be romantically interested in Elissa.

Previous section Fourth Day Next section Sixth Day