race relations in "Disgrace"
Live Without Them
It is extremely natural for scholars of literature to compare The Wife of Bath, who was a character in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, and Monna Giovanna, one of the leading characters in Giovanni Boccacio's short story "Federigo's Falcon," to one another. Both characters are examples of women during the medieval period, and as such, represent females during that period quite well. However, a number of key distinctions can be found between these two characters, particularly in their attitudes towards the institution of marriage, love, and their opinions about men. These differences are perhaps most eminent due to the fact that these women hail from relatively the same class, that of nobility or gentry.
In fact, other than them both being medieval women in literature written during this historical epoch, the one of the principle similarities between both of these characters is that they are noble women, who have access to money and its physical comforts. Both women...
Furthermore, the source of their wealth and property stems from men (which is not surprising, considering they were both married during the time period in which women could primarily make a living by marrying well). Another quite tangible similarity between these characters is that they are both widows at various points during their tales (Monna eventually remarries at the end of "Federico's Falcon").
However, it is largely due to these similarities that the differences between both of these women are so pronounced. Some of these differences can be considered surface-level or cosmetic, such as the fact that physically, The Wife of Bath was highly unappealing whereas Monna was considered quite beautiful. Yet in many ways, these external differences reflect the internal differences that are highly distinct from one another. Mona was emblematic of the conception of a beautiful, "virtuous" (Boccaccio) wife -- who dearly loved and cared for her first…
