5.8
What are the greater implications of Nastagio's plan? Is the marriage and love between him and his great love genuine? How might it be viewed by society?

Nastagio had to witness the fate of a man whose life was devoted into an unrequited love in order to change. Nastagio could have been destined for eternal damnation just as knight Anastagi is. He would have kept loving his maiden regardless of his trip outside of town; he did not want to be there or learn from his actions/situation. Nastagio, unlike the knights or protagonists in other stories we have read, is in a relationship where his maiden is actually cruel and spiteful towards him to the point where he is physically/mentally wounded. The tale is almost tragic in the fact that the maiden loves Nastagio simply to avoid going to hell! Though he tricks her and ultimately gets what he is after, his marriage to the maiden is not genuine. The love she has for him is out of self preservation and fear. In turn, I don't think the marriage is viewed respectable that society. They all viewed knight Anastagi's destiny and heard what he had to say. The effects of this were almost immediate in Nastagio's love. I thought the story had a very sad tone after all, even though everyone ended up "happy" at the end.

6.7
How is language used yet again? What are the wife's views about life/death? How are her actions/ testimony viewed?

Woman and the use of language to gain power is yet again present. In this case, it is the simple matter of life or death. Madonna does not attempt to lie or twist her feelings to save herself from death. To Madonna, it is worse to live a lie and go against the love that was "more worthy" than her own life, than to die. Death was not the easy way out for her. Furthermore, she used language to gain sympathy and trust by the jury. However, she also used the right timing of language. She did not deny the affair, but asks if it is a legitimate case if she has never displeased her husband? She claims that she never robbed him of anything. In the tale, and much of the other stories in The Decameron, sex is placed above all else. Giving her husband her body is all that mattered; thus she is free. I really enjoyed this one because I feel like the woman is extremely genuine. Reason and rationality are used to get what each character is after (the husband and his trial, and the wife's innocence). Though the woman is immersed in this "perfect love" she does not go CRAZY like most of the other protagonists we have read about.