A Critical Study of ‘Hecatommithi’ by Giraldo Cinthio
To fully understand and appreciate these literary works, we should perhaps
try to identify their necessary genre. It is not accurate to label them as
simply 'short stories' which are often forums for experimentation and invention.
These stories on the other hand are quite clearly instructive, and succinct.
They have a singular purpose, to point out some aspect of human vice which
makes them more comparable to Aesop's fables. However both Cinthio and Maupassant
dispense with metaphorical and allegorical devices. It may suffice then, to
label these works, morality tales.
While some three hundred years separate their composition, their structural
conventions are very similar, at the very least in their tragic conclusions.
But in addition, both stories begin with an introduction of the pivotal central
character that will act out the moral lesson. Most immediately we are provided
with a list of their virtues. The Moor was 'very valiant and of a handsome
person'. Mathilde was 'one of those pretty and charming young creatures'.
Presumably this convention is important to both authors because it positions
the protagonists for a fall, suggesting the fallibility of even the most virtuous
examples of humanity while in addition, a fall from grace gives the protagonist
and the reader a point of comparison by which to better judge the nature of
the error and the process of retribution and redemption. It is of course also
the formula of the archetypal morality tale of Adam in the Garden of Eden.
Next in the structural development of the stories is insinuation of vice which
will become the source of the characters' undoing. The Moor's 'testimony of
his valour' is marred by a seeming impulsiveness and rashness. He is described
as 'impatient', 'troubled' and his behaviour is melodramatic and indiscrete.
Mathilde's vice is vanity; 'feeling herself born to enjoy all delicacies and
all luxuries'. The authors then introduce the serpent or the instrument of
deception which panders to the protagonists' vice - For the Moor it is the
evil Ensign. For Mathilde it is the Diamond Necklace. The fall then becomes
manifest, culminating in each character's punishment and finally enlightenment.
It would be lazy to take a flippant view of the literariness of these tales
given their straightforward purpose and conventional narration. Close inspection
of the text provides much ground for thought and reveals distinct styles.
Multiple allusions to parts of the human anatomy, assembles an underlying
symbolic structure in Cythnio's work. Cynthio identifies the complex interaction
between the passive parts of human perception - eyes, ears, the responsive
objects of human emotion - heart and head, and the often malign tools of human
action or persuasion - tongue and hands. Cinthio's language is often hyperbolic.
For instance we are told that the Ensign was 'of the most depraved nature
in the world'. Elsewhere meaning is cemented with repetition of key words
and superlatives, for instance in the opening three paragraphs there are more
than fifteen words synonymous with bravery and honour. At all times Cinthio
seems to be conscious of a need to portray the very extremes of human emotion.
His characters are 'overjoyed' or in 'deep melancholy'. Relations between
characters range from a 'harmony and peace. that no word ever passed between
them that was not affectionate and kind', to 'such an enmity. that no greater
or more deadly can be imagined'. Consequently, Cinthio's work is identifiable
with English, Elizabethan literature such as The Faerie Queene and Paradise
Lost in the sense that it aims to present a typically Christian, clear-cut
and comprehensive vision of human nature, as black and white, affording no
place for moral ambiguity or middle ground - man is destined to work toward
or to work against God's will. The voice of the narrator as it appears to
us fleetingly in personal pronouns is the voice of Cinthio feigning the idiosyncratic
role of storyteller; exaggerating the various characters and forces at work
in the story and taking pains to impute the central message wherever possible.
The author is playful with the conventions of his medium, summarising his
tale with an affirmation of its purpose of extolling Christian justice and
finally an explanation of whence it came as though ironically also affirming
its truth - 'Thus did Heaven avenge the innocence of Disdemona; and all these
events were narrated by the Ensign's wife, who was privy to the whole, as
I have told them here'.
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