The Heptameron Literary Elements

Allegory

Since the book is characterized by storytelling, the setting and context differ from story to story.

There are many narrators who have different views which range from women should be submissive to their husbands and husbands should be loving to their wives.

The tone ranges from jolly to sombre. This is because some of the stories that are told are happy and some are sad. The mood is an excited mood as the characters listen attentively to the stories that are told.

In the various stories, the protagonists are the honest characters who are jilted or wronged by their lovers such as Saint Aignan whose wife had multiple affairs. The antagonists are the characters who wrong the protagonists such as the King of Naples who had an affair with his friend's wife.

The major conflict in the collection of stories is that lovers who have been jilted or wronged by their partners seek to find peace and retribution. For example in the story about Saint Aignan and his adulterous wife, he is enraged by his wife's affairs to the extent where he kills his wife's lover.

The climax in the stories is arrived at when the jilted lovers have their revenge on the people who have wronged them. For example in the story about the King of Naples who had an affair with the wife of his friend, the climax is reached when the wronged man also has an affair with the wife of the king.

The dying man had foreshadowed his death if he was not allowed to marry the girl of his dreams. He later died when he found out that the girl had been betrothed to a man wealthier than him.

Amador understated his love for Florida when he said that, ' … I was overcome with admiration and did not know what to say to her.' His feelings for Florida were much more than admiration for he was deeply in love with her.

Biblical allusion to Adam and Eve. This happened when two brothers had attempted to rape a woman and had been caught. The narrator compares their shame to the shame that Adam felt when he was found naked in the Garden of Eden.

The description of the dying man as, ' The dying man stretched out his emaciated arm and with all the strength remaining in his bones...' The imagery in the description is visual imagery.

The statement, ' They found him more dead than alive ' is a paradoxical statement. This is because a person can either be dead or alive but not both.

The narrator draws a parallel between the noblewoman who cheated on her husband multiple times and the peasant woman who was killed defending her virtue.

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