Chastity
The tales that comprise this volume may lack the bawdiness found in Boccaccio’s Decameron, which inspired the author, but what it lacks in sexuality, it more than makes up in spiritual morals. Very often these little life lessons are presented in the form of metaphor:
“chastity in an enamored heart is a thing more divine than human."
Setting the Stage
At other times, the author goes to metaphor to set the stage and lay the foundation for the story—and the moral therein—to come:
"THERE was at Amboise a man who served a princess in the capacity of chamberlain, and who, being an obliging, civil person, gladly entertained people who came to him, especially his own comrades. Not long ago, one of his mistress's secretaries came to lodge with him, and remained ten or twelve days. This secretary was so ugly, that he was more like a king of the cannibals than a Christian."
Descriptive Shortcuts
In between beginnings and endings, Marguerite relies upon the power of metaphor as imagery to convey a scene more effectively and efficiently than might otherwise be done:
“The poor woman did so, and seeing her two women and her man lying dead on the ground, was so horrified, that she remained motionless and speechless as a statue.”
The Cordeliers
The Cordeliers are an order of Franciscan monks founded by St. Francis. Marguerite—a Roman Catholic with distinctly Protestant leanings—reveals a peculiarly focused disregard for the Franciscans in general and the Cordeliers quite specific in the tales and engages metaphor to make her point:
“Nay, ladies, you will be very cruel," he replied, "if you bestow no pity upon a Cordelier whose story I am going to relate to you. You will say, perhaps, as has been already remarked of other incidents of this kind, that they are things which have happened to ladies, and would not have been attempted but for the facility of their execution; but that is not the case: on the contrary, you shall see from the example I am about to adduce, that the Cordeliers are so blind in their lust, that they know neither fear nor prudence."
Women
One of the notable aspects of the Heptameron is the persistent ability of the author to present a portrait of equality between men and women. The stories told present women as the agency of evil just as often as men and likewise she refrains from the temptation to victimize women just as often as she is willing to admit that not all of her sex are blushing roses:
“Since Eve made Adam sin, it has been the business of women to torment, kill and damn men.”
