From the structure alone, it is obvious that The Heptameron was enlivened by The Decameron. Marguerite de Navarre makes ten profoundly educated French characters with an equivalent number of men and women in the gathering. They are at an upscale spa at Cauterets, which is located in the Pyrenees. A flood, the consequence of an overwhelming rain, has made the roads blocked, and the ten cannot leave the mountain village. Realizing that they will have a lot of time to pass, the gathering chooses to substitute recounting stories. They will tell one tale each for the same number of days as they are caught.
In a preamble, the author clarifies that her use of Boccaccio's style will contrast in that her characters vow to recount tales about genuine occasions as opposed to causing them to up. In The Heptameron, there are in reality references to real individuals, including the author and her brother the king. It is not known, in any case, if the stories are generally precise and provided that this is true, to what degree. By and large, the work is drawn nearer as fiction. A further differentiation between the two works is that in The Heptameron, the listeners remark on the tales as they hear them with the goal that different understandings are displayed.
The arrangement of stories told by the ten characters on the first day epitomizes the structure of the book. On the very first day, a tale is described a proctor named St. Aignan and his wife. His wife makes her better half slaughter her lover who is the son of a Lieutenant-General. The following tale recounts the spouse of a muleteer of Amboise who inclines toward death because of a worker instead of surrendering her virtuousness. In the third tale, the Queen of Naples seeks to retaliate for the disloyalty of her husband, King Alfonso. The ineffective endeavors of a Flemish man of his word to win over a princess is investigated in the fourth tale of the first day. In the fifth tale, a boat woman of Coulon tries to escape from a couple of merciless Gray Friars.
The wife of a duke's valet shields her lover from her better half in the sixth tale. Tale seven includes a Parisian trader who is associated with a circumstance between a mother and daughter. The eighth tale spins around a wedded man who wants his maidservant. To this end, he is helped by a companion. Things get confused, and at last the man makes himself a cuckold. In the penultimate tale of the first day, an honorable man dies of hopelessness, as he cannot marry a lady more extravagant and nobler than he. The last tale of the first day recounts a woman, her lover, Amadour, and of how she in the long run turns into a nun.
The tales that make up The Heptameron are engaging however can likewise be seen on different levels. The characters discuss the tales and differ about the topics secured show the distinctive moral codes and cultural standards that characterized cultures of the timespan. The narratives are regularly off bawdy and manage the shabby side of life, with foul play, ravenousness, and betrayal among the common subjects.
