Literary Mastery In Story 36

Words: 569
Pages: 3

Marguerite de Navarre demonstrates her literary mastery in Story 36: The Husband Who Punished His Faithless Wife by Means of a Salad in which two characters, Nicolas and the President of Grenoble, represent the antithesis between the two themes of “messed up” and “awesome.” The contrast between the two characters is displayed in their response to negative situations. When threatened, Nicolas acts out of weakness and cowardice while the President uses his ingenuity to seize the opportunity and walk away victorious. Throughout Story 36, Nicolas, a lowly clerk, demonstrated only weakness and an inability to take responsibility for his actions. In his willingness to become intimate with another man’s wife, Nicolas displayed that he is lacking …show more content…
Upon discovering his wife’s affair with a young clerk, Nicolas, the President devised an unconventional plan to eradicate his problems. The President’s cunning was so great that at one point, Nicolas was convinced that “the President had forgotten what had happened.” After Nicolas and the President’s wife were removed via the President’s plan, his subjects knew none the better and honor remained in the President’s household. Had the President not been able to bridge the gap between ruthlessness and inventiveness, the public would have discovered his wife’s affair and he would have appeared weak to the citizenry. Not only did the President successfully punish those who wronged him, he rewarded those who remained loyal in a time of need. The President’s servant who informed him of the affair was used as a pawn in a larger plan, but was given six years’ salary in advance as compensation, and “knowing how loyal he was, wished to reward him further.” The President’s generosity and desire to expel immorality from his household allows him to exemplify all that is awesome within Story 36 of the Heptameron. Ultimately, Nicolas’ feebleness and narcissism was his downfall while the President made use of his intuition in order to crush those who mistreated