Essay/Term paper: Giovanni + lusanna

Essay, term paper, research paper:  College Papers

In the story Giovanni and Lusanna , written and researched by Gene
Brucker, there is a woman who has taken her alleged husband to court,
because he has married another woman. The story is a factual account
of what transpired during this court case and the remainder of
Giovanni¹s life. There are several similarities between their world
and ours, but for the most part we live in a totally different
environment. Our standards of living have greatly improved, but more
than that our society has grown more tolerant toward the people who
deviate from everyday standards.
The story starts out with Lusanna as a married woman who caught the
eye of a wealthy young man named Giovanni. As time wore on they
allegedly fell in love and enjoyed all of the pleasures of their love.
It was later claimed by Lusanna that Giovanni had promised to marry
her in the event of her husband¹s death. Her husband soon died a
questionable death that left open the possibility of poison. Unlike
today¹s world divorce was unheard of, and unacceptable. Giovanni then
refused to marry her in a public wedding because his social status
would be greatly hurt to marry some one in the working class of
Florence. This is another example of why today¹s society is so much
different from how it was when they lived.
Another strange thing about their society is the open humiliation
that people were subjected to. It was said that Lusanna first husband
was called a ³cuckold ³ to his face. People who were said to earn
money in a dirty fashion often had blood or paint thrown on their
steps. These kinds of things are just not normal or permitted in
today¹s world. It is true that they do sometimes occur, but the
responsible party often ends up looking worse that the person they
were trying to hurt.
Lusanna was said to have had several lovers. She was not able to
become pregnant due to medical problems. This pretty much left her
free to have unprotected sex with as many lovers as she wanted. It is
true that there are women today with this same type of free love
attitude, but there are serious consequences in todays world that will
greatly hamper such a life style.
One thing that is very similar about their time and today¹s world in
the fact that women will condemn each other for being guilty of
immoral acts. It seemed as though many of the women in this story
were aganist Lusanna because of her actions. There is no question
that women in today¹s world act in a very similar manner. A difference
about women in this day in age is that they have ea great deal more
freedom. It was said in the book that a woman was not supposed to look
a man in the eye while in public. They were with out question second
class citizens.
In this story Giovanni ended up having his way probably because of
who he knew and what family he was a member of. In this world, no
matter when or where a person lives, the upper class will always have
the power. The fact is, money is power, and with the greed that is
naturally built into every human, money will consistently come out on
top. It is very true that there are some similarities between this
time and that one, but it should be apparent that people of today¹s
world have socially evolved.