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 Giovanni’s 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 goes on they allegedly fall in love and enjoy 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 husband’s death. Her husband soon died a questionable death that left open the possibility of poison.
Unlike today’s world, divorce was unheard of and unacceptable. Giovanni then refused to marry her at a public wedding because his social status would be greatly hurt to marry someone in the working class of Florence. This is another example of why today’s 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’s first husband was called a “cuckold ” 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 today’s world. It is true that they do sometimes occur, but the responsible party often ends up looking worse than 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 today’s world that will greatly hamper such a lifestyle. One thing that is very similar about their time and today’s world is 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 against Lusanna because of her actions.
There is no question that women in today’s world act in a very similar manner. A difference about women in this day in age is that they have a 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 without 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, the 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 today’s world have socially evolved.
