Marguerite De Navarre’s The Heptameron is a story about a group of people stranded and bored for days while a bridge was being built; in order to keep their spirits high they came up with an idea to pass the time. It was decided that they would come up with truthful stories and tell them to the group. Story 8 was presented to the crowd, it told a story about a husband’s desire and his wife’s deception.
The husband, Bornet, and his best friend, Sendras, devised a plan so that both men could receive pleasure from the young chambermaid. Bornet expected his wife to say loyal to him but he did not want to stay faithful to her. The maid did not want anything to do with the husband; he made her feel very uncomfortable so the young lady told the wife about the husband’s advancements. The wife devised a plan to trick her husband. She was going to be the one waiting on him…show more content… How did he not recognize her smell, touch, or taste? So, the answer to that question is dismissed as male hormones taking over. However, when the neighbor got into the wife’s bed how did she not know that it was not her husband; he had just gotten out of the bed with her so his smell, taste, touch and sounds should all have been on the tip of her brain. “She thought it was her husband again and did not refuse anything he asked for.” (1644) He even stayed in the bed with her until morning, “When dawn came, the man got up,”(1644) and she still did not see that it was not her husband with her. She did not find out until much later, “and it was not long before the facts became public knowledge.” (1645) The wife found out that she had slept with another man from other people, how could she and her husband be married and not recognize each other in