preview

Black Plague Dbq

Decent Essays

The Black Plague affected the physical, psychological and the social mindset of the people in the city of Florence, Italy. Several years earlier in the orient it had manifested and spread to Florence, Italy by 1348.(Boccaccio, The Decameron) In this essay I will give specific examples of all three points to show the lasting effect it had. This has been recorded as one of the worst epidemics in the history of the world. One of the best records of the Black Plague was the Decameron written by Boccaccio. Where he recorded this imagery with his own eye witness account. His document will shed light on what things were happening during the time of the Black Plague. Boccaccio's descriptions of the Black Plague …show more content…

The infection not only hit the humans but animals were also able to contract it. Not many people survived after they had come in contact with the Plague.Some symptoms of the plague were swelling of the armpits and groin. As Boccaccio describes " some of which were as big as apples and some of which were shaped like eggs, some were small and others were large." (Boccaccio, The Decameron) You can imagine the way people acted upon seeing these signs. They were probably afraid and didn’t know what was going on, or who to blame. In Florence people had given the swellings a name, they called them gavocciolo. (Boccaccio, The Decameron) Soon after the symptoms had taken control it wasn’t long before people started dying. Some died quicker than others but most would die within a few days of first sign. As it got worse it wouldn’t just be on some parts of the body but it would encompass the whole body never going unnoticed by others. The spots could show up in different ways either large and spread out or small and in tight groupings. (Boccaccio, The Decameron) To make matters …show more content…

Not only humans were effected but animals also and within moments they would just die right on the street. Boccaccio even accounts a time where he had saw some pigs come upon a rag that had the bacteria on it at which point they just started convulsing and died. Even healthy people were eventually affected. There was no getting away from the death. With all these symptoms and no cure the moral of the people quickly dissipated. No matter where they tried to run it seemed the sickness would always grab ahold. The results of running just made it spread much more rapidly and to more than just Florence and Asia. Imagine everyone around you dying and there being nothing anyone can do about it? Hoping everyday that you would not be infected, wanting to help but knowing if you do you could be next. People in 1348 didn’t know why these things were happening. Could it have been god's wrath or something else. Everyone you know is dying around you, no cure, nowhere to hide. People had different ways of dealing with the inevitability of dying. Some ran away from the troubles, some drank their lives away trying to be happy. In everyone's mind there was

Get Access