The worldly conceptions and practices surrounding love have evolved over time and in many different cultures. It followed this same kind of pattern throughout the literature where the classical period focused on the love of all things in beauty with the almighty man, while the medieval period put women on a pedestal to be loved and focused on . Marie de France is an author from the medieval period who wrote a story called Laustic, which demonstrates a woman's role in a romantic and social setting. Boccaccio, in the Decameron, demonstrates a new form of love in which women are not necessarily of noble status, but peasants and lower class people are present, creating an entirely new genre of writing. Taking a look at these two pieces of literature, the differences and similarities between the roles of women during the time period create emotional responses and connection between the characters and the reader through the character's use of language and structure. author. The Laustic by Marie de France demonstrates courtly love and its foundation that women in romance are of high nobility. Although women were seen as more of a prize than in previous literary periods, they were still represented as below the status of men. Marie de France presents the woman in her story as the “courteous and elegant wife” who was given to a knight, which shows the courtesan relationships and the theme of the story (83). Since most of the time women did not play a role in deciding who to marry, adultery became a common theme in many stories. This theme demonstrates the power of women in that, although they are forced to marry a court man without much choice, they usually choose to love another besides their husbands... middle of paper... by conventional attitudes and customs not conventional. courtly love along with a different plot to define a woman's power among herself. Without the prominent women in these stories, readers would not feel the emotional responses given by the importance of their roles. These two stories differ in that Marie de France follows the path of women's power in the courtly world with adultery around every corner, while Boccaccio refrains from using the typical landscape of writing to give a more common type of love with peasants and a new way of relating to the feelings and attitudes of the characters. The role of women changes over time because their power constantly changes, but somehow men constantly influence their actions. Love is a major factor in these pieces and without the women, the tragedies and acts of jealousy wouldn't play out the same way.