The Handmaid's The Tale Of The Falcon

In the beginning of the story, his one sided love makes Federigo Albherigi spend a lot of money to try and astonish Monna, His desire for her love causes him to host many feasts and participate in jousts. The poor fellow, crazy in love, fritters away his money without limitation while forgetting about Monna’s highly virtuous status. “… in order to win her love, he participated in jousts and tournaments, organized and gave feasts, and spent his money without restraint; but she, no less virtuous than beautiful, cared little for these things done on her behalf, nor did she care for him who did them.” The readers are able to easily identify the theme of this story when they read about Monna’s deficiency of love for Federigo. Instead of falling head over heels for
Federigo when he spends a lot of money on her, Monna chooses to care less about him. This proves that noble sacrifices are more important than money or possessions. “The Tale of the Falcon” again suggests the moral theme of the story that noble sacrifices are more important than money or possessions, when Monna visits Federigo for his falcon.
As Monna’s son falls into the hands of an illness, he pleads her to go retrieve Federico’s falcon, for it may be the last and only thing that he can live for. She finally agrees to this and visits Federigo for the sake of her son. Meanwhile, without knowing the reason of why she came, Federigo becomes ecstatic. As he was poor, he did not have anything higher in status to feed her. Or did he? “… he set his eyes upon his good falcon, perched in a small room; and since he had nowhere else to turn, he took the bird, and finding it plump, he decided that it would be a worthy food for such lady.” Federigo gives up his last possession and cooks it to serve as a meal for his love. In this portion of the story, Federigo sacrifices the last thing that makes him happy for someone that he loves. In addition to this, Monna also sacrifices her dignity by visiting Federigo, someone in whom she does not love, for her son. Ultimately, this further proves the moral of the story that noble sacrifices are more important than money or
possessions. As a result of Federigo serving his friend as food, Monna fails to bring home the falcon for her son. Ironically, her son soon dies due to the illness. After he dies, Monna’s brothers ask of her to remarry. Monna tells her brothers that she is only willing to marry Federigo, otherwise she will remain a widow. Federigo’s noble action to cook his last remaining possession was immensely sentimental for the virtuous Monna Giovanna. Her brothers, teasing her in the first place later comes to understand the feelings that Monna has towards Federigo and agrees to let their marriage take place. “Her brothers, seeing that she was determined and knowing Federigo to be of noble birth, no matter how poor he was, accepted her wishes and gave her in marriage to him with all her riches.” In the final analysis, the readers can see that Monna cares little about Federigo’s poverty and decides to marry him instead. She goes through the criticism that her brothers hands to her and defends her decision to marry Federigo despite the amount of money or possessions that he has.