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a, a knight

active voice: my father cut the tree.

passive voice: the tree was cut by my father.

active voice: people buy newspapers every day.

passive voice: newspapers are bought (by people) every day.

active voice: people have been using movies as political propaganda since world war ii.

passive voice: movies have been used as political propaganda since world war ii.

active voice: donna gave me my birthday present.

passive voice: i was given my birthday present (by donna). / my birthday present was given to me (by donna).

active voice: mom will leave the keys on the counter.

passive voice: the keys will be left (by mom) on the counter.

the words in parentheses are the agent of the passive voice and can be omitted when obvious, generic, or simply unnecessary.

boccaccio employs the voice of his narrator dioneo to represent his ideas on the tension between masculinity and femininity.  while dioneo excites the members of the brigata and recognizes women for their unique skills and independent ideas, he concludes the decameron with a story reminiscent of the society from which these young aristocrats escaped, revealing misogynistic overtones.  dioneo boccaccio is able to explore the gender disparity which is inherent in 14th century florentine society.