La Celestina
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| Author | Fernando de Rojas |
|---|---|
| Country | Spain |
| Language | Spanish |
| Genre(s) | Medieval Novel |
| Publisher | (copyright expired) |
| Released | 1499 |
| Media type | |
The Celestina (used as title, synecdoche, one of the characters of the book actually called Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea or Libro de Calisto y Melibea y de la puta vieja Celestina) is a book published anonymously by Fernando de Rojas (about whom we know little) in 1499. This book is considered to be one of the greatest in Spanish literature, and traditionally marks the end of medieval literature and the beginning of the literary renaissance in Spain. The book is written against the servants of the low nobility and procuresses for us to beware their tricks and lies. The story tells of Calisto, a bourgeois who falls in love with Melibea, the daughter of a nobleman; they become engaged following the machinations of Celestina, but their love has a tragic end after an accident in which Calisto falls off a ladder. On seeing this, Melibea subsequently decides to jump from a tower to her death. The name Celestina has become synonymous with procuress — especially an old woman - dedicated to promoting the illegal engagement of a couple — and the literary archetype of this character (her masculine counterpart is Figaro).
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[edit] Plot
Calisto falls madly in love with Melibea and asks for help from his servants, Sempronio and Parmeno. Sempronio tells Calisto about Celestina, a procuress who owns a brothel with two prostitutes, Elicia and Areusa. Calisto accepts and asks Celestina for help, and in exchange he would give her a gold chain, Celestina accepts and she promises to Sempronio and Parmeno that she will give them a part of the chain. Celestina meets with Melibea and gives her a magic thread, they talk but when Celestina names Calisto, Melibea gets angry and tells Celestina to leave. The next day, though, she changes her opinion. Celestina has told Melibea that Calisto is suffering. He has such pains, and a word of her can cure him. This makes Melibea change her mind and asks Celestina for a date with Calisto. Melibea asks Celestina to give her girdle to Calisto. Calisto gives Celestina the chain but she doesn´t say anything to Sempronio and Parmeno. When they find out that Calisto paid Celestina they go to Celestina's brothel and kill her, but one of the prostitutes sees them killing Celestina and they are executed.
Calisto gets to the date in Melibea's house with his other two servants Sosia and Tristan. Elicia and Areusa, who were lovers from Sempronio and Parmeno send two thugs, while Calisto is getting to Melibea's balcony with a ladder he hears Sosia and Tristan shouting. He runs to help them but he falls off the ladder and dies. Melibea sees Calisto dead and runs to the highest tower of her house and throws herself off when her father is returning home.
[edit] Editions
There are two versions of the play; one is called a Comedy and has 16 acts, the other is considered a Tragic Comedy and has 21 acts.
Although it is suspected that there may have been an earlier edition, the first edition is considered to be the Comedy published by Burgos by printer Fadrique Aleman in 1499, with the title Comedia de Calisto y Melibea (Comedy of Calisto and Melibea), conserved in the Hispanic Society of New York. Some scholars have expressed doubt about this date, considering the version published in 1500 by Toledo to be the first edition.
The comedy contains 16 acts and contains some stanzas with acrostic verses, in which you can read “El bachiller Fernando de Rojas acabó la Comedia de Calisto y Melibea e fue nascido en la Puebla de Montalbán,” which says, “The graduate Fernando de Rojas finished the Comedy of Calisto and Melibea and was born in the city of Montalbán.” (This is the reason it is believed that Rojas was the original author of the play.)
A new edition entitled Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea (Tragic Comedy of Calisto and Melibea) (Sevilla: Jacobo Cromberger) appeared in 1502. This version contained 5 additional acts, bringing the total to 21 acts.
[edit] Characters
Rojas makes a powerful stroke with his characters, who appear before the reader full of life, with deep psychology; they are human beings with an execptional internal characterization, which moves away from the usual “type” in medieval literature.
Nonetheless, some critics only see them as allegories. Gilman has come to deny the possibility of analyzing them as characters based on the belief that Rojas limited dialogue in which interlocutors respond to a given situation, the sociological depth can only be argued based on extratextual elements.
Lida de Malkiel speaks of objectivity; in this way, different characters are judged in different manners. The contradictory behavior of characters is a result of Rojas humanizing his characters.
One common feature of all of the characters (in the world of nobles as well as servants) is their individualism, their egoism, and their altruism. But they aren’t perfect, and they change throughout the play. The theme of greed is explained by Francisco José Herrera in an article about envy in La Celestina and related literature (meaning imitations, continuations, etc.), where he explained the motive of the gossipers and servants to be “greed and robbery,” respectively, in the face of the motives of the nobles, which are raging lust and the defense of social and family honor. The private benefit of the lower-class characters forms a substitute for the love/lust present for the upper class.
Fernando de Rojas liked to create characters in pairs, to help build character development through relationships between complimentary or opposing characters. In the play in general there are two opposite groups of characters, the servants and the nobles, and within each group are characters divided into pairs: Pármeno and Sempronio, Tristán and Sosia, Elicia and Areusa, in the group of servants; Calisto and Melibea, Pleberio and Alisa, in the group of nobles. Only Celestina and Lucrecia do not have a corresponding character, but this is because they perform opposite roles in the plot: Celestina is the element that catylizes the tragedy, and represents a life lived with wild abandon, while Lucrecia, Melibea’s personal servant, represents the other extreme, total opression. In this sense, the character of the rascal Centurino added in the second version is an addition with little function, although he has something to do with the disorder that calls the attention of Calisto and causes his death.
[edit] Celestina
Celestina is the most suggestive character in the work, to the point that she gives it its title; she is a colorful and vivid character, she’s hedonistic, miserly yet full of life. She has such a deep understanding of the psychology of the other characters that she can convince even those who do not agree with her plans to cede to them. She uses people’s greed, sexual appetite (which she helps create, then provides means to satisfy), and love to control them. She represents a subversive element in the society: she spreads and facilitates sexual pleasure. She stands apart for her use of magic. Her character is inspired by the meddling characters of the comedies of Plautus and in works of the Middle Ages such as the Libro de Buen Amor (Book of Good Love) by Juan Ruiz and Italian works like Historia de duobus amantibus by Enea Silvio Piccolomini and Elegía de madonna Fiammeta by Giovanni Boccaccio. She was once a prostitute, and now she dedicates her time to arranging discreet meetings between illicit lovers, and at the same time uses her house as a brothel for the prostitutes Elicia and Areusa.
[edit] Calisto
Calisto is a young man whose only interest is to seek out pleasure, and he is not concerned about who he may hurt along the way. His cynicism causes him to doubt the sincerity of his servant Pármeno when he warns him of risk. Calisto is a very egotistical character. His character is the most literary, the most contrived.
[edit] Melibea
Melibea is a vehement girl, in whom repression appears as forced and unnatural; she feels like a slave to the hypocrisy that has existed in her house since her childhood. In the play she appears to be the victim of a strong passion induced by Celestina’s spell. She is really bound by her social conscience. She worries about her honor, not modesty, not her concept of what is moral. Her love is more real and less “literary” than that of Calisto; it is her love that motivates her actions, and Celestina’s “spell” allows her to retain her honor.
[edit] External links
- La Celestina, available at Project Gutenberg.
