Celestina Part 1

1. Analyze the opening scene in Melibea’s garden. Why a garden? What might a garden signify? How do you interpret the words of Calisto and Melibea? Why does Melibea react in this manner? Can we read these words as genuine?

 In the opening scene of Celestina, Calisto is in a garden with Melibea.  In the garden, they go on to tell each other their feelings, or lack there of, for one another.  The garden is a very symbolic figure in this scene.  Typically a garden can be used as a metaphor for a woman's virginity.  Therefore, implying that Melibea is a chaste woman.  However, there is also another strong symbolic meaning to the garden.  In the story of Adam and Eve, the setting took place in a garden.  Eve eats the forbidden fruit in the garden and then goes on, according to some interpretations, to trick Adam into eating the fruit, as well.  This story definitely foreshadows what Sempronio later says about women.  Essentially, the garden represents that women are bad and will ruin men.  In this scene, Calisto goes on about his undying love for Melibea, while Melibea shows no interest in him whatsoever.  Rather, Melibea raves about how chaste of a woman she is.  I cannot read these words as genuine because they are too over the top.  Calisto seems to play the stereotypical man who sees Melibea once, yet he instantly knows that he loves her.  For Calisto, his love for Melibea is very vapid and shallow, and it is not based on any reality.  As for Melibea, if she really was so pure, why would she need to constantly remind Calisto of this?  It seems as if she is hiding something.  Therefore, this first scene was a bit over the top and dramatic to ever be taken as genuine.    

 3. What are our initial impressions of Celestina? What type of character is this? What does she say which influences your analysis? What about her later exchanges with Parmeno? (And this back history with Parmeno’s mother – what do you think happens here?)

Celestina is a very peculiar woman.  In all of our readings thus far, we have never had a female character with such moxie and spunk.  She has a very negative reputation among her peers.  In fact when Parmeno begins to describe her, he goes on for a good page constantly repeating that she is a 'whore'.  Celestina is very well aware of this, and rather than trying to deny this, like many women in the other stories we have read try to do, she embraces it.  She is not ashamed of who she is, and the actions she does.  I could say that she probably the biggest feminist that we have read so far because she is so forthcoming about who she is.  Celestina is all about instant pleasures for herself.  She has sex often because it is sexually gratifying for her.  Then, she wants to steal Calisto's money by taking advantage of him because she wants instant money.  She is the type of character who is very selfish, and does not care about how her actions affect others.  We see this when she persuades Parmeno to help her and Sempronio into taking Calisto's money by 'helping' him gain Melibea's love.  Also, an important line she says to Parmeno is that "all is fair in love and war."  This statement holds very true to her character.  She takes whatever she can when she can because she honestly believes that if someone is stupid enough to get taken advantage of, then they deserve to get taken advantage of.  Parmeno already knows Celstina because he worked for her as a child.  When he tells Celestina this, she is in shock because he looks so different.  Parmeno goes on to tell Celestina that he thinks that she is just a 'whore', and Celestina replies back that his mother was 'a whore too.'  This is very important because she may be implying that his mother is similar to Celestina and used Parmeno for money, too.  

Assignment #2

What are the ways in which the poetry and essay bring up themes we spoke about last week (problems of desire, imagery, alienation, etc.). What new ideas do you see here that further complicate or elucidate issues involving love and/or desire? Use specific quotes from the poetry and the essay to support your comments.

Zizek's essay shows many of the problems of desire.  We see the "Courtly Lady" who is the definition of a demure innocent woman whom the knight in shining armor protects.  However according to the essay this is not true as "The Lady in courtly love has nothing to do with actual women, how she stands for the man's narcissus projection which involves the mortification of the flesh-and-blood woman" (91).  The major complication between love and desire is that men confuse desire with love.  As the text states "[he notices] that [he is] actually her slave- since she wants the beating and provoked [him] to deliver it- [he gets] really mad and [beats] her" (94).  For men, they believe that love is dominating women because subconsciously that is what they think we want them to do.  Thus, they mix of their desire to love us than actually loving us.  In which case, this whole concept of dominating women gets misconstrude as simply just showing love.  This is problematic, as this in fact, the complete opposite way to show love.  

1. Why do you think the film is titled “That Obscure Object of Desire”? What is this “obscure object”? How does the film present it as such (imagery, characters, dialog, etc.)? How might this “obscure object” relate back to v1our discussion of Narcissus and Lacan?

The film is titled "That Obscure Object of Desire" because the movie is about a man craving something that is almost unattainable to him.  The "obscure object" in the movie is sex.  Matthieu lusts for Conchita and wants nothing more than to consummate their relationship.  Throughout most of the movie,though, Conchita denies Matthieu of this fulfillment of his desire because she knows that once they consummate the relationship, he will no longer desire her as his need will have been met.  We see this back and forth between the two in many ways throughout the movie.  For one, we see this in the imagery of the mouse and fly.  Conchita's innocence is something that keeps pestering not only Matthieu, but the relationship and general.  Despite all efforts of chasing this, this desire just will not get fulfilled.  On the other hand, we see the cat and mouse like play between Matthieu and Conchita through their dialogue.  Since their are two actresses that play Conchita, this shows the difference in her personalities.  On the one hand, Conchita will act very innocent and pure and will not want her innocence to be touched.  Then she will change such as when she used her friend as a ploy to say that she was never innocent.  Thus, Conchita uses this "obscure object" to wield it over Matthieu's head.  This can relate back to Narcissus especially with Matthieu.  When Narcissus looks into the spring, he doesn't fall in love with himself.  Instead, he falls in love with his ideal image of love. When he realizes that this perfection does not exist, he kills himself.  This similarly occurs with Matthieu.  Matthieu sees his consummation with Conchita to be the only thing he wants; he believes that this will make his life perfect.  It is not, however, Conchita that he desires, but rather the chase of this ideal image.  Thus once he consummates his relationship with her, he no longer wants her because he realizes that his reality is not exactly what he would have wanted it to be.