Celestina Week 2

2)  Calisto gives his long soliloquy in Act 14.  This speech comes right after he and Malibea consummate their relationship.  From the very moment that Calisto sees Maliebea in the garden, he is obsessed with her.  There is not a moment in the text when Calisto does not profess his undying love for Malibea and how much he wants to have sex with her.  For Calisto, he thinks that having sex with Malibea is what he wants and what will make his relationship with her even better.  However when Calisto finnaly gets what he wants (or what he thinks he wants), he realizes that consummating his relationship with Malibea really did not give him the pleasure he thought it would.  Thus, the major theme of the speech is desire, and the challenges that one faces because of desire.  Calisto lets this desire for Malibea consume him so much that he confuses his desire for her with happiness.  Calisto believes that if he has sex with Malibea that he will be happy, but it is actually the opposite.  Therefore, desire, by nature, is meant to trick people.  Calisto thinks that he desires Malibea when in actuality, he desires the chase for Malibea    

4)  When Calisto first meets Malibea, it is in the middle of the night in complete darkness.  Thus, the only light Calisto has to see Malibea is from the moon and the stars.  Right off the bat, Calisto is given a false interpretation of Malibea.  Having the only light out as the moon and the stars creates a romantic mood for the initial meeting between Calisto and Malibea.  If Calisto had first met Malibea in a neutral atmosphere, he may not have been swayed by a biased atmosphere.  Also, Calisto has a wrong impression of Malibea because he is, indeed, not actually seeing her.  When Celestina has the dinner at the house, the women wonder what is wrong with Calisto.  Calisto does not see Malibea's features because they are tainted by the darkness.  In actuality, the women describe Malibea as being so ugly that a pole could look better in a dress than her.  Thus, this shows how desire completely sways the mind.  Calisto's desire for Malibea consumes him so much that he is blind to who she really is figuratively just like he is blind to her literally in their initial meeting.