the obscure object of desire

3

The use of two different actresses for the role of Conchita was probably the best part of the entire movie. The different actresses represented different temperaments of Conchita and how she would react to the current situation. My favorite part which shows a switch in the character is when she arrives at Mateo’s house in Seville and first she acts as a cold icy almost stoic woman, but then changes to the bubblier innocent Conchita. The Conchita with the dead straight hair seems to be more stoic, serious, and emotionally bitter; whereas the woman with the wavy hair is bubblier, playful, mischievous, yet innocent. The quick changes in character seem to drive the plot and reveal the way that Conchita thinks.

4

The mouse seems to have a very interesting symbolism in the movie. While Mateo and Conchita are together in the room for the first time, a mouse trap snaps and catches a mouse. I see this as the exact moment where Mateo falls into the trap of love. He is now a mouse in Conchita’s love trap, a trap that will emotionally and physically drain him and eventually lead to a very stressed and dysfunctional life and relationship.

Celestina Day 5

18

Areusa and Elicia are plotting to kill Calisto as revenge for what he has done which led to the death of Celestina. Throughout the story, Calisto has been so aloof and almost detached from reality. He lived in a microcosm where the biggest problem he had was the love for Malibea. No outside problem could touch him, not even the death of his servants or Celestina. Elicia saw this and wanted to punish him for his extreme selfishness and complete lack of awareness to the scope of the problems. Areusa, seeing the extreme anguish in Elicia for the death of Celestina seeks to aid her cousin the ultimate overthrow of the complete idiot Calisto.

Act 20

I feel as though Melibea had to die in the story. There was so much bloodshed with the quick deaths of Celestina, Sempronio, and Parmeno, that she would have to die aswell. She was so overcome by this love that she had implanted within her, which she almost had to die. Poetically, by dying while in love she will forever be remembered as a lover driven to death. It goes along with the idea that its better to go out with a bang. With time her love could have resided, but instead she chooses to end her live in the pinnacle of her love.

Celestina Day 4

12.

Interestingly enough, I sympathize with Celestina in her own murder. She claimed that she was the one who was actually doing all the work and therefore deserved the money that had been given to her in the form of the chain. She is partially correct, as the work by Sempronio and Parmeno is almost negligible. Parmeno actually was more of an inhibitor in the beginning before Celestina managed to hook him up with Areusa. The only help to Celestina came with the occasional advice that Sempronio gave to Calisto. Although Sempronio was the initial catalyst in the story, his further efforts were almost nothing. I also feel that greed got the best of them, they should have attempted to milk Calisto for all he was worth rather than squabbling over the chain. In the end, I feel that Celestina may have shared if she had enough to give, but Sempronio and Parmeno were not very deserving; Celestina could have done everything without Sempronio and Parmeno, but not the reverse.

15

The chain acts as the first reward that the thieves were given, and with it they knew that there was more to come. Upon seeing the chain, they all wanted to claim that they did the most work, and therefore deserved the most. The sight of the chain and the idea of further reward had awoken a lust and greed within them that could only be satiated with the individual holding all of the reward rather than sharing. This story is almost an exact analogue to the Pardoner’s Tale, in which three people all fighting for the full reward find death.

Celestina Day 3

Chapter 7

Celestina manages to use her age and apparent wisdom that comes with it to convince Pármeno to trust her and believe the words that she is saying. Although Celestina is the least trustable character in this entire novel, she manages to use the stereotype of a wise old woman with years of experience to bend Pármeno’s opinion and get him to do as she wishes. Although Celestina may actually be extremely wise and may have knowledge greater than anyone else, she is also an extreme liar and manipulator. She uses her apppearence as an old feeble, helpless woman to sway Pármeno’s mind. Once she has him in her hand she uses love and takes advantage of his young lust to lock him onto a woman, and thus rid him of his interference in her plan to swindle Calisto. During the entire chapter Celestina puts an emphasis on Pármeno’s young age and his “coming of age”. She does this to show to the fact that she is wiser and more experienced than him, thus her opinion is almost like gold. She uses her age to her advantage, and gives Pármeno exactly what his young mind needs to distract him; a woman.

Chapter 9

Both Sempronio and Pármeno have both voiced their utter despise and hate about Celestina, and about how no one can even trust her, yet they know that she is the meal ticket to their own fortune. They know that one way or another she will get the money from Calisto, and that although she may try to prevent them from getting their share, they will push her to cave. If anything, they don’t trust Celestina themselves, but they trust her ability to swindle and destroy Calisto, and they know that if they work together, they may get their own share in the fortune.

Celestina Day 2 chapters 3-6

Chapter 3

I think this quote gives an interesting perspective on what men will do for love. This quote goes to point out how men become so completely enamored with the person that they want, that they begin to embody a pain for when they are not together. For Calisto, the foolish love that he has for Melibea is to the extent that he has actually manifested a physical illness over it. Calisto also wants to be with her immediately. This hold true for the second part of the quote, where men will put their feelings into immediate action. Calisto is already “hiring” Celestina to arrange the love between the two of them so they can share their love together.

Chptr 5

Celestina manages to convince Sempronio that he will get his fair share of the wealth even though he has some concerns about her. He fears that she is just trying to use him to get more money out of him. Although I believe Celestina is a liar, and is extremely untrustworthy, I think that she may actually want to work with Sempronio. She seems to treat him with respect and honesty, and although she may not share the wealth with him equally, I believe she will cut him into the deal.

Celestina 1&2

1.       In the beginning of the story we have a fateful encounter between two of the characters in our story, Calisto and Melibea. Calisto enters this garden, after chasing his bird into it, and is stopped by the “beauty” of Melibea. He is completely enamored by her and expects that she will love him because of his lineage. As he goes up to her he is completely rejected by her in a very funny way as she proves herself with her own language. The garden in this scene represents undisturbed purity. Calisto enters the garden and expects to take what he wants, but is met with a challenge, which rather than turning him away, actually makes him even more interested in her. She represents something untouched and pure, something that he cannot have, but will try extremely hard to get for himself.

2.       The “illness” that Calisto describes himself having is extremely comical. He is so completely in love with Melibea that he becomes loves sick with not having her. His desire for her is so great that he is actually manifesting a physical illness. Sempronio actually points this out to Calisto, telling him that he has an illness, which is his love for Melibea. His love is almost something like the pointless, without meaning love that Romeo had for Rosaline, a love that is based only off of a single encounter.  

Decameron day 6

9.2 In this slightly comical story, an abbess who is with her own lover goes off to catch another nun who is with a lover. In her haste, the nun accidentally garbs herself in the clothing of her lover, and goes off to stop the other nun. When the other nun catches sight of the abbess, she makes a comical statement which calls out the abbess. When the abbess realizes that the other nun knows what she did, she allows the nun to continue seeing her lover without penalty. The other nuns see this and are actually enraged by this and become jealous that she is innocent. The other nuns do not actually grasp the idea that abbess was with a man, they only think that the nun got away with it. They envy the fact that she got away, and that she actually has a lover to be with.

9.3 In this extremely hilarious story a man is made to believe that he is actually pregnant with the child rather than his own wife. Although his friends are completely aware of the joke they are playing on him, they show no care to the well being of the wife who is suffering as result of this. Although the wife is not really to blame for what is happening in this story, she is blamed and the husband then proceeds to get angered and enraged at her. Boccaccio is trying to show how woman are always blamed the scapegoats to the situations that happen badly to men in the world. I think that he is criticizing the fact that men always blame woman for any problem that occurs.