Celestina 2

2. In Act IV how do we see Celestina’s fame precede her, both with Lucrecia and then with Melibea? Is this good or bad? Why?

We see Celestina’s fame work to both her advantage and her disadvantage in this scene. One the one hand, her fame and connections makes Lucrecia familiar with her and allows her access to Melibea: “Celestina! Welcome, dear mother! What lucky wind blew you out of your ordinary course?” (Act IV, Scene ii, page 46). However, her fame does not work to this same advantage with Alisa and Melibea. We see the first hints of this fact when Lucrecia is hesitant to tell her mistress Celestina’s name, for she fears Alisa’s reaction and says that she is “ashamed” to speak the name. I found it interesting that Alisa had such a difficult time remembering Celestina: could her distance from this character be a sign of her virtue, or, to go along more with the theme of the book, was Alisa only pretending not to be familiar with Celestina so that she seemed separated from what she represents? We see a similar juxtaposition between familiarity and disassociation with Melibea: first, she does not appear to recognize Celestina, and then when she does she calls Celestina a friend (Act IV, Scene ii, page 51). Does Melibea truly not recognize Celestina at first or is she merely pretending so as to appear distant from her? In any case, Melibea switches her tone when Celestina appears to anger her, saying, “I only let you in because I did not recognize you at first” (Act IV, Scene ii, page 54).

3. How does Melibea’s reaction to Calisto’s name either strengthen or weaken your initial reaction to their first meeting?

Melibea’s reaction to the mention of Calisto’s name, if indeed her anger is only a charade to cover up her desires, does strengthen my reaction to their first meeting the garden. In the opening scene, we see Melibea seeking knowledge and refusing to simply give in to what Calisto initially expects of/wants from her. In Act IV we once again see Melibea asking questions and purposefully making Celestina’s task of helping Calisto to court her (Melibea) extremely difficult. Another thing that is similar between these two scenes is that we see Melibea asking questions and prodding the other person for information even though she appears to reject what they say. These reactions, false or not, are consistent and therefore strengthen my initial reaction to Melibea and Calisto’s first meeting.

4. How do we feel about Celestina in Acts V and VI? Is she smart and wise or a useless trickster? Use details from the text.

While Celestina is certainly smart and quick-witted in many cases, I do not think that ‘wise’ is the most appropriate term for her; ‘trickster’ would probably be more appropriate. While I do not think that any character in this text could completely qualify to be called ‘wise’ (because, in my opinion, a wise person shows not only goof judgment but also virtue), I think that Melibea seems to come the closest to being considered wise, as Celestina appears to have a hard time making use of her as a pawn in her game. Calisto, on the other hand, appears to be the least wise of all the characters as he quite easily lets himself be taken advantage of, which juxtaposes Melibea’s character entirely.