How the Golden Age of Spain is Reflected in La Celestina - Book Report/Review Example

 How the Golden Age of Spain is Reflected In Fernando de Rojas’s La Celestina La Celestina by Fernando de Rojas is a piece of Golden Age literature from Spain which duly reflects the society of those times. Perhaps most importantly, La Celestina is a window into how the lives of Spanish women were affected by the social restrictions of the times. The roles of women were very limited in Spain, and, certain roles—particularly the young unmarried woman, the married woman, and the chaperone or go-between—each had their own place within society back then. The average young woman in Spain was available for marriage at approximately age 14. Right after getting her menses, the young Spanish woman was considered an eligible bachelorette ready to be married off. Of course, it depended upon certain elements being fulfilled first. First of all, the dowry was a necessary evil. “In the case of a daughter, ‘from the instant of her birth, the prospect of a dowry loomed large over the female; she represented potential loss rather than potential gain.’” (Soufas 1997, 73) A woman had to have a dowry, a marriage trust-fund of sorts, in order to be accepted by the family of which she would become a part. “Additionally, dowries were rarely paid in one lump sum. In an era of limited liquid capital a dowry might be paid off gradually through the mechanism of an annuity contract. Thus, the annual payment toward the dowry could become an additional burden above and beyond…” what a woman’s family was already paying for other common household expenses. (Lehfeldt 2005, 91) But before she could even think of getting married to a certain gentleman, there would have to be a time of courtship. Usually in Spain, there was a period of about a year or so where the man would court the young lady he was interested in marrying. Before that would happen, however, there were various things that went on in a young single woman’s life that dictated whether or not she would be successful in becoming a noblewoman, or a married woman. First of all, a woman’s gaze was considered to be enough to bring shivers down a man’s back. For a woman to maintain eye contact with a man was considered a bit scandalous, since women were to avert their eyes from anyone and were to avoid looking anyone straight in the eye. To look a man in the eye required a certain kind of boldness and daring that was not often found in most Spanish women, simply out of respect and tradition. “To look up, to look someone straight in the eye was what girls had to avoid if they wished to give guarantee of their chastity.” (Gaite 1991, 72) Additionally, in the time of Golden Age Spain, there was little freedom for women. “Parker cautions against interpretations of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spanish literature that emphasize bold rebellion against the status quo: ‘For every instance in which the theme of freedom appears in Spanish literature of the 16th and 17th cenutries as praise of the natural life, there are ninety-nine in which it appears as a question of moral discipline.’” (Gascon 2006, 115-116) Secondly, another element upon which everything hinged was honor, as well as a woman’s virginity. Virginity was considered sacred and the keystone of the virtuous woman’s arsenal. Whoever was a woman’s suitor was measured by the virtuousness of his beloved: “For the most part, in Golden Age Spanish drama, a woman’s virtue or vice either enhances or diminishes her husband’s, father’s, or brother’s reputation and is, therefore, not equal to the honor of her male counterpart. Donald R. Larson states that the “most unusual feature of the concept of honor that prevailed in Spain in the seventeenth century [is] namely, the dependence of the honor of the male on the chastity of the female.” (DiPuccio 1998, 74) Thirdly, young women were not allowed to go out of the house, for any reason, unless they were accompanied by a duenna, who was “an elderly woman serving as governess and companion to the younger ladies in a Spanish or Portuguese family.” (M-W 2009, 1) Usually, but not always, a slave or a servant accompanied these two women as well. But the companion was very important. Otherwise young women were never let out of the house on their own. It was considered improper at the time: “Unrewarding as that role [of seclusion] was, maidens accepted it, more or less willingly, because they knew it was an efficient vehicle to marriage, the unanimous aspiration of those who had not taken the only other possible way acceptable to society: the nunnery. It was the general opinion that the good name of a lady of marriageable age lay in her seclusion; thus the earnestness of the parents in sheltering their daughters.” (Gaite 1991, 73) So, as much as a young woman may have wanted to go outside and explore the world, it was thusly forbidden from her by the virtue of having to stay home, cloistered within the house, as a symbol of her purity. Another concept that was foreign to Spanish women in the Golden Age was the notion of marrying for love. A majority of the time, marriages were arranged by the parents. Thus whether a woman took interest in a particular man had no bearing whatsoever on whether or not they would be joined together in marriage, for most likely the young woman would be forced to marry whomever her parents chose for her: “It seems that among the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie the parents invariably arranged their daughters' marriages; the engagement was a formal affair which lasted a few months. During this period the betrothed had a chance to exchange but a few words during some stiff visits, always supervised by the parents.” (Gaite 1991, 73) The married woman, in the time of La Celestina, was a curious character indeed as well. To be married was considered an honor, and an enviable position in which to be. They had a certain attractiveness about them which was obvious to everyone. Not only that, but being married carried a certain amount of prestige with the one on whom it was bestowed. One eighteenth-century playwright said, “There are ladies whose husbands are on some mission or other in the New World or in Italy. But not all are truthful in what they say, for there are thousands of crafty ones who feign they are married in order to live more freely.” (Gaite 1991, 83) It was commonplace for women to want to get married just so that they would have a better station in life. While it was not unusual for women to want to get married so that they could achieve this status, this drive to get married did not characteristically seem to be true of men. Often men were loathe to get married, as it meant the end of a certain type of freedom for them. Indeed, many men aspired to avoid getting married by “…becoming [escorts to] noblewom[e]n.” (Gaite 1991, 84) Being a married woman, one could have one’s own public or private meetings and invite whomever she wished, whereas single young women did not have this advantage. Additionally, the status of a married woman allowed her to enjoy the privilege of not having to worry so much about honor and reputation. In fact, married women were not hoping to have escorts—they, in fact, expected to get escorts. Usually what accompanied was a phenomenon called the cortejo, or a discussion between a man and a woman. Children used to even play the game of cortejo, pretending to play the corresponding roles of a noblewoman and her escort. The cortejo was, on many levels, an innocent conversation. However, if this form of dialogue “dampened conjugal relations, the women adopted such a dignified and serious demeanor in their extramarital relations that it precluded all discussion, especially because those norms emanated from a powerful class that protected its members from grave suspicions. But it is also true that at the close of the century, parallel to the waning prestige of the nobility (to which we alluded earlier) this protecting buttress against criticism was falling into ruin.” (Gaite 1991, 90) Close to the “last third” of the eighteenth century, womens’ “conduct exhibited a greater cynicism and disrespect for propriety.” (Gaite 1991, 92) By this time, it was clear that whatever was going on in these conversations, or cortejos, were usually less well-meaning and innocent than they appeared. In reality, they were covers for numerous kinds of affairs and all goings-on that would have been prevented by the strict piety of Spanish life in the Golden Age. Cortejos were ripe with meaning, allowing their participants to openly flout the bonds of marriage by furtively absconding passions with the identities of harmless conversations. It was common for womens’ love interests to brag about having the love of a woman but to have avoided being in a committed relationship or marriage. This is not only apparent in the literature of the Golden Age, but it is prevalent in the literature of La Celestina, as evidenced by two of its main characters: “Calisto’s male servants Pármeno and Sempronio are depicted as brags, mendacious and free from moral or social concerns, other than their secret, true identity. In a way, their conduct exemplifies the comic type that [becomes] famous in Golden Age comedia, where the graciosos [funny guys] are, generally, male and female servants who misuse their position for personal gain or lascivious ends.” (Parker 1998, 149) During the Golden Age, there was actually a trend that flew in the face of the institution of marriage. People would speak of divorce in secret, if only to declare it as a necessity in the event that there was no other solution to the problem of marital strife. Also, in the Golden Age of Spain, there was an obvious decline in matrimony due to the fact that “[marriage] was connected almost invariably with the breakdown of traditional customs and the loss of the concept of honor. Ironically, many of the authors who lamented this loss were not aware of the contradictions inherent in the lament for the Spanish husbands' honor. They failed to see that this change in mentality was a consequence of the opening up to foreign influences and of the love of progress that these very same enlightened writers fostered and praised so highly.” (Gaite 1991, 98) The code of honor was very much being questioned at this crucial period in history. In fact, men who were worried about the auspicious quality of their female lovers’ morality were subtly ridiculed. In addition, these men usually lost their civility. Meanwhile, men who were duly concerned about the code of honor were seen as good marriage material. Men who tended to be jealous were often brought to their knees in Golden Age literature, being shamed for their tenaciousness. In fact, due to the polyfacetic nature of the woman’s position in a marriage, her husband would often give his wife some reign in the course of the relationship. This was to ensure matrimonial harmony as well as quell worries about a divorce on the man’s part—because divorce was feared and not well-received in Golden Age Spain, although it did exist. It was perceived wholeheartedly by men that it would benefit their women if they allowed their wives to have a little extramarital fun with their escorts than if they were to be entirely sequestered from life outside. Thusly, many women in Golden Age Spain were liberated (in a sense, once they were married), because they were allowed to have this freedom, however small. Towards the second half of the eighteenth century, marriage was seen as a burden versus being a pleasure. Undoubtedly, marriage was seen as a kind of sacrifice that was akin to the suffering that could be expected of any good Christian woman. In time, women were treated as nothing more than common streetwalkers and forced to resort to being exposed to and partake in the usage of bawdy language and tawdry commentary. To rise above this sort of pedantry was considered something to be ridiculed, and the rule of the day was to chime in with resounding glee without cowardice and pusillanimous force. Marriage was often seen as a vessel of pleasure, but only a moderate one. Married couples were extolled for their temperance, and on more than one occasion there were women in marriages who were distraught by the lack of passion in their conjugal unions. This was most likely brought on by the idea that marriage was not meant for amorous relations, and as such this myth was perpetuated throughout Spain in the Golden Age. Indeed, “Throughout La Celestina, references are made to indicate the true nature of love as an illness. When Sempronio describes Calisto’s situation to Celestina, he says, “Calisto arde en amores de Melibea” (Calisto burns with love for Melibea); the verb arder associates Calisto’s love with a fever.” (Arshad 2009, 3) Thus, true love is looked upon as an entity to be an illness, and not an element found in a married woman’s life, for the most part. Now, the nature of the go-between or chaperone in Golden Age literature such as La Celestina is unique. The go-between was someone who was a fixer, or a mediator if one will, between two parties who wanted to arrange an affair or a secret meeting without the general public knowing—usually the parents of the girl in question. A woman such as Celestina would be sought out in order to find or contact the paramour of a man who was searching for a lover. The role La Celestina played was to organize this pair’s meetings. Thus their comings and goings would not be guessed by the young girl’s father or mother, lest, if they found out she could come into terrible trouble. The comic tragedy of La Celestina is not some wild story that was calculatedly and carefully crafted by a well-informed writer (although one is not saying that Fernando de Rojas was not well-informed)—but rather was concocted with a believable plot and character because it most likely reflected a very real and tangible person created in her character’s image. It is not too hard to believe that La Celestina was formed very intentionally, and carved out as a character from a persona that was very alive and well in real life. Undoubtedly, “Probably based on a well-known, original go-between, Celestina is a retired prostitute who posseses the characteristics of the soothsayers and of the proverbial witches who are said to be guided by ambition, bribery, lust, sensuality, drunkenness, and exploitation of those suffering and in need. These qualities, together with all popular Hispanic traits with which [Fernando de] Rojas endows her, exhibit dangerous types and reflect contradictions present in the culture.” (Parker 1998, 149) Celestina the go-between had a very real and ignoble goal here: to unite the two lovers, as someone who could afford to interfere in matters of the heart. Although Celestina could be used as a chaperone or duenna of sorts, her main task was to get two lovers to connect. This could only be accomplished with her scheming and tactful permanence, which permeates La Celestina. Her impetuousness and devious manner serve only to enhance the piece, in which de Rojas lets us know that she will do almost anything to achieve her goals, including influencing the servant of Calisto to carry out her orders. “The author, a master of dialogue, then makes his character return to a more immediate problem— his relationship with Celestina. Pármeno wonders whether his situation would be ameliorated or not if he were to follow the go-between’s advice. The decision he finally makes, motivated by his disillusionment with Calisto, his desire for pleasure and his avaricious nature, will start him on the road to his own destruction.” (Ayllón 1963, 290) It is La Celestina who first appears at Melibea’s doorstep as a trinket-seller and potion-maker. Since she has easy access to well-to-do houses, when La Celestina has a moment alone with Melibea, she tells her of the sickness of Calisto and that she needs a waistband, as well as a letter, in order to help him. Not much time afterwards, Melibea comes down with a sickness as well and calls for Celestina. This is when Celestina, as a go-between, arranges a meeting for the lovers. “[Stephen] Gilman’s assertion has to do with…[t]he construction of this self-image through dialogues with others (and occasional monologues) [which] represents one of Celestina’s most significant contributions to the literary history of the medieval go-between; some of her highly complex and accomplished techniques come into play for the elaboration of her own image and subsequently link up with her more immediate task of seduction.” (Rouhi 1999, 265). The servants, Pármeno and Sempronio, join forces to see how they can capitalize on the fact that their master, Calisto, is sick with love. Celestina’s part as a go-between, is ended when the servants murder Celestina. Summarily, Calisto dies falling from a ladder after a tryst with Melibea. Melibea, not being able to live without Calisto, apparently commits suicide by catapults herself from the top of a tower. Unfortunately, although Celestina’s attempts are genuine, they fall short of being successful. The women in eighteenth-century Spain exhibit the signs of what is now ingenious thinking. Whether it be the young Spanish woman with her designs on getting married, the married aristocratic woman with all of her foibles, or the lascivious go-between and all-around schemer, each of these women had their special respective roles to play in Golden Age Spain which are evidenced in the piece La Celestina by Fernando de Rojas. REFERENCES Ayllón, Cándido. Negativism and dramatic structure in “La Celestina.” Hispania, Vol. 46, No. 2 (May, 1963), published by American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, http://www.jstor.org/stable/336994. Retrieved 3 May 2009. Arshad, Sarah H. 2009. Madly in love: the gendered tragedy of la celestina. USA: Unknown Publisher. http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:j_PGyGWqj5YJ:www.hcs.harvard.edu/hujms/Arshad1.pdf+ marital+passion+in+La+Celestina&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us. Retrieved 3 May 2009. DiPuccio, Denise M. 1998. Communicating myths of the golden age comedia. USA: Bucknell University Press. Gaite, Carmen M. 1991. Love customs in eighteenth-century Spain. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press. Gascon, Christopher D. 2006. The woman saint in the Spanish golden age drama. USA: Bucknell University Press. Lehfeldt, Elizabeth A. 2005. Religious women in golden age Spain: the permeable cloister (women and gender in the early modern world). USA: Ashgate Publishing. Merriam-Webster Dictionary. 2009. Duenna definition. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/duenna. Retrieved 3 May 2009. Parker, Mary. 1998. Spanish dramatists of the golden age. USA: Greenwood Press. Rouhi, Leyla. 1999. Mediation and love: a study of the medieval go-between in key romance and near-eastern texts (brill’s studies in intellectual history). USA: Brill Academic Publishers. Soufas, Teresa Scott. 1997. Dramas of distinction: a study of plays by golden age women. USA: Univ. Pr. of Kentucky. Read More