Madame Bovary--Week 2

Medically, there wouldn't really be a cause for black liquid, necessarily  Unless she ingested something black recently, it wouldn't happen. Instead, it would be more of a green color. This is part of what makes the color choice so interesting. Black typically symbolizes, obviously, something that is unclean or maybe even bad. What the color could suggest is that Emma is unclean, or she at least feels that way, emotionally and now physically.

The black liquid that pours from Emma's mouth after her death is interesting. Emma, in my opinion, didn't think very highly of herself and certainly didn't think that she had amounted much to anything. She was depressed, it seemed. So, the black liquid could be metaphorical to her being as dark, or as gross, as she felt for a long time, manifested literally.

Madame Bovary--Week 1

The phrase "you never really appreciate what you have until it's gone" really rings true in this novel, thus far. Even though I think it's an awful cliche, we see this happening twice. First, and most obviously, with Emma. She marries Charles thinking that she can get away from her "boring" life but not really knowing how to be content with herself and what she has. I feel as though Emma would never be content, even if she got what she wanted, or what she thinks she wanted. Secondly, we see this with Charles. He was never in love with his first wife, and immediately felt a deep sense of passion and lust seeing Emma. But it's almost as far as that went. Charles desired her, but he was too struck by her beauty to even realize how unhappy she was in their marriage. Even if he did know and understand, I don't believe he would've done anything to change it--perhaps because he's not sure what he can do.

Again, with Emma as she begins her affair, she thinks that's what she wants--wild, passionate love with Rodolphe. Yet, once she has him, she rethinks how she feels about her marriage. We see a shift in her thinking. This is mostly due to Emma having such a desire for the chase, I believe. It seems as though she loves the idea of having someone, of escaping from her boring and predictable life, but once she has it, she doesn't care much for it and prefers what she had before (ie. her marriage after her physical affair with Rodolphe and her romantic affair with Leon.)

While their marriage isn't over, at least not right now, it's never going to be the same again. Especially if Emma continues to be so careless as to almost openly announce her affair.

Celestina, Week 2

The dichotomy between Celestina's essence of power and Pleberio's patriarchy mimic very much the stereotypical gender norms and roles in society. Women exist as pleasure to men, and Celestina is very much aware of that fact. She's in this business to profit, not because she thoroughly enjoys what she does. Because men desire women, and (as a stereotype) women desire money, or rather, men with money, may as well use it to an advantage.

Generally, at least for the times being written, men expect women to be victorious and pure, yet at the same time, they wanted them in a sexual way. It's a weird double standard in that, if men want to have sex with women--but women can't have sex for fear of not upholding her and her family's virtue, then who is he to have sex with? Man desires woman until she has been had.

These systems do play off each other in that men and women both get what they want. For men, it's the women. For women, it's the money. The systems working together is also exemplified in Celestina restoring virginity to young women to uphold that desire.

With Pleberio's ending speech, lamenting the loss of his daughter, reminded me--again--of Romeo and Juliet. It was as though he admitted to being wrong about what was important, and wished that he didn't have to face life alone with the death of his daughter.

Celestina, Week 1

The different characters in Celestina all have different views on love, it seems, and each one can be used to see "the bigger picture" in a sense. Maybe they're not all inherently correct in their thinking, but they're not necessarily incorrect, either. All of them could be used to form some other definition of love and desire.

The four characters that have a strong opinion on love, so far, would probably be Melibea, Calisto and Sempronio and Celestina.

Sempronio seems to have a misogynistic view on love and has a negative view on women. He finds them not trustworthy, and as though they act to get men in trouble, and have no heart. Sempronio tries to talk Calisto out of the idea of being with Melibea, because he thinks that she would end up like every other woman.

Calisto is driven by the concept of love, and reminds me a little of Romeo in a sense. Calisto, like Romeo, was more in love with the idea of being in love, instead of with someone in particular. This is exemplified by his own dialogue when he says that the more Sempronio insults women, particularly Melibea, the more he wants her. Calisto is acting in a very immature way, and is forcing himself to be in love, it seems, to prove a point.

Melibea is strong-willed and rejects Calisto, initially. It seems that the more Calisto chases her, the more she likes him, even though she's under Celestina's "spell." It's hard to say if she actually is in love with Calisto, or just infatuated with the idea of someone being interested in her.

Celestina puts things in a new light. With everyone focused on love, Celestina uses that to her advantage. As a prostitute, and the owner of a brothel, she knows that sex is often equated with love, perhaps incorrectly, and uses that to make a gain. In other words, she uses love to make a business transaction (like Valentines Day...) and understands that people desire things. Some desire just sex, and some--perhaps most--desire love. If she can disguise sex to look like love, then she ends up being a rich woman.