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.