Tuesday, October 9, 2012

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.

No comments:

Post a Comment