CELESTINA day one

1. The opening scene takes place in garden with Calisto and Melibea. Immediately I thought of the Garden of Eden, and the symbolism it has for this part of the novel. The  opening scene is one where Calisto confesses his newly found, undying love for Melibea. Despite all the sweet things he claims, Melibea turns down his attentions and says she does not care for him in that way. I compared this to the Garden of Eden for several reasons. The famous biblical story begins with Eve taking a bite of the forbidden fruit. she then convinces Adam to take a bite of the fruit as well. The introduction parallels this, because Melibea is the ultimate demise of Calisto. She, in a literary way, tempted Calisto with the forbidden fruit, which in this case would be her body. Thus, at first glance Calisto fell in love, leading to his downfall, or at least the downfall that I anticipate will be coming up soon in the story.

3. My intial impression of Celestina is that she is a very confident. The whole passage was a man trying to degrade her for being a very "loose" woman. Despite the constant degrading, Celestina continually maintains her wonderful demour. She embraces her reputation and wears it with pride because she is not embarassed by the things she has done. She understands the consequences of her actions, and participates in the sexual acts willingly. She enjoys the pleasure, thus she is not murked when people point out the obvious. She does what makes her happy, and forgets what others would appreciate. Though I understand the importance of caring for others, I find it admirable the way Celestina goes about life. This is shown through the novel when she finds allies to help trick Calisto out of his money.