Celestina

“Greater is the flame that lasts eighty years than the one that passes in a day, and greater the one that kills a soul than one that burns a hundred thousand bodies. As different as appearance from reality, as the real from the painted, as the shadow from the physical, that great the difference between the fire you speak of and the one that is burning me.”

In response to Calisto’s order to Sempronio to sing the “saddest song [he] know[s]” (9), Sempronio sings about the emperor Nero burning Rome. This nod to Neoplatonism and the classical allusions that occur throughout the text is a ludicrous choice in response to Calisto’s personal heartbreak. It becomes even more ridiculous when Calisto insists that his pain is more tragic than a devastating fire that destroyed an entire city. 

“I wish for riches, but he who is dishonest in his climb is likely to fall farther than he climbed. I would not want wealth gained through deceit.”

When Celestina wants Pármeno to help her extort money from Calisto, his response illustrates his initially upright and rigid moral character. His statement foreshadows what will eventually occur: He will become corrupt and then “fall farther than he climbed” (34). The falling imagery hints at not only his and Sempronio’s fall from the window, but also Calisto’s fall from the ladder and Melibea’s leap from the roof. 

“Treasures that do not know charity blacken and damage honor, while magnanimity and liberality win and exalt it. What advantage is there in having what brings no profit? There is no doubt that using riches is better than possessing them. How glorious it is to give! How wretched to receive! How much better, more noble to give! As much better giving is than possessing, that much nobler the giver than the receiver.”

Sempronio praises Calisto for giving money to Celestina, encouraging giving as a way to achieve happiness—and hinting that some of that giving should go Sempronio’s way. This is ironic, considering that Sempronio will kill Celestina over his own greed. Sempronio’s humorously self-serving advice refers to the overarching theme of the power of money. Money does not buy happiness and creates grief for the person who has it: Calisto becomes a target for Celestina’s scheming because of his wealth, which eventually leads to his death.

“Do you not know that it eases pain to weep over the cause? How sweet it is to those who are sad to bemoan their passion, what calm those heavy sighs bring, how greatly tearful moaning relieves sorrow.”

In response to Sempronio’s suggestion that continuing to weep and carry on will lead to either death or madness, Calisto defends his choice to wallow in his sadness. Of course, what Sempronio says turns out to be true. Had Calisto managed to cheer up and move on, he likely would not have ended up dying while sneaking to see Melibea. 

“I say, Señor, that no error comes unaccompanied, and that one misadventure opens the door to many more.”

As Calisto agrees to enlist help from Celestina, Pármeno warns him that this is a mistake that will have ramifications. This foreshadows the devastating consequences of one seemingly inconsequential decision—a humanist notion that highlights the idea that Calisto’s free will activates the plot rather than the will of the divine.

“In defaming the old woman, you question my love. Well, know this: my pain and turbulent sorrow cannot be ruled by reason, does not welcome advice, does not heed counsel.”

Pármeno accuses Celestina based on his personal experiences with her. But Calisto’s is not willing to listen to reason, and he gets to do what he wants because he is the one who has money. This demonstrates how, even though the novel’s characters have free will, they do not have equal power. 

“Do not marvel, Mother, at my fear, for it is a common human condition to fret that you will never see concluded the thing you most desire; and even more, in this case I fear for you and me. True, I want to profit from this, and I would like for this business to come to a good end – not in order that my master be relieved of his pain, but for me to make my way out of penury. And so I, with my limited experience, see problems that you, who have mastered your trade, cannot see.”

Sempronio suggests that Celestina is too comfortable in her role as the scammer to see potential problems. In this situation, her age and experience makes her more vulnerable to error.

“I do know that everyone speaks of the fair according to what they get from it; so the rich sing a different tune.”

Melibea, speaking to Celestina about the pitfalls of aging, recognizes that wealth and social standing greatly affect one’s experience of life. For Celestina, poverty makes aging harder. But, wealth does not necessarily mean peace. A rich man must constantly work and worry about keeping his fortune while a poor man may have fewer luxuries and comforts but sleeps more soundly at night.

“[D]emented is the traveler who annoyed by the day’s fatigues want to go back to the beginning of the journey and travel again to the same place; for all those unpleasant things in life are far better possessed than anticipated, because the farther one is from the beginning the nearer one is to the end.”

When Melibea asks Celestina if she wishes that she could return to her youth, Celestina asserts that she would not choose to relive her life over. Celestina is near the end of her life, and would not want to endure it again. An unspoken question is whether Melibea, who does not know that she is also at the end of her life, would wish to live it again knowing that her happiness would only be a brief prelude to immense suffering and death.

“No one is so old that he cannot live another year, or so young that he cannot die. So in this matter you have little advantage.”

Celestina’s comment about death and age foreshadows the deaths of the main characters. Celestina may die first, but Sempronio, Pármeno, Calisto, and Melibea quickly follow her. Their youth gives them no advantage and perhaps contributes to their foolishness and willingness to risk their lives.

“The wise man changes his course, the fool perseveres.”

As Sempronio frets about Celestina speeding up the timeline in her intervention with Calisto, Celestina gives the advice that has no doubt led to her long life. Being flexible and adaptable means quick thinking and self-preservation. If Sempronio were more adaptable, perhaps he would be less rigid when Celestina refuses to give him the chain. If he had changed his course and not reacted with anger and violence, he would not have ended up dead himself. 

“But youth cares little for those of us who are old; you want things to your own taste; you never think that you have, or have to have, need of the old; you never think of their illnesses; you never think that you may lose the flower of youth.”

Pármeno ignored Celestina when he moved to the city, choosing to become a servant rather than asking for her help. He is like the other young people in the story, who have a general disregard for the elderly, are headstrong, prioritize their desires, and refuse Celestina’s sage advice. Celestina is a reminder of mortality, but also a reminder that they are young and have much more life to live. Of course, this is ironic since the other four main characters die shortly after Celestina.

“The one who has everything dies as quickly as the one who is poor, the doctor like the pastor, the pope like the sacristan, the master like the servant, he of fine breeding like the lowborn, you with your trade like me with none.”

Elicia refers to a recurring theme—the indiscriminate nature of death. Wealth and youth provide a false sense of security and inspire a reckless sense of abandon. This leads to foolishness and death. In contrast, Celestina is much more cautious about potential danger and manages to skirt death until she makes the fatal mistake of trusting that Sempronio is less greedy than she is.

“You know that when nothing is left of the wine but dregs it drives drinkers from the tavern; so, too, adversity or necessity the false friend when base metal is discovered beneath the gilt.”

Sempronio criticizes Pármeno for undermining Celestina—is Pármeno just a false friend who is only loyal when there are immediate rewards or advantages? Ironically, Sempronio’s loyalty to Celestina is also only motivated by rewards—the second they fight over the chain, the friendship ends and he kills her. 

“Need and poverty, hunger; there are no better teachers in the world, no better energizers and enliveners of wit. But who taught the magpies and parrots to imitate our voices, our way of speaking, with their musical tongues?”

In response to Sempronio’s comment about Celestina’s shrewdness, Pármeno voices an overarching truth: The poor are smarter and craftier than the rich because the wealthy have never needed to be wily to survive. Pármeno understands how Celestina became so cunning over the course of her life, but wonders why the young people around her imitate her rather than making their own way.  

“I have always heard that it is more difficult to suffer good fortune than it is adversity, for the one offers no repose and the other no consolation.”

Celestina offers ironic sympathy to Calisto, which he, in his unworldliness, takes to be genuine. In truth, those who suffer adversity as Celestina has suffered receive neither rest nor comfort from others. In his privilege, Calisto has constant repose and can hire servants to provide whatever he needs for consolation.

“There is no animal so meek that it is not agitated by love or fear for its children. But what would they do if they knew I had left my chamber?”

Melibea worries about how her parents will respond if they discover that she is sneaking out of her room to meet a man. She anticipates their anger, borne out of a primal and innate parental protectiveness and love for her as their child. But although their ability to protect Melibea and shelter her within a large house comes from their financial privilege, their wealth also makes them comfortable rather than vigilant. They cannot imagine that their well-protected daughter might give up her own safety or that she could allow someone to breach their walls.

“O, my honor is in question. I wish to God I were they, that I had lost my life and not my honor, and not the hope of achieving what was just begun, the thing I mourn the most.”

Calisto, upon hearing of Sempronio and Pármeno’s deaths, is far more concerned with how the scandal will affect his reputation than he is with the loss of his servants. This response demonstrates the differences between the lower and upper classes. Calisto can talk about his own death as a romantic alternative to losing his status in society, while treating his servants as expendable and easily replaced.

“Tristán, we must go very quietly because the rich tend to get up at this hour; those greedy for worldly goods.”

Sosia is commenting on the way ambition and a desire for money imposes on one’s ability to enjoy what one has already achieved. Throughout the story, rest is a luxury for the lower-class characters, a reward after an exhausting day of work. For Calisto, rest is a consolation he can take whenever he chooses. Sosia points out the irony of continuing to work hard to acquire more wealth rather than enjoying the wealth that one already has.

“Let them dwell no more on such illusions, on the idea of marriage; it is better to be a good mistress than a bad wife.”

Once infected with lovesickness, Melibea no longer accepts her future arranged marriage, scorning this passionless business arrangement. She has experienced love and passion, which makes the idea of marrying without desire unthinkable. 

“Not for nothing it is said that one day with a discreet man is worth a lifetime with fools and simpletons.”

Elicia, while mourning Sempronio, is bored, lonely, and misses the company of men and Areúsa. Once she is no longer in mourning, Elicia will once again be an eligible woman. Elicia justifies her decision to move on by determining that it no longer matters if she ever meets another worthwhile man since she had one for a brief time. 

“But that is why we have good sense, for looking loss in the eye, for seeing that finery makes a woman beautiful, even if she is not; adornment makes the old woman young, the young woman a girl.”

Elicia recognizes that loss and beauty are all about perception. Once Elicia decides to stop mourning, she will no longer appear to be grieving because she will use makeup and clothing to make herself beautiful. The purpose of these adornments is to turn herself into “a sticky trap in which to entangle men” (213). In other words, the best way to forget her love for Sempronio is to lose herself in a new man.

“I left many servants without a master, I stole away rations and alms for the poor and humble. I was the reason the dead have the company of the most perfect man born in grace.”

Melibea, in her lovesickness, romanticizes Calisto and imagines that his death is a loss to the world rather than just to her. She blames herself for his death. In actuality, Calisto was not a particularly good master to his servants, and he was not especially generous in giving alms to the poor. And his death was the result of his actions, since even Melibea’s love came from a spell cast at Calisto’s behest.