Celestina Acts 11 - 21

In a period of grief after Celestina’s death, Calisto makes his feelings more defined. First, we see Calisto reconcile with himself what would have happened if there was a slight switch in a series of events when he says, “Melibea would have come to the door, I would not have been there, she would have gone back to her chamber, and there would have been no end to my malady or fulfillment of my desire.” If you notice, he uses the phrase “fulfillment of my desire” in place of describing his desire to be with Melibea which makes me think that by this point, Calisto might recognize that he desires Melibea but does not necessarily love her. After realizing what has transpired between Sempronio and Parmeno, Calisto cries, “O ill-fated Calisto! O how you have been mocked by your servants. O deceitful Celestina! Let me die, and do not come again to revive my hope and fan the flames that already afflict me.” At this point, we realize that Calisto is seeing more than just his desires for Melibea and has almost been brought back to reality where he has been betrayed by those he had trusted. But he goes further than that even, and takes a selfish path later on when he sees what all of these events have reflected on his reputation and honor in the community with, “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. O my poor name and reputation, how you will be spread across the city from mouth to mouth! O my most secret secrets, how publicly you will wander through plazas and markets! What will become of me? Where will I go? Shall I go there? I cannot undo the deaths. Shall I stay here? That will appear to be cowardice. What counsel shall I take?”

          While Calisto is confused over what to do about the degradation of his good standings in society, Melibea has convinced herself that she is at fault for the entire situation and although she is responsible for his social consequences, she is also still convinced that he is the only reason she has for existing, “his servants are dead because of me, his fortune is being drained as he feigns absence from the city; he spends every day closed in his house with hope of seeing me at night. Away, away with ingratitude, away with flattery and deceit with such a true lover. I do not want a husband, I do not want a father or relatives! Without Calisto, I have no life, and because he takes pleasure of me, I am happy.”

           The issue over servants is far more rooted than Calisto can see. To Calisto, he was both responsible for the deaths of his two servants but also betrayed by them through their dealings with Celestina to make Calisto’s affection for Melibea profitable for the three of them. From the standpoint of two of Calisto’s other servants, Sempronio and Parmeno were not at fault and did not deserve to die for their master. This expressed through their exchange:

Sosia: with such a jewel any man would find himself commanding. But let him have his bread, for it has cost him dear: two lads were lost in the sauce for these loves.

Tristan: He has already forgotten them. We die serving despicable master! Do mad things counting on their protection, and then…! “Living with a count,” my mother used to tell me,
do not kill the man.” And our masters? You see them happy in each other’s arms and their servants disgracefully beheaded.”

From Sosia and Tristan’s point of view, Sempronio and Parmeno should have been able to count on their master to get them out of this mess that he was the center of but instead were brutally beheaded and publicly disgraced while their master was left unharmed and not held responsible for his part in the dealings and death of Celestina.

As Elicia mourns the death of Celestina, she believes that Celestina was performing honest work that should have been rewarded, especially considering how Calisto had no other means of fulfilling his desire as well as no expectations. She summarizes that, “You have already heard, Sister, of the affair of Calisto and that demented Melibea. You will know how, with Sempronio’s intercession, Celestina had taken on the task of acting as go-between, expecting to be well paid for her work. She put such diligence and care into the project that with only the second dousing she struck water. Well as Calisto quickly saw that a good result had issued from what he never expected to have, he gave my poor aunt, in addition to other things, a chain of gold. And as that metal is of such value, the more we drink of it the greater our thirst becomes, an unholy greed.” And within such unbearable grief caused by the loss of her mother, she wishes ill on the couple, “O Calisto and Melibea, how many deaths you have caused! May your love come to a bad end, and your sweet pleasure be turned to a foul taste. May your glory be converted to weeping, your rest become labor. May the ambrosial grasses in which you take your stolen pleasures change into serpents, your songs to weeping; may the shady trees of the orchard become dry and parched before your eyes, their fragrant flowers faded to black.” While at the time, the reader just assumes that this woman is taken by her emotions, we later see the foreshadowing of the untimely end to the young established couple as they take their own lives.

The gold chain given to Celestina by Calisto, referenced in the above quote, is symbolic of a death link between Celestina, Sempronio and Parmeno as they all died on the same night. It also symbolizes greed as it is the object of their greed and in what Sempronio and Parmeno believe is “tri-ownership,” it is an object of desire.

           As a side drama, the reader sees the issue of sex come up between Melibea and Calisto. Seemingly reluctant to give up her virginity, Melibea pleads, “my senor, I put myself in your hands because I wanted to do your will; may I not be the worse for being merciful rather than aloof and without mercy. Do not harm me in exchange for such brief pleasure, and in so short a time. For when bad things are done, they can sooner be reprehended than mended. Enjoy what I enjoy, which is to see you and be close to you. Do not ask for, or take, that which once taken will not be in your power to return. Take care, senor, not to harm what all the world’s treasures cannot restore.” After giving in and losing her virginity, a distraught Melibea reveals that, “If I had thought that you would have your way with me so immoderately, I would not have entrusted my person to your cruel company,” leading the reader to believe that she is upset with the choice she has made, yet we see the young girl give up her life for the same lover.