La Celestina was published in the last year of the fifteenth century, a work that many critics agree in qualifying as the first proper novel of literature in Castilian. This is a brief romantic tragicomedy of a markedly realistic nature, where the author imitates without concealed cynicism the past courtly refinement, intermingled with the roughest environment of marginal society. It was because of this mixture that Cervantes judged that La Celestina would have been  "a divine work had it concealed more the human element".

In a lively dialogue the protagonists, the young lovers Calisto and Melibea, are torn between their unbridled feelings of love and the need to comply with the strict social norms of humanism. The pedantry formalism of courtly love that Calisto uses when addressing Melibea can barely hide his stark erotic desire. The young couple finally consummates their loving passion without the required bond of marriage. 

There have been several possible explanations for this fact, from the possible Hebrew origins of Melibea to the fact that love without social control is a more authentic and unconditional representation of love. In any case, once the transgression occurs, tragedy ensues. Melibea's early death and her father's despair interlace emotional realism with classical Petrarchan pessimism. The curated ingenuity of the medieval individual gives way to the emerging individualism of the Renaissance.

Spanish Bites

About

Book Club

Library

Premium

The tragic love in La Celestina.

From courtly love to individualism.

Spanish Bites

External Resources

Maria