La Celestina: SHORT SUMMARY

Do you need a brief summary of La Celestina? In a PROFESSOR we are going to bring you closer to this literary work that was composed between 1496 and 1499 by Fernando de Rojas. This piece represents the change that took place in the country when moving from medieval ideas to others of a Renaissance nature where sensuality and love take on a special role. In La Celestina we witness a work that reflects the crossing of two very different eras with characters that have become a classic of our culture as they are Calisto and Melibea.

This work tells us of courtly love through very well defined and characterized characters offering us, at the end of it all, a moralizing message. Keep reading and you will discover a short summary of La Celestina so you can prepare your lesson, as well as an analysis of the characters in this play.

Index

1. La Celestina summary: presentation of the characters
2. La Celestina summary: the knot of history
3. The resolution of the argument of La Celestina
4. Characters in La Celestina: main and secondary

We start with this short summary of La Celestina talking about the first part of the literary work when we are introduced to the characters and we are at the beginning of the plot. History tells us about Callisto, a young man of the nobility that she is chasing one of her hunting hawks and, due to the frenzy of the chase, ends up entering, without realizing it, Melibea's garden. Upon seeing the young woman, he falls madly in love with her, a true crush and, mad with love, begins to say her most tender words of love. Melibea, however, rejects it.

Thus begins the plot of La Celestina causing the meeting between these two protagonists. Because of Melibea's rejection, Calisto goes to his house full of frustration and pain, an intense drama is felt by this young man who entrusts to Sempronio, his servant, all the regret of him.

The servant, seeing how much the master is suffering, recommends him to Celestina, a sorceress who can make Melibea fall at her feet. Callisto, desperate, accepts this offer. That's when we know La Celestina since the servant goes to her house (where Elicia, her lover also lives) to send him Callisto's wishes. However, the servant makes his intentions clear as he wants the old woman and he to divide up the money that the nobleman pays for the pimp's work.

Pármeno is Callisto's other servant that he warns her master of the dangers of being advised by Celestina since she is reputed to be a woman who is a sorceress, a liar and an interested woman. He presents the old woman to us as a woman who is only interested in money and that honor and morals are not part of her way of seeing her life. However, Celestina will be able to persuade Pármeno since she will tell him that, if he is on her side, she will be able to enjoy Areusa, Elicia's cousin with whom the servant is passionately in love.

We continue with this short summary of La Celestina to, now, focus on the knot of the literary work. Celestina responds to Calisto's request and goes to visit her house to reach an economic agreement that is much greater than the old woman expected. Calisto is madly in love with Melibea and is able to pay a large amount of gold for her to fall at her feet.

La Celestina goes to Melibea's house her with some skeins of thread (which she has previously bewitched) with the false intention of selling the thread to the noble family. When she arrives at this house, Melibe receives the old woman with kindness but, as soon as she talks to him about Calisto, Melibea is enraged when she sees that her intentions were not those of a simple salesperson but those of bawd. Here we witness a passionate dialogue between the two women that ends with Melibea's regret for having treated the poor old woman badly; the pimp's cunning finally triumphs.

As soon as Melibea touches the skein of thread, they begin to change their feelings towards Callisto And then, talk to the pimp to get a date with the young woman in love with her. That same night, at twelve o'clock, they can be seen through the cracks in the girl's garden.

Celestina goes to Calisto's house to explain her good news and he, maddened and strongly grateful, gives her trip her gold chain, a jewel that has enormous economic value and that was never removed from her neck. The two servants rub their hands when they see the good business they are going to get with this crush, since they both agreed with the pimp that they would share part of the profit.

We continue with this short summary of La Celestina to place ourselves in the plot denouement, the final part of the story where the whole mess comes to an end. We have pointed out that Melibea is bewitched because of Celestina's spell and that same night at twelve she has met with Calisto to speak openly about her love. The first meeting of the lovers is brief but full of feelings; They agree to meet the next night to spend more time together.

On this second night, Calisto will no longer be able to bear his love and will end up climbing the wall of the garden of Melibea's parents. The two enter the young woman's bedroom and satisfy her desire in a carnal way Thus, the young woman loses her virginity with a man whom she did not freely love and whose meeting has been propitiated by the deception of La Celestina. Melibea's moral dilemma between her loss of purity and innocence will be tempered by the strong love affair of the two lovers.

After this "success", Sempronio and Pármeno, Calisto's servants, go to La Celestina to share the profits but the old woman plays crazy and she doesn't want to give them a penny. The two men, full of anger, they will end up killing the pimp of her for his lies and her deceptions. Justice will end up punishing the murderers and, for this, they will be beheaded in the middle of the town square.

Calisto goes back to his third date with Melibea and that night, without meaning to, he will fall asleep on her lap, For this reason, the next morning she will try to flee to prevent the girl's father from finding him in his bedroom. So swift and hasty will the flight be that, going down the garden wall on a ladder, he will lose his balance and fall, dying on the spot.

When Melibea finds out what happened, she decides to end her life too and, for that reason, he throws himself from the top of his house, not without first explaining to his father everything that happened with Callisto, his virginity and his heartbroken crying.

La Celestina's play ends with a scene in which the young woman's mother and father cry inconsolably at the broken body of her young daughter.

Now that you have been able to read the short summary of the plot of La Celestina, we are going to talk carefully about the characters in this literary work. There are two groups of characters: the main and secondary.

Main characters of La Celestina

• Callisto: he is a young man from the bourgeoisie who goes crazy when he sees Melibea. At that time, love was considered a state that moved between illness and madness, for this reason, Callisto reflects this passionate and uncontrollable part of love that makes, even the most noble, a vulnerable and pathetic. This character lives blindly in love with Melibea and loses the notion of reality in a way that borders on the comic.
• Melibea: she is the co-star of this literary work. She is about a young woman from high society and that she is innocent, beautiful and good, thus fulfilling an ideal of a woman. However, after Celestina's spell, the young woman totally loses her forms and manners to surrender, body and soul, to her unbridled passion, losing even her most precious asset, that is, her virginity.
• Celestina: she is the most elaborate character of Fernando de Rojas since she is a cold, calculating and interested woman. Humble of condition, the procurer has had to seek life in a society that is only intended for the wealthier classes, therefore, she has no morality or remorse of conscience.

Secondary characters in La Celestina

In this brief summary of La Celestina we also have to talk about the other characters that are part of the play and who interpret the subplots. They are as follows:

• Sempronio: He is Callisto's page and, from the first moment, he wants to take advantage of the romantic madness of his master to get some economic benefit. He is a character without values ​​who hangs out with Elicia in a very passionate way that moves between sexual desire and hatred.
• Parmeno: He is the other servant of Callisto who does have values ​​and strong morals. He warns Callisto of Celestina not to fall into his goings-on but, eventually, he will be more powerful the sexual desire he feels for Areúsa that the moral principles of him, for that reason, he will end up allying with Celestina. In addition, Pármeno is the son of an old friend of Celestina, therefore, his origins are linked to the world of sorcery, lust and poverty.
• Elicia and Areúsa: they are two prostitutes who are under the protection of Celestina. In this play they reflect sexuality, debauchery and lack of morals.
• Melibea's parents: Alisa and Pleberio are the paternal figures of the bewitched young woman who hardly have a leading role during the play and only appear in the first and last scenes.

If you want to discover more details about the Characteristics of the La Celestina characters, we recommend reading this other lesson from a TEACHER.

Image: Juantxo Cruz

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