Complete ANALYSIS of La Celestina: Plot, Themes, Language, Style... RESUME!!

One of the most emblematic works of Spanish literature is La Celestina, a compulsory reading book in the vast majority of schools or institutes. The reason for its historical importance is that with this work we are shown how she was the passage from XV to XVI, a change of time that revolutionized the arts and literature by incorporating much more modern innovations in the style and use of the language. In this lesson from a TEACHER we will carry out a complete analysis of La Celestina so that you can know in depth the characteristics of this text. We will analyze key aspects such as the plot, the characters, the style, the language or the themes that are addressed in this work.

Index

1. Argument of La Celestina: brief summary
2. Author of La Celestina
3. Structure of La Celestina
4. Main characters of La Celestina
5. The genre of La Celestina
6. The 3 most outstanding songs of La Celestina
7. The language in La Celestina
8. Conclusion of La Celestina

To begin to address this analysis of La Celestina, it is essential to talk about the argument of this literary work so that, thus, we can know what it is about. In this work we are introduced to Calisto, a young man of the nobility who falls madly in love with Melibea. When trying to seduce her, the young woman rejects him and, desperate, Callisto asks Sempronio, her servant, for advice. He will recommend that you leave everything in the hands of Celestina, a village sorceress who says that she has many remedies for love.

Callisto follows the recommendations of his servant and, therefore, he goes to visit Celestina. The pimp will end up getting Melibea to fall in love with the young nobleman but the way to achieve this infatuation will not be by spells or potions but, rather, by tricks.

The servants want to test the power that Celestina has and, for this reason, they promise that they will divide the gold chain if she really gets Melibea to fall in love with Calisto. As she succeeds, the woman collects the necklace and the servants claim her part, but the pimp does not want to give it to her. In the end, driven by greed, they end up killing Celestina. Faced with this crime, justice will imprison them.

Calisto and Melibea are about to see each other at night. The young man, blinded by mad love, falls down a ladder and, tragically, it breaks and Callisto dies. Melibea, hurt by what happened, will climb a tower and jump from it because she cannot bear the accident of her lover.

In order to make a good analysis of La Celestina, it is important that we stop at the authorship of the work. Although we commonly know Fernando de Rojas as the main author of this text, the truth is that in the prologue we are told that this orba was written by a unknown author and finished by Rojas. According to the critics, the author found the first written act and finished the work as we know it today.

And who was the original author of the first part of La Celestina? In the 19th century it was postulated that it was most likely the pen of Menéndez and Pelayo the one who wrote the first part that was finished by Rojas. But, today, the debate is still up in the air and many critics claim that the first act is anonymous, therefore, we do not know who the author of these lines is.

What we do know for sure is that Fernando de Rojas was the author who completed and finishedor La Celestina. He was a Toledo scholar who was born in 1475 and studied at the University of Salamanca. He gave the work a tragic meaning with a moralistic and didactic ending.

To continue with this analysis of La Celestina, it is important that we talk about the structure of this literary work. It is important that we take into account three essential factors when it comes to structure:

1. Love is the main action: Later we will talk about the main themes of the work, however, it is essential to emphasize that the motor of the action is the love or passion felt by the protagonists. A tragic love that at all times shows us the duality that exists between love and death. In fact, it is important to note that in act XII something fundamental happens to understand the work well and that is that narrates the first love affair between Calisto and Melibea and, at the same time, is the act in which Celestina is murdered.
2. First part of La Celestina: in this part we find a work that has an ascending rhythm. The two lovers are meeting and overcoming the obstacles on the way to be able to carry out their love relationship. This is when the author makes a definition of the characters with their most prominent vices and virtues, we see the greed of the servants and the pimp, as well as the uncontrolled and dangerous love that the protagonists.
3. Second part of the work: Unlike the first, this other part is descending, that is, the plot rushes towards tragedy in an uncontrolled maelstrom. This second part begins in act XII when the pimp is murdered and, therefore, the harbinger of death that was constant in the first part, this is when it takes place. In this part it is also when the night of carnal passion takes place between the two lovers, something that happens in chapter XIX and that coincides with the death of Callisto.
4. Final of La Celestina: At the end of the play we find a monologue by Pleberio in which he concludes that death has ended up conquering love. A tragic and message-laden ending.

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In order to make a good analysis of La Celestina it is essential that we also talk about the main charactersof the work. Although in the text we find the presence of multiple characters, the truth is that here we will only analyze the protagonists in order to better understand the strength of the text.

It is important to note something: although Calisto and Melibea seem the two protagonists of the plot, the truth is that, as the title of the work indicates, the protagonist is none other than Celestina, the pimp who manages to create love between them. And it is that without the presence of this character, nothing that is explained in the work could take place, therefore, it is the main character.

Celestina, the main character of the play

This is the best defined and achieved character of the entire work. He is a very complex character who has received numerous qualifications throughout history: from demonic, to lustful, evil, and so on. However, the presence of this pimp is part of society and, in fact, high-born characters such as Calisto and Melibea come to her to request her help. Celestina lives off vice and the most basic passions of the human being, she takes advantage of moral miseries that there is in the city to obtain the own benefit of her.

She is a character who masters a large number of spells and potions that only seek to obtain money in return. Because, although she is a sorcerer character, what moves the pimp is nothing more than money. It's a greedy character that will end with a tragic fate caused by her own greed. And it is the pimp who perverts Callisto's servants by awakening the desire for greed. In the end, she will die at the hands of all of them for something that she herself had engendered.

She is a mythical character who she embodies unscrupulous morality. To achieve her own goals there is nothing to stop her and, in fact, thanks to the fact that society is corrupt, she can survive and get rich.

Calisto and Melibea

However, in La Celestina we also have another duo of characters that we have to highlight. It is made up of the two lovers: Calisto and Melibea. Next, we will analyze these characters individually to get to know them better:

• Callisto: he is a character belonging to the nobility and who is carried away by his passions. This makes him totally lose the north when he meets Melibea, a lady who rejects him at first. The process of love that Calisto undergoes is far from being a pleasant or positive process, rather it is the opposite. The character suffers very deeply and he feels a painful and anguished love. These emotions are what will make you go to a morally questioned person such as Celestina. Callisto is the character who embodies blind and totally uncontrolled love.
• Melibea: she is a very striking and interesting female character. The reason is that we are shown a woman with character and a strong personality. Unlike the typical portraits of the submissive woman of the Middle Ages, with Melibea we meet a woman whom she is not concerned at all with detaching herself from her parents, cheating on him, and pretending to get her wishes satisfied. The Renaissance individualism lOr we see in this female character that, due to the intervention of the pimp, she will also end up surrendered to passionate love. Being in love with her, Melibea will be more powerful and will go to defend her feelings at all costs, it is for this reason that nothing about her keeps her from making a pact with Celestina or deceiving her family.

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We can affirm that La Celestina is a tragicomedy. In fact, the title of the work itself points to its literary categorization. The reason is that in the narration we find scenes that have the classic elements of comedy and that can create situations that are funny and surreal.

However, let's not forget that the background of this work constantly turns towards tragedy: the theme of death is present at all times and it is in the second part when we will begin to see the consequences of living a feeling as deep and uncontrolled as love and avarice.

Let us remember that the original title of the work was "Tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibea " before Rojas changed it to "La Celestina". A title that gives all the necessary clues to understand the essence of this text that moves between comedy and tragedy in equal measure.

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The La Celestina themesThey are multiple, however, here we will analyze 3 that are the main ones and those that allow the work to evolve and the characters live their misadventures.

• Love theme: As we had already anticipated, the theme of love is the most prominent of this work. This is the feeling that moves the whole plot and that will precipitate the tragic ending. Therefore, we can speak that there is an intrinsic relationship between love and death since, in this work, love leads to the tragic end of all the protagonists. The reason is that the love that the characters feel is not ideal and bucolic love but is a dangerous love, an uncontrolled love that precipitates misfortune.
• Death: of course, it is another of the most prominent themes of this literary work. Death is present throughout the text and is the final outcome with which the 3 main characters of the play end. The actions taken by them lead them to a fatal destiny, something that contains a very powerful message from the author.
• Greed: together with love and death, greed is another of the fundamental themes of this work. And it is that in La Celestina, the most humble characters such as the servants or the procurer herself are moved by a different feeling: that of greed. Their lust for money also leads them to an irreparable end as Celestina ends up murdered and the servants imprisoned and executed by justice.

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Continuing with this analysis of La Celestina, it is important to dwell on a key element of the work: the language. As we have already said in the introduction, this text reflects the passage that exists between two very different cultures: the medieval and the Renaissance. This convergence of styles is perfectly visible throughout the pages and also in the language used.

Here we leave you a summary with the most relevant aspects of language in La Celestina:

• Mix of cultured and popular language: Throughout the work we find that there is a total coexistence between the two styles of language. The cultured and the popular go hand in hand in these pages, thus recreating a realistic and totally innovative style for the time. The characters are characterized by their linguistic use and, thus, it is easy to detect which social class they belong to. The Latinizing language full of literary resources is mixed with the most popular language that is full of sayings and expressions typical of the oral language.
• Latinizing styleAlthough the work incorporates popular elements, the truth is that the trace of Latin is still very present. We see this in the construction of sentences with the verb at the end, just as the Latin language does, or the use of the infinitive or the present participle.
• Linguistic comicity: one of the resources used to create the comic touch in La Celestina is popular language. A very local and colorful type of lexicon is used that recreates society in a simple and no-frills way. There is a great presence of sayings and dialectalisms are dispensed with.
• The dialogue: We must also highlight the technique of dialogue that is used so well in this literary work. During the text we find different techniques such as monologues or dialogues that help to better understand the depth of the character and the authentic nature of him.

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We close this analysis of La Celestina talking about the conclusions about this work. It is a text much studied in schools and institutes, in part, because it greatly influenced the future of literature. In fact, in the Spanish literary corpus we find that many authors followed in the wake started by Rojas and they created their own versions; here are the most important ones:

• Second Celestina by Feliciano de Silva
• The Dorotea Y Fenisa's Hook from Lope de Vega
• The Andalusian Lozana by Francisco Delicado

But its influence went beyond borders and, therefore, in the 16th century it was translated into languages ​​such as German, French, Italian or French. Even Pablo Picasso He also left us a portrait of Celestina in one of his paintings.

The influence of Celestina has even penetrated the Spanish languagel and, today, we have dictionary entries such as "celestinar" or "celestinesco" and, of course, "do de Celestina "has also remained as a universal expression when speaking of a person who intermediates between two lovers. .

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