La Celestina Characters: Analysis of Key Figures

Celestina: The Evocative Procuress

Celestina is the most evocative character of the work, eventually giving the text its title. She is colorful, vivid, hedonistic, greedy, and vital. She gains insight into the psychology of other characters, making even the most reticent individuals yield to her plans.

Motives and Role

• Motives: Greed, sexual appetite (which she satisfies by facilitating and even witnessing encounters), and a love for psychological power.
• Social Role: She represents a subversive element in society, committed to spreading and facilitating sexual pleasure.
• Magic: She is also associated with the use of magic.

Calisto: The Selfish Antihero

Calisto is a young man of high society concerned only with satisfying his desires, willing to run over anyone to achieve them. His cynicism leads him to despise the sincerity of his servant Pármeno when the latter warns him of the dangers incurred.

Calisto does not observe a real crisis; he is a truly selfish person. He is the most literary character, willingly artificial. He embodies the concept of 'crazy love' (amor loco), of which he is the victim, making him a tragic and antiheroic figure.

Melibea: Passion and Repression

Melibea is a passionate woman who transitions from initial resistance to complete surrender to Calisto with hardly any doubt. Her initial refusal appears as forced and unnatural repression—a hypocritical slavery to the lessons taught at home since childhood.

The narrative portrays her as the victim of a blinding passion instilled by Celestina's spell. Her actions are governed by social conscience and her external concept of honor, lacking personal shame or moral restraints.

Her passion is real and less literary than Calisto's; the impetus for her actions is surely lust more than love.

Pármeno: The Corrupted Servant

Pármeno is arguably the most tragic character of the work because he is corrupted by all the other characters. As the son of Claudina, an old teacher and colleague of Celestina, he initially tries to warn his master of the dangers ahead but is humiliated by him.

His loyalty collapses when he is seduced by one of Celestina's pupils. He is forced to participate in his master's corruption while simultaneously becoming corrupt himself. The material passion he discovers blinds him, and he begins trying to take advantage of Calisto's passion, much like his more cynical partner, Sempronio.

Pármeno has some parallels with Melibea, who also initially refuses to submit to the corrupting power.

Sempronio: Cynicism and Exploitation

Sempronio has long since lost any loyalty to the masters he serves, seeking only to exploit them with selfishness and greed. He maintains a relationship with one of Celestina's prostitutes, who in turn deceives him.

He originates the idea of taking advantage of Calisto's passion at the expense of his master, symbolizing the breakdown of traditional feudal master-servant relationships.

Supporting Characters

• Areúsa and Elicia: Celestina's pupils/prostitutes.
• Alisa: Melibea's mother.
• Pleberio: Melibea's father, who deeply loves his daughter.
• Lucrecia: Melibea's servant.