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Celestina's Characters

Notes from Kathy:

Let’s talk about the characters in Celestina – they are by far the most important aspects of this novel.  How did you react to the various characters?  What emotions do they prompt – frustration, pity, annoyance, apathy, sympathy?  Do you get a sense of depth or dimension from any of them?

The story seems to me to move very quickly through its plots – is there a real sense of any of the characters changing during the course of the novel?  I read recently a statement that at the heart of a novel is a character who tries to achieve something.  How does that fit Celestina’s story lines? 

-- Kathy Gursky

Comments

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  • The lack of a narrator made the characters were very flat.  The lack of an interesting storyline made the characters self-centered and unsympathetic, and I found myself not caring what happened to them.  Forgivable in a novel of this vintage, but it is impossible for me to read Celestina without the higher expectations of modern times.

    Sherry, 2 years ago | Flag
  • OK, I normally try to leave this open for other people's comments rather than doing all the talking myself, but I'll go ahead on this one.  I hope we have some folks reading Celestina who will want to join in the conversation.


    I found the characters to be more two- than three-dimensional -- it's a pretty short novel, and while there's a lot of action I didn't get that much sense of deep character development.  That's not necessarily a bad aspect, since I think the author wasn't trying to write a deep analysis but to point up the "each man for himself" nature he saw in society.  That definitely comes across!  There is a pretty clear sense of the social class of the various characters, whether master or servant.


    I would say the character I found most poignant was Melibea's father.  The final scene where he learns of his daughter's death touched me.


    -- Kathy Gursky

    kgursky, 2 years ago | Flag

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