>Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 17:17:28 -0400
>From: Salvatore Poeta <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Is Cervantes a "Feminist"
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>Hello All:
>
>I believe the Marcela-Grisostomo episode of Don Quijote is a perfect
>example of how Cervantes purposefully misleads and lulls the reader
>into false conclusions.  Much of the critical attention this episode
>has received to date points to Marcela as a free-spirited and ultra-
>modern feminine personality.  What few readers overlook is that,
>despite her grandiose speech in praise of "freedom" in the pastoral
>utopia of nature and her firm decision not to submit to any love, let
>alone the love of a single man, Cervantes implicitly forces a
>comparison between daughter, parents and her guardian uncle, the
>priest.  How does the reader in fact reconcile that, in comparison to
>her daughter, Marcela's mother in fact enjoyed marital bliss with her
>husband.  The husband, in fact, follows Marcela's mother to the grave,
>not being able to tolerate the loss.  On the other hand, the reader is
>forced to question the priest uncle's motives in his guardianship of
>Marcela, since his lenience not only goes against Marcela's parent's
>wishes for their daughter's future happiness, but also smacks of self-
>interest and greed.  Certainly it is not in the interest for the uncle
>to expedite Marcela's marriage since he would have to give up control
>of her fortune, despite his status as a cleric and marriage as a holy
>sacrament. In concluision, although Cervantes might agree that no woman
>should be possesed by a man and forced to conform to social norms
>against her will, I am not sure he would condone a single woman's
>pastoril bliss over Christian matrimony.  We have to be quite careful
>to impose our twenty-first century post-modernist views on a writer and
>product of the socio-cultural milieu Baroque Spain and its Counter-
>Reformation.  Thank you, Salvatore Poeta, Villanova university,
>Villanova, PA, USA