Celestina Day 4

1. The way Calisto was talking it felt that he was so upset about Sempronio and Parmeno that his love for Melibea came second. All the love he said he had for her just ended up being lust and the desire to sleep with her. He embraces her and starts unclothing her and she doesn't really enjoy it. He then responds saying "Mistress, i have risked my life to earn this favor. What sense would there be in rejecting it now. He took complete advantage of her claiming he couldn't hold back his desire and he couldn't go through his suffering. Once he had what he wanted he was like a predator catching its prey.

The quote i picked was Melibea saying " Ive planned my death so well! How comforted to think that my beloved Calisto and I shall soon be united!" This quote shows just how much love is more true and non artificial for women than men. She commits suicide over someone who acted like he really loved her just to take advantage over her. No matter how hard to get she played her love ran deep for Calisto while he was just looking for a one night affair. A good portion of this book was setting up Calisto and Melibea togethor just for it to end in tragedy.

Celestina day 2

1. celestina seems to be lacking in confidence after both Sempronio and Elicia both talk to her and don't sound so confident. Sempronio keeps telling her to be cautious with Melibea's family. Elicia goes to fetch something for Celestina and she comes back telling her that it is not there. She also states that Celestina is always forgetting where she puts things. Celestina ends up praying to Pluto, the god of the underworld, that her plan with Melibea goes according to plan. Everyone is usually confident in her and that she will get the job done. When people start being skeptical she gets a little nervous.

3. I think Melibea doesn't like the fact that Calisto is sending this sneaky old prostitute to talk to her about his love. i don't think that she is completely uninterested in him but dissapointed that he wouldn't try again himself. Celestina has a bad reputation and for Celestina to be in her presence is an insult. She is still playing hard to get.

Celestina Day 1

3. My first impressions of Celestina is that she's a cunning woman who finds ways to get what she wants through persuasion. She immediately wants to get as much money out of calisto as she can knowing his situation. Parmeno also knows she has a bad reputation and describes how everything she does is through lies and mockery. Celestina hears this and upon recognizing Parmeno uses their past against them. Parmeno wants to be loyal as a servant, but Celestina was like a mother to him for quite some time. She also uses her age as a scapegoat for having wisdom and that Parmeno is still too young to understand the world around him.


1. I think the setting took place in a garden because a garden is usually a romantic place. Here we have a man confessing to a woman his love in a garden which is a beautiful setting. The only problem is it doesn't turn out good for Calisto. Melibea rejects his love since he does it out in the open and puts her above a seat in heaven.

Decameron day 6

9.2 answer - The nuns reflect the church being corrupt and succumbing to sins that people who aren't in high positions in the church. Men and women who are even nuns and priests feel the emotions of lust and jealousy and greed. People are people they are just expected to carry out more responsibility than others.

9.3) I feel Calandrino's friends are guilty because a person should be able to do with their money whatever they want. If Calandrino wants to buy land then he should be able to. Its also bad enough they convinced a doctor, a professional, to go along with the plan. the way Calandrino was talking to and about his wife was a little scary. He openly commented on killing her but everyone just laughed it off like it was he reward of playing such a good prank. hitting women i guess is acceptable in some ways to these people as we see abuse of women in past stories.

Decameron Day 4

story 5.8) Why does Nastagio feel he has to bring the Traversari girl to the forest? Is her decision to marry him a suprise?

Nastagio feels he has to bring lady Traversari to the forest to witness for herself the slaughter of the cruel woman. This way it will scare her in not acting in a sinful way. I dont feel any suprise in her running to Nastagio after witnessing the spectacle. It scared her so much that she didn't want to end up the same way. She would be lucky to take anyone after seeing the girl get slaughtered by a knight, who are supposed to be noble people.

story 5.10) Does the irony of the story strike you as odd?

I feel that the story was pretty entertaining. The fact that the man is talking about a woman cheating on her husband and hiding in a chicken coop while its actually going on is so out of the ordinary. The fact that people have the same idea in such short time periods of each other as almost abnormal.

Decameron Day 2

1. I think Andreuccio got a little bit smarter during the story, but he was always getting stuck in the same situations. He always meets somebody who in general is not respected in society. First he meets the woman who is a whore, then the grave robbers. He is also always getting trapped in some dark and gloomy place where he can't get out. I feel he caught on financial wise though. After gettting tricked the first time out of his moneyhe realized that the grave robbers would do the same to him the moment he stole all the stuff from the tomb. He also learned to think more like people who actually go out in the world and try to make a decent living. If he's around the wicked enough then he will start to understand them. Considering he never left his town before he is used to the same kind of people and the same environment day in and day out. Now that he is out and in a new city where life is different, he gets overwhelmed by everyones cunning and deceit. I think the story is trying to get at people shouldn't stick to social norms. Doing the same thing day in and day out is not good for you. The person telling the story continuosly calls Andreuccio a fool for how he is so trusting of people. Everyone isn't as friendly as who you know. The fact he got out of each situation was sheer luck and so was him claiming the ring.

3. I think in the story being feminine was just looking really pretty. Its not until about three quarters into the story that Alatiel is even mentioned speaking. Because she speaks a different language from everyone else she gives up on communication all togethor. The men were so overcome by her beauty that they couldn't help themselves in trying to win her love. By only looking at her they fell in love. They went as far as to stab their brothers and best friends in the back pretty literally just to have her. I think the author feels that love is blind. Every man knew nothing about Alatiel yet they are supposedly in love with her. All they ever did was end up having sex with her over and over again. It took an old man who spoke her language to finally ave a legitimate reason to actually love her. His friend also did not betray him in stealing her away. Women once again are thetrophies that men compete for so they look their best. With a beautiful lady on your side your easily the top dog in the competition. Alatiel is also a little at fault in this story to. While they lusted for her she enjoyed their company as well. After she lost her virginity it was just good time after good time for her. She would grieve for a short while when one of her lovers was killed and then just move on all the same after a while. The gender roles still are in place. The men are just being men while she is to me dim witted and has a very bad sense of morals.

Decameron part 1.

In the first day second story the jew abraham says after visiting Rome "And since I have observed that in spite of all this, they do not succeed but, on the contrary, that your religion continuosly grows and becomes brighter and more illustrious". i find this in a way the author mocking both the jewish religion and the cristian church. The fact that the Jewish person feels that because the catholic church is so sinful yet thrives is gods will is so ridiculous. And for someone to portray the church like this in this time is definetely not normal. To openly say that the church sodomises children is something you would expect to hear now not all the way back from the middle ages. It shows that the church had problems way back then even though it may not have been thought of.

"Intelligence can rescue the wise man from the gravest of dangers and restore him to his secure state". I felt that this was a pretty nice quote from the text. The way he uses intelligence sounds deeper than what you would imagine. For one you would figure a wise man is allready intelligent. It's sort of a pen defeats the sword type of statement. I believe highly in the idea that if your smart enough you can work your way out of any situation you like without losing your head or using force.

Tristan and Isolde

1. The battle scene in the movie is different because it starts off with Tristan as a young boy. I think the film opened up this way as a more dramatic beginning and tying in how Tristan ended up living with his uncle Mark. It sets the tone to draw the viewer in and starts the story off in a more appropriate way. I think it gives you more of a feel for Tristan's life and you connect with him more than in the story.

2. I dont think the lack of a love potion was really persuasive in the movie. Events pretty much played out how they did in the novel. They got rid of the idea that the love potion was the whole centerpoint of the story which I think is a good idea. the blame on the potion got to be a bit much. Even after the effects wore off Tristan and Isolde were still blaming it for their troubles. I felt the movie portrayal made more sense in a way and developed the story better.