Two things I noticed in Celestina are the themes of pains that love brings and the two extremes of women presented in the novel. Sempronio and Calisto mirror a Plato and Socratic conversion when they denote the differences between the cruel burning of Rome by Nero and the burn on a man’s heart caused by rejection. Calisto’s speech of differences in the two fires alludes to the allegory of “The Cave,” by Plato, “The difference between the fire in your song and the one burning in me is as great as the gap between appearance and reality, life and artifice, a shadow and its source.” In this sense, Calisto subverts the expectations that the “real” fire is the fire that burns you when you love someone, and the “shadow” of that fire is the one that burns through fields and houses alike. Their discussion leads them to two extreme views of women. Calisto sees women as beautiful creatures; he describes Melibea as “slanted green eyes, long eye lashes, thin arched eyebrows, dainty nose…” (9). The list goes on and on of the virtues and excellence of women. Calisto uses imagery of gods and royalty to refer to Melibea. Contrastingly, Sempronio believes women to be vile creatures. He also lists the qualities of women, “they are all play-acting, lip, deceit, sleight of hand, frostiness, ingratitude, infidelity, slander, denials, scheming…” (7). He carries on this list for quite a while, all while speaking of all the evils of women. This motif continues throughout the rest of the novel Melibea representing the goddess wonderful end of the extreme, while Celestina the evil not to be trusted side. The interactions between the women are insightful, because they play off of each others known strengths and flaws, like Celestina’s craftiness or Melibea’s weakness of spirit. Either way I am excited to see which one “triumphs” in the end.