Essay Three: The Purpose Of Life
In La Gitanilla: The Little Gypsie and The Worth of Women, Cervantes and Fonte propose that the purpose of life is to develop individualism through either romantic love or self- love. Cervantes identifies romantic love as the motive for individual psychological growth. In La Gitanilla: The Little Gypsie, Preciosa demanded Don Juan to prove his character and love by abandoning all his luxuries. Throughout this journey, Don Juan learned different virtues, such as temperance and fortitude, from Preciosa’s company. As a result, Don Juan improved his morality to prove his love for Preciosa, and the two became better lovers. Fonte states that self- love will motivate an individual to seek different types of knowledge, so they can be independent from the help of others. While the group of women were discussing on the topic of medicine, they realized they depended on and male knowledge and discoveries. Some believed that if they learn more about natural facts and cures for common diseases, they could take care themselves and wouldn’t have to rely on others to find a solution. This essay will argue that the purpose of life is to cultivate virtues and knowledge to reach independence through romantic love or self- love.
La Gitanilla: The Little Gypsie demonstrates that the purpose of life is to seek for personal growth by polishing personal virtues through romantic love. After Don Juan confessed his love to Preciosa, Preciosa immediately demanded Don Juan to, “quit your father's mansion, and exchange it for our tents.” (Cervantes, p. 8) Preciosa asks Don Juan to prove his love by giving up his good fortunes because she knew that he prized them so dearly. She feared that the wealth of his family might spoil him to love through an impetuous impulse; she argues that excessive wealth gives birth to vices such as self-indulgence, or the mindset that anything they want could be easily attainable and replaceable. She stated, “the object is obtained, the lover soon becomes wearied of his so much desired treasure, and opening the eyes of his understanding he finds that what before was so devoutly adored is now become abhorrent to him.” (Cervantes, p. 8) Preciosa’s love trial contests Don Juan’s independence from his family’s wealth and challenges him to oppose self- indulgence. But Don Juan’s heart was determined, so he “deceived his servants and friends; disappointed the hopes of this parents; abandoned the road to Flanders, where he was to have exercised his valour and increased the honours of this line; and he has prostrated himself at the feet of a girl, made himself the lackey of one who, though exquisitely beautiful, is after all a gitana!” (Cervantes, P. 18) Because of the power of romantic love, Don Juan forfeited his luxuries and his dependency on his family, and he started his new life pursuing temperance and living without inherited wealth and power of his family. Romantic love gave Don Juan’s life the purpose of seeking independence from his family and expanding personal virtues to prove his love for Preciosa.
La Gitanilla: The Little Gypsiealso shows that romantic love gives confidence to bring lovers independence from their vices. At the beginning of their journey, Don Juan was jealous of every male connection that Preciosa establishes. After hearing a poem written by Clement about the beauty of Preciosa, Don Juan
had been racked by a thousand jealousies on hearing the verses; and was so overcome that his father observed it, and cried out ‘What ails you, Don Juan? You are turned quite pale, and look as if you were going to faint.’ (Cervantes, p. 13)
Don Juan’s jealousy demonstrates his lack of virtues, especially in fortitude. His psychological strength depends on the attention of Preciosa, and his mind could be easily distracted by any other attention Preciosa gives or receives. Preciosa notice his vices and whispered, “how will you be able to bear the torture with gauze, when you are overcome by a bit of paper?” (Cervantes, p. 13) Preciosa’s satirical words were intended to expose Don Juan’s weakness; she suggested that if Don Juan continues to listen to his vices, his suffering will get worse, and his love will exhaust. She hopes that the insult would make him realize that the strength of his love should depend less on Preciosa’s attention, but it should rely more on Don Juan’s confidence in Preciosa. After she whispered those words, Don Juan slowly realized Preciosa’s intention and started to believe in the strength of his love. As a result, when Don Juan finally met with Clement, he “did not give way to confirmed jealousy; for he relied more on the good faith of his Preciosa than on his own fortune.” (Cervantes, p.24) Don Juan learned from Preciosa that he should trust their love before relying on his mind to generate jealousy. At the end of the journey, Don Juan and Clement “continued to be comrades and friends, their mutual good understanding being secured by Clement’s upright intentions, and by the modesty and prudence of Preciosa, who never gave [Don Juan] an excuse for jealousy.” (Cervantes, p. 24) Under the power of romantic love, Preciosa constantly tried to improve Don Juan’s fortitude by adjusting her presense around Clement; Don Juan observed Preciosa’s virtues and learned from them, and he slowly became more confident with the strength of his love. Hence, they learned virtues from each other and “were happy in the mere sight of each other.” (Cervantes, p. 19) Romantic love gave Don Juan reasons to believe in the strength of his love which freed him from his vices, and it motivated him to improve psychologically as an individual.
The Worth of Women proposes that the purpose of life is to seek individualism through self- love, for self- love motivates people to acquire knowledge to learn independence. Throughout the conversation, the group of women reflected heavily on how men would always interfere with women’s happiness. An older married woman called Lucretia said, “we are only ever happy when we are alone with other women; and the best thing that can happen to any woman is to be able to live alone, without the company of men.” (Fonte, p. 47) They claimed that men are insensible and foolish, so that even though “they hardly know what the word ‘love’ means, they expect to be loved, obeyed, granted favors, and, in short, given everything they demand.” (Fonte, p. 74) Such negative portrait of romantic love was enough to convince the group of women that romantic love is often dangerous, unless God performs miracles. These women felt sympathetic for the victims of men’s love, especially those,
poor girl, who has been led into doing wrong by the strength of her feelings, thinking that this will make her seducer love her all the more, realizes at once that she has picked up a snake along with the flowers she has been gathering and that all that her labors have gained her is the loss of her faithless lover.” (Fonte, p.76)
They doubted that they could rely on men romantic love to find independence or happiness, thus, the idea of self- love started to generate. The group of women were discussing the importance of medicine, and how flowers such as violets have “soothing and hydrating properties; they are good against headaches, help send you t sleep, and, mixed with sugar, make good cough medicine.” (Fonte, p. 176) Lucretia then stated,
it’s good for us to learn about these things, so we can look after ourselves without needing help from men. In fact, it would be a good thing if there were women who knew about medicine as well as men, so men couldn’t boast about their superiority in this field and we didn’t have to be dependent on them. (Fonte, p. 181)
This form of self- love involves seeking happiness and individuality by using their own knowledge to look after themselves, without the interference of men. These women understand that their key to freedom depend heavily on the knowledges they possess, and knowledges of how to become less reliant on men will bring them personal growth to keep their superiority. They can conclude that the purpose of life is to seek individualism through self- love, and self- love would motivate others to seek knowledge.
La Gitanilla: The Little Gypsieand The Worth of Women propose that the purpose of life is to develop independence through the inescapable power of romantic love or self- love. In La Gitanilla: The Little Gypsie, Don Juan was bounded to his love for Preciosa, whose virtues taught Don Juan to be independent from the undeserved wealth given to him by his family. His choice challenged him to practice temperance. Their love journey also elevated Don Juan’s fortitude, as he relied more on his confidence instead of jealousy. Preciosa’s love trial gave Don Juan many virtuous traits, so that he relied himself instead of the attention of Preciosa, and the two became better lovers. The Worth of Women proposes that self- love motivates people to chase after freedom through knowledge. After concluding that romantic love is often harmful to women, they realized they need to expand their own knowledge to keep men’s interference out of their life. They discussed the uses of many medicines which will allow them to care for themselves instead of relying on male family doctors. These two texts witness two approaches to the purpose of life, but in the end, self- love gave knowledge to independence while romantic love teaches characters virtues; they both resulted in personal psychological growth.