Mimetic Desire and the Narcissistic (Wo)man in «La ilustre fregona» and the Persiles:

Strategies for Reinterpretation

Author(s): Laura Gorfkle and Amy R. Williamsen
Source: Hispania, Vol. 77, No. 1 (Mar., 1994), pp. 11-22
Published by: American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/344418
Accessed; 06-05-2020 12=47 UTC

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 11

Mimetic Desire and the Narcissistic (Wo)man in

«La ilustre fregona» and the Persiles:
Strategies for Reinterpretation
Laura Gorfkle
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Amy R. Williamsen
University ofArizona
Abstract Rend Girard’s model of mimetic desire has influenced an entire generation of Cervantine scholars.
This study questions various dominant critical stances informed by his theoretical approach through the ex­
amination of Girardian premises in light of two challenging narratives. Instead of employing the theory to read
the texts, the authors use the texts to «read» the gaps and dislocations inherent in the theory. The findings
suggest that rather than propagating an androcentric, triangular configuration of desire, Cervantes’s construc­
tion of gender leads toward the re-construction of existing critical paradigms. Thus, although grounded in the
analysis of Early Modem Peninsular literature, this article holds implications for the consideration of desire
in other historical periods and literary traditions as well.

Key Words: Cervantes (Miguel de), Girard (Rend), mimetic desire, narcissism, female subjectivity, narra­
tive, parody, Golden Age narrative

Introduction Girardian Theory: Mimetic Violence,

In Deceit, Desire and the Novel, published
in 1965, Rene Girard demonstrates the ubiq­
uity of mimetic desire in human relations
via an analysis of its presence in great mas­
terpieces of the western world, including
Cervantes’s Don Quixote. Since then, the
theme of the «triangularity of desire» has
elicited the attention of Cervantine scholars,
as well as critics of Golden Age drama, urg­
ing further investigation of its pervasiveness
as a model of human conflict and desire in
Golden Age texts. Cesareo Bandera’s influ­
ential 1975 study on the works of Cervantes
and Calderon, Mimesis conflictiva, was the
first of many such analyses,1 while the 1991
MLA conference devoted an entire session
to Girard and Golden Age theater. The cur­
rent study diverges from this critical tradi­
tion in that it resists the unquestioning ac­
ceptance of a paradigm of human behavior
based on rivalry and violence. Such a model
seems not to consider Cervantes’s vision of
humanity’s capacity for generating more
pacific rituals or strategies for interaction.
Narcissism, and the Coquette
The triangular love relationship, in which
a woman of great beauty is besought by at
least two inopportunate suitors, is a persis­
tent narrative plot paradigm in Golden Age
fiction. Within humanists’ obsessive search
for identity and knowledge, the conflict re­
flects the more profound spiritual contradic­
tion man feels between an actual sense of
fragmentation and mortality and an imag­
ined unified self. Woman’s place within the
neoplatonic epistemology is to act as the
cipher of the hero’s desire. She is the god­
dess who will fulfill his destiny. The bonds
of reciprocated love will produce the bliss­
ful state of wholeness. Yet if she refuses this
representation, bestowing her favors in­
stead on the rival, the closing of her eyes
dooms the ill-starred lover to loss of the self,
epitomized by the «eclipse» of the sun or a
chaos of cosmic and catastrophic propor­
tions. In Cervantes’s work, the second fe­
male type abounds. She either refuses the
seductive advances of one or both of her
suitors on her own volition, as do Preciosa,

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12 HISPANIA 77 MARCH 1994

Costanza and Marcela, or is made to as­ intact narcissism that woman pretends to
sume the role of the femme fatale, as do embody «is the indescribable paradise
Camila and Luscinda, one which Dulcinea where the beings that we desire appear to
exemplifies ad absurdum. live—and it is because of this that we desire
Deceit, Desire and the Novel has been them* (375). And he concludes finally, that
influential in providing a psychological «this self-sufficiency is not an earthly thing,
motivation for the triangular amorous rela­ but the last glimmering of the sacred*
tionship in Cervantes’s work with Girard’s (375). In her illuminating re-reading of the
by now well-known metaphysics of desire. above work, in The Enigma of Woman, Sa­
If in the neoplatonic philosophy the suffer­ rah Kofman exposes the ideological bases
ing subject may obtain eternal bliss by vir­ of Girard’s representation of woman. For
tue of his union with the superior goddess, Girard, self-sufficiency in women is un­
the embodiment of the absolute, in his avoidably deceitful, having little or nothing
metaphysics, the object is false, and con­ at all to do with a regression toward an ear­
tains no inherent value. The figure of the lier fantasy that Freud has posited (Moi
rival model emerges to guarantee, through 219). He contends that Freud erred because
his mediating desire, the separation of the he did not «recognize the mimetic essence
subject from the object of desire and to pre­ of desire. He mistakenly distinguished ob­
vent thus the discovery of the object’s mun­ ject-oriented desire from narcissistic desire
dane reality. The model leads the subject to because he did not grasp their common
view the object as an abstraction, albeit a foundation in mimeticism, in the original
desirable one: «From the mediator, a veri­ mimetic rivalry* (218).
table artificial sun descends a mysterious
ray which makes the object shine with a Critique of Mimetic Desire in «La
false brilliance* (18). Girard speaks further ilustre fregona*
of a «metamorphosis» or «transfiguration»
of the desired object.2 In aspiring to possess In her analysis of Girard’s construction
the object the model desires, the subject of woman as «fraud,» Sarah Kofman ex­
enters a triangular relationship of desire poses the theoretical stakes in Girard’s
and rivalry. «specular» representation of woman (a pro­
In a later work, Things Hidden Since the cess in which the male self can only per­
Foundation ofthe World, Girard further de­ ceive of the female other as a projection of
fines the role of woman in the mimetic pro­ his own identity), his fear of sexual differ­
cess. In his analysis of Freud’s essay «On ence, of a different desire. Her work invites
Narcissism: an Introduction,* he asserts scrutiny of Girard’s monistic representation
that woman’s perverse indifference to the of desire which subsumes woman’s desire
subject is not, as Freud affirms, to serve as under the rubric of mimeticism and the
proof of an original libidinal position that challenge to seek the specificity of sexual
men have given up in favor of object love. difference and female subjectivity.
For Girard, woman’s blissful narcissistic Particularly emblematic of the narcissis­
state, or what he calls «coquetry,» is a «self- tic woman is Costanza. Her great beauty has
sufficient strategy* used to seduce and con­ won her a reputation which extends beyond
quer men. Bereft of innocence, the co­ the boundaries other own village. The story
quette’s deceitful posture is to foster desire. of «rivalry» for this maiden begins as the
She only pretends to desire herself in order young noblemen, Avendano and Carriazo,
to make herself desirable to others. In her on their way to undertake the carefree life
narcissistic «pose,» she becomes the rival of the rogue at the tuna fisheries in Seville,
model. Her goal is to put into play the mi­ happen to pass through the village in To­
metic process (370-71). The fraudulent ledo where Costanza lives. During what was
pose of the coquette achieves its desired intended to be a brief rest in the village, the
effect by drawing all other desires to it. The friends overhear two mule boys praise the

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 MIMETIC DESIRE AND THE NARCISSISTIC (WO)MAN 13
beauty of Costanza, the kitchen maid at the
local inn. Avendano suddenly feels the de­
sire to see her. The youths’ journey to
Seville is delayed when Avendano takes on
the job of stable boy in order to court
Costanza. His desire becomes more in­
tensely grounded each time he overhears
Don Pedro’s serenades and the conversa­
tions of the guests and the villagers ex­
pounding on the nature of his impossible
love and Costanza’s beauty and cruel indif­
ference. Anticipating her presence by initial
identification with her suitors, the reader
assumes the role of accomplices in her
fetishization.
Carriazo, however, still harbors his origi­
nal roguish inclinations. The varying de­
sires of the young men, signalled by
Carriazo in a despairing moment («yo me
ire con mi almadraba, y tu te quedaras con
tu fregona» 153), cause a split early on in the
narrative action, from which at least two
generic tendencies emerge: romance and
the picaresque.3 Critics have focused their
analysis on Cervantes’s technique of genre­
crossing. This feature is noteworthy, since
the way «woman» is represented will de­
pend on how she is to function as mirror of
the socio-cultural values a given genre rec­
reates and how that function may become
altered by the author’s uprooting and trans­
formation of generic hierarchies.
In their examination of the presence of
pastoral romance and picaresque elements
in the text, Joaquin Casalduero and Robert
Johnston affirm that the moral dilemmas
and values of the two genres converge and
mutually reinforce each other. The dis­
guises, changes of identity, and sojourn,
inherent to both the pastoral and the
picaresque, enable the young men to return
to a natural state where they may acquire
self knowledge. In his service to Costanza,
Avendano struggles between erotic impulse
and spiritual love and eventually acquires
moral perfection. Similarly, Carriazo strug­
gles between his desire for freedom and the
strong social bonds imposed by his noble
origins. The recombining of literary models
clearly aligns the respective conflicts and
protagonists. Thus, Costanza emerges as
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the figure of spiritual redemption (the re­
turn of both protagonists to an original or
improved social position) and the restora­
tion of social values.4 Peter Dunn represents
Costanza in a similar light. In his opinion,
Avendano’s encounter with Costanza is a
metaphor for the protagonist’s successful
moral or spiritual resurrection. Costanza is
the chaste goddess Diana. The lower ani­
mal instinct that Avendano embodies con­
fronts the superior, providential order and
is absorbed by it (97) .5
Yet other critics do not perceive a pris­
tine opposition between or harmonic blend­
ing of good and evil in the conflict and reso­
lution of this tale. The studies of Jennifer
Lowe, R. M. Price, and Javier Herrero show
that not only is each particular genre paro­
died by its particular reintegration of con­
ventional material, but also by the juxtapo­
sition of conventions pertaining to disparate
and shifting generic discourses and styles.6
Building on this interpretation, it becomes
clear that precisely the ironic juxtaposition
of various generic conventions disengages
the reader from a potential identification
with a homologic vision of desire (mimesis)
that woman is to represent in either a single
genre or within two or more apparently ana­
logical genre types. The use of parodic or
ironic juxtaposition is eminent in the con­
figuration of plots, characters, and dis­
course of the text.
The plot types pertaining to the picar­
esque narrative and romance are ironically
linked. The tale of love, which is joined to a
larger comedy of loss and restoration, does
not flow smoothly, but is cut up into various
scenes and organized within but not among
them. The reader is unable to follow the
main characters of romance in a linear fash­
ion. Their destiny shifts out of focus and a
series of uneven events associated with the
picaresque genre and the comic mode in
general come to the fore.7 They are grafted
onto the movement of romance, that of
«pursuit and rejection,» by means of the
comic technique of repetition and rever-
sal.» Thus, as Avendano and the mayor’s
son continuously pursue Costanza and are
rejected by her within the plot of romance,
14 HISPANIA 77 MARCH 1994
Carriazo is continuously pursued by and
rejects the unkempt and lustful Arguello.
These «secondary» characters create a pa­
rodic movement that distances the reader
from an identification with Avendano’s de­
sire for Costanza. Carriazo’s roguish con­
flicts and tricks, such as the fist fight that
results in his incarceration, and his «esquite
de la cola» introduce further discontinuities
in the dominant narrative of amorous pur­
suit.8
As characters cross from one genre to
another within the tale, the perception of
the divine radiance of Costanza’s beauty
becomes increasingly blurred as demon­
strated by Carriazo, an intergeneric charac­
ter. He performs the role of protagonist
within the picaresque narrative of the
novela, but he is also co-protagonist in the
«lost child found» story of romance. In both
capacities, he undermines the role Avendano
attributes to him of «rival.» As the motif de­
velops, Carriazo is discovered to be
Costanza’s half-brother, and is eventually
eliminated as a potential rival. Nonethe­
less, the initial overt motivation in the text
for his withdrawal from the mimetic chain
stems from his roguish inclinations. His
yearning for freedom, enemy to love’s
bonds, outweighs the pull of erotic desire.
Although Carriazo admits her beauty when
he first sees her, the narrator affirms that
he loves her, but not as much as his tuna
fisheries in Seville: «mucho menos; y tan
menos, que quisiera no anochecer en la
posada, sino partirse luego para sus alma-
drabas» (156). His running commentary on
the material inconveniences of love and his
generally misogynistic perspective shatters
the fetishistic mirror of Costanza’s sacred
mystery, erected in the world view of ro­
mance. The building up of the object and
the destructive despair the rivals should
experiment in attempting its acquisition is
blocked as the circulation of desire between
the rival suitors is thus diffused.
The role of mimetic rival is ultimately
transferred to Don Pedro, the mayor’s son.
This country boy, who sings verses of love
in the platonic tradition, is a weaker pres­
ence in the tale. He is an unlikely figure as
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a rival, for he is incapable of inspiring fear,
hatred or veneration. He represents a
parody of the rival figure in pastoral ro­
mance. Don «Periquito,» as his father calls
him, flees when the first stone is thrown at
him after playing music in front of the inn,
and he never dares to declare his love
openly to Costancica.
Since neither Carriazo nor Don Pedro
undertakes any active measures to appro­
priate or seduce the desired object, the sus­
picions of the jealous lover reveal them­
selves rapidly as illusions that no longer
pose an actual threat of loss, disorder or
destruction—either to the protagonist or to
the engaged reader. The implementation of
a ritual of violence as a means of restoring
social or psychic harmony becomes unnec­
essary and is replaced in this tale with a
pacific reintegration of all of the protago­
nists in society through the sacred rites of
a triple marriage: Avendano to Costanza,
Carriazo to the mayor’s daughter, and Don
Pedro to Carriazo’s sister. Anthony Cascardi
has recently pointed out that all of the
wmlwin the collection «are written against
the traditions of symbolic sacrifice® and
«disclose the excess of heroic emulation
and the sacrificial demands of the old re­
gime® (68). «La ilustre fregona® is certainly
a clear illustration of such a disclosure.
The perspective of Costanza as the agent
and force of Avendano’s spiritual purifica­
tion is undermined in part by an abandon­
ment of conflicts based on rivalry and vio­
lence. The ironic use of the narrative con­
ventions that prescribe Costanza’s preor­
dained course within the romance se­
quence further weakens it. The description
of Costanza as the embodiment of the divine
force that renews social harmony has met
with doubt in those critics who have fo­
cused on the coincidences towards the end
of the story: the encounter of the two siblings
at the same inn, the arrival of Costanza’s long-
lost father arriving just after the mayor has
been told the innkeeper’s side of her story,
and the parentage of Avendano’s father and
the mayor. The ironies emerging from such
implausibilities impel the reader to reject
the prophetic role that Costanza is to play
 MIMETIC DESIRE AND THE NARCISSISTIC (WO)MAN 15
in the drama of redemption of romance.
According to R M. Price, such coincidences
and improbable accidents exceed the level
of satisfaction that the reader should gain
upon witnessing the narrative knots un­
ravel. In their accumulation, the coinci­
dences engender an attitude of skepticism
or anxiety in the reader in regard to the «in-
exorable» restoration of order the discovery
of Costanza’s identity is to produce. The
reader ultimately comes to view the unrav­
elling of the love story as one involving
unforseen or chance events, and the ability
of each character to govern adequately his
or her own destiny or be guided appropri­
ately by others (209-13).
The comic juxtaposition of the neopla­
tonic discourse of love used by Avendano
and Don Pedro to describe Costanza with
the villagers’ rustic discourse further ex­
poses the artifice by which Costanza is in­
scribed as a figure of the sacred, reminding
readers that the young woman does not
correspond to their representation of her.
Barrabas criticizes Don Pedro’s verse for
this very reason: «llamarla embajador, y
red, y noble, y alteza, y bajeza, mas es para
decirlo a un nino de la dotrina que a una
fregona» (173). Costanza’s limited social
graces, evidenced in her abrupt and at times
surly speech, clash with the high style that
her suitors use to court and represent her
(Lowe 61-62). Similarly, the idealized de­
scriptions of Costanza in her rustic dress
are deflated by the revelation of a more
mundane side of Costanza’s daily life: the
description of Costanza with a bandaged
jaw, a temporary remedy for a toothache
(Rodriguez-Luis 146).9 Given such discon­
tinuities and displacements in the dominant
narrative, Costanza does not effectively
function to dissimulate or simulate desire,
to further the rivalry.
Indeed, as Barrenechea has noted,
Costanza remains an empty character that
the reader only knows or comes to under­
stand through other characters (15-17). An
understanding of the subjective motivations
of these characters should lead to the
reader’s dissociation from their subjective
position. The reader can then become con­
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scious of how the pieces of Costanza’s own
life story—the rape of her mother, secret
pregnancy and birth, the girl’s brief contact
with her mother followed by separation, and
the mother’s replacement by a surrogate—
might indeed suggest another cause for
Costanza’s «indifference» to her suitor. The
final discovery of the tale, told in part by the
innkeeper and in part by Costanza’s father,
provides a description of Costanza’s earlier
years that signals an economy of desire
which circulates between mother and child
and that absorbs within it a primary narcis­
sism.10 Only when re-reading the text
through the last events narrated does it
become clear that this tale deals not just
with male desire which the woman is to
mimic, but with woman’s desire and iden­
tity, and the incipient stages of her subjec­
tivity that a theory of mimetic male desire
would try to write out.
The great refusal woman is said to em­
body in the classic narrative of romance
veils what Kristeva calls the hypothetical or
intersubjective space of the mother’s body
in and after childbirth, a space that exists
(but cannot exist) between the baby and the
mother.11 This space, symbolically repre­
sented in this tale by the inn, is where
Costanza enacts the fantasy of a «lost terri-
tory» which Kristeva affirms is nurtured by
the adult man and woman («Stabat Mater*
161). Costanza experiences the mother
phantasmatically as she clings to this mar­
ginal space of the inn, even while separat­
ing from it. For Costanza, still cloistered in
the transitional object of the maternal body,
linked to the inn, the place of her birth, the
Mother is the figure for the drama of sepa­
ration (narcissism), from which the subject
and language emerge.
This maternal image, moreover, appears
in what Kristeva calls the archaic language
of the «semiotic,» a discourse that evades
or resists the symbolic order of signification
linked with the paternal. As that which
comes before signification, before lan­
guage, reflecting non-representational dif­
ference, the «pre-oedipal» mother can only
be registered indirectly, in the unnameable,
as compensation for «the vertigo of lan­
16 HISPANIA 77 MARCH 1994
guage weakness® («Stabat Mater® 177).
The maternal semiotic persists in the si­
lence that pervades the narration of
Costanza’s story, miraculously marking
Costanza’s birth and functioning as a means
of resistance to the violence of the original
rape. The innkeeper’s testimony under­
scores the marvelous silence of her birth:
«Ni la madre se quejo en el parto ni la hija
nacio llorando: en todo habia sosiego y
silencio maravilloso, y tai cual convenia para
el secreto de aquel extrano caso» (188).
Costanza further evokes the eclipsed figure
of her lost mother in her re-presentation of
her: in her persistent absences, her with­
drawals, her positioning beyond represen­
tation, a positioning which baffles her
suitor’s continued attempts to name and
represent her. Costanza’s inaccessibility
marks the very space of the lost-unrepresent-
able-forbidden jouissance of a hidden
mother («Motherhood» 248).
The arrival of the mayor and the girl’s
father, who literally bring Costanza under
paternal law, providing Costanza with a
name and an identity, initiates the process
of Costanza’s social reintegration, setting
her on the «proper» path of marriage and
motherhood. The revelation of Costanza’s
true identity should be the logical epiphany
to the exemplary ideology of romance, char­
acterized by the movement of «escape and
return,® that conserves rather than trans­
forms social values.12 Yet for Costanza,
there is no climactic or joyous ending
here, no final incitement of her desire for
Avendano. The climax is reached only
when Costanza leaves the inn, weeping un­
controllably, and clings to her surrogate
mother, the innkeeper’s wife, who links
Costanza to her mother. The narrator de­
scribes the separation thus: «Pero cuando
dijo el Corregidor a Costanza que entrase
tambien en el coche, se le anublo el cora-
zon, y ella y la huespeda se asieron una a
otra y comenzaron a hacer tan amargo
llanto, que quebraba los corazones de
cuantos le escuchaban® (197).
This second more vociferous parting
from the «mother» shows that the restora­
tion of the social order via marriage and the
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discovery of the true identity of a character,
the anagnorisis at romance, is not central to
this novela. Instead, this narrative logic is
decentered.13 The departure of Costanza
from the inn reflects her greatly needed
psychic autonomy that is inextricably
bound up with social cohesion. But it also
signals the repression and loss of an earlier,
more primitive yet equally imperant desire.
Her conflict is parallel to that of her half
brother. Carriazo renews his social and fa­
milial bonds but in doing so, must give up
the freedom the life of the picaro celebrates.
Costanza and Carriazo both fluctuate between
the past and the present, the (M) other and the
Father.14
As Cascardi convincingly demonstrates,
Cervantes takes a progressive step in his
treatment of romance because he is able to
subordinate his characters to the moral
demands of society while sublimating the
rituals of mimetic violence and rivalry that
are traditionally used in the dramatic works
of the period as a means of achieving this
cohesion (68). Nevertheless, Cervantes’s
treatment of romance is even more radical.
For even while seemingly restoring the lost
«order,» Cervantes calls to the reader’s at­
tention the unresolvability of the social, psy­
chic and moral dilemmas that the univer­
sally binding law® (Cascardi’s term) engen­
ders, thereby widening the ideological
framework of romance. Costanza best illus­
trates this point. Simultaneously she yearns
for the Law and yearns to transgress or re­
tract it. Thus, the reader is told that
Costanza departs from the inn, but is unwill­
ing to leave the «mother.» The innkeeper’s
wife therefore accompanies her to the
mayor’s house. Similarly, Carriazo gives in
to the demands of his social rank and sta­
tus. Yet in the closing lines of the story, the
narrator advises the reader that the disor­
der Carriazo has produced with his tricks
and taunts, reflective of marginal desires,
will perhaps «retum» to him in Salamanca
when his victims redress their grievances
with Carriazo’s own words «daca la cola®
‘give us the tail’. Ultimately, narcissism is
ever latent in the human psyche, not as the
mimetic form defined by Girard, but as the
 MIMETIC DESIRE AND THE NARCISSISTIC (WO)MAN 17
drama of separation from the (M) other.
Cervantes’s exploration of humanity’s
efforts to find psychic, spiritual, and social
unity reveals his understanding of its impos­
sibility. With the technique of genre cross­
ing and the heterogeneity that it engenders,
Cervantes sketches in the closural patterns
of romance and the ideology it perpetu­
ates—unity, sameness (mimesis), au­
tonomy, and order—while forever alerting
the reader to their illusiveness. By means
of the heterogeneity of the text, the reader’s
potential tendency to perceive Costanza
exclusively as object of male desire is neu­
tralized. Costanza is also the subject of de­
sire. She is a pivotal character, figuring the
ideology of romance in which Girard’s mi­
metic model of desire is entrenched, but
also the point of its disruption and undoing.
Critique of Mimetic Desire in the
Persiles
The consideration of Cervantes’s multi­
faceted Persiles also yields insights into dis­
locations of mimetic desire. The text traces
the progress of two royal lovers who em­
bark upon a pilgrimage to Rome—not only
to fulfill a holy vow, but also to prevent
Sigismunda’s marriage to Persiles’ older
brother. Pretending to be brother and sis­
ter, the pair adopt the names Periandro and
Auristela. Throughout the course of their
adventures, complicated by a series of di­
sasters (including devastating shipwrecks,
cataclysmic fires and ritual sacrifices), they
encounter many other pilgrims and adven­
turers, each of whom recounts his or her
own story. These tales most often revolve
around love and its complications.
Although replete with conventional trian­
gular configurations of desire, the Persiles
nevertheless resists an unquestioning im­
position of the Girardian model. As Ruth El
Saffar has noted, the protagonists’ attempt
to escape the confines of triangular desire
represents the initial catalyst for the journey
that forms the core of the work.15 Their pil­
grimage constitutes «an alternative to the
yielding to or fighting with the rival that
characterizes the triangular relationship®
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(Beyond 9). In his study of mimesis in the
Persiles, Patrick Henry argues that «Persiles
succeeds in part because he refuses all tri­
angular situations and avoids rather than
confronts love rivalry® (81).16 Even in the
Quixote, a work central to Girard’s analysis,
not all desire is mimetic. As Henry main­
tains, Basilio, whose drama unfolds in the
second half of the Quixote, represents a
«clear example of one who uses tricks to
avoid mimetic rivalry and violence® (80).
The Persiles furthers this exploration of
other forms of desire. In fact, in her percep­
tive analysis of the text, Diana de Armas
Wilson suggests that Isabela Castrucha «re-
writes the notion of desiring woman® in the
camivalesque episode in which she feigns
madness in order to fulfill her own desires
(236). Wilson concludes that Isabela "fur­
nishes us with ... [the] precise antithesis®
of the «cruel lady doomed ever to be desired
‘through the Other’ in the Girardean
scheme® (236). Byond these insights, how­
ever, the Persiles challenges various as­
sumptions underlying the theoretical con­
struct of mimetic desire not only in this iso­
lated episode from the third book, but
rather throughout the entire work.
Girard posits woman almost exclusively
as the object of triangular desire as mani­
fested in his analysis of the «coquette.» As
Sedgwick argues: «Girard’s reading pre­
sents itself as one whose symmetry is un­
disturbed by such differences as gender;
although the triangles that most shape his
view tend, in the European tradition, to in­
volve bonds of "rivalry® between males
«over» awoman...® (23). His interpretative
system veils «the power difference that would
be introduced by a change in the gender of
one of the participants® (Sedgwick 23).
Cervantes continually inverts this andro­
centric paradigm in the Persiles, thereby
revealing the «gender asymmetry® that
Girard’s theory masks. Thus, these inver­
sions allow for the exploration of the inher­
ent power disparity that otherwise would
remain concealed. The gender asymmetry
of mimetic desire is explored in both Books
I and II, when Rosamunda and Cenotia ac­
tively pursue the object of their desire, An­
18 HISPANIA 77 MARCH 1994
tonio, the young barbarian. Rosamunda fol­
lows Antonio on his search for game
through the frozen wilderness «sin ser
impedida por los demas, que creyeron que
alguna natural necesidad la forzaba a
dejallos» (141). She explains to him the na­
ture of her quest, contrasting it with
archetypical models of female-male relation­
ships: «Ves aqui, joh nuevo cazador, mas
hermoso que Apolol, otra nueva Dafne que
no te huye, sino que te sigue» (141). Signifi­
cantly, the hunter becomes the hunted.
Later, Cenotia, the «enchantress» corners
Antonio in his cabin on the ship and propo­
sitions him, offering him riches and power
in exchange for his «favors.» Both women,
textually marked as marginal because of
their «advanced» age and their deviant pro­
fessions (courtesan and witch, respec­
tively), reverse the accepted norms of
sexual exchange.
These episodes can also be read as
Cervantes’ (re) casting of female narcissism,
for Antonio’s response to his «suitors»
epitomizes the narcissistic stance theorists
have attributed to woman. Girard postulates
that a separate rival «is not needed in order
to term desire triangular» for the «coquette»
may desire herself in order to attract the
desire of the other (Desire 105; Things Hid­
den 393-94). He specifies: «The coquette
does not wish to surrender her precious self
to the desire she arouses ... the coquette’s
indifference toward her lover’s sufferings...
is not an absence of desire, it is ... a desire
of oneself» (Desire 105-06). Sarah Kofman,
responding to Girard, suggests that his
characterization of the self-sufficient nar­
cissistic woman* as displaying «insolent
inaccessibility** actually reveals the
theorist’s fear of female self-sufficiency in­
herent in her narcissism (63). At the very
least, Girard’s entire treatment of narcis­
sism is gender-specific as the term «co-
quette** indicates.
In Cervantes’ text, on the other hand, it
is a male, Antonio, who embodies the nar­
cissistic coquette, furthering the reversal of
the paradigm. When first accosted by
Rosamunda, his response highlights his
self-sufficiency: «La cosa de que menos
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necesidad tengo, en esta que agora pade-
cemos, es la de tu compania** (141). He then
underscores his chastity: «;No fuerces, oh
barbara egipcia, ni incites la castidad y
limpieza deste que no es tu esclavo!** (141).
Similarly, when approached by Cenotia, he
demonstrates true «insolent inaccessibil-
ity.» He reacts quite violently: «Antonio ...
como si fuera la mas retirada doncella del
mundo, y como si enemigos combatieran el
castillo de su honestidad, se puso a defen-
derle ... y le encaro la flecha [a Cenotia]»
(203). He actually attempts to kill his ad­
mirer, but instead strikes the slanderer
Clodio in the tongue, silencing him perma­
nently. The text itself underscores the par­
allel between Antonio’s behavior and that
expected from «la mas retirada doncella**,
yet the force of his protest far exceeds that
warranted by Cenotia’s «transgression.»
Interestingly, Antonio’s father chastises
him for his excesses, exhorting him to
modify his behavior: «si a los que te aman
y te quieren procuras quitar la vida ique
haras a los que te aborrecen?... No pienses
que has de ser siempre solicitado, que
alguna vez solicitaras...» (204). These pas­
sages serve to challenge the Girardean as­
sociation of narcissistic desire with woman.
Moreover, Antonio’s exaggerated behavior
and his father’s strong reproach question
the validity of the narcissistic posture itself.
The second book contains another in­
triguing deviation from triangular desire
within Periandro’s narration: a quadrangu­
lar model of desire. Although Periandro’s
lengthy account of his heroic adventures
and the critical commentary it elicits from
his listeners have received a great deal of
scholarly attention, most has focused upon
the textual incorporation of neo-Aristotelian
literary principles to the exclusion of other
concerns.17 This omission proves even
more striking, given that the first adventure
he relates centers upon a quadrangular re­
lationship. Periandro and Auristela, fore­
warned by a sailor, flee from the captain of
their ship who planned to kill Periandro in
order to possess Auristela. As they escape
this potential triangular conflict, they be­
come entwined in the amorous complica­
 MIMETIC DESIRE AND THE NARCISSISTIC (WO)MAN 19
tions facing two couples. Carino and Solercio,
both fishermen, are betrothed to the women
chosen for them by their families, Selviana
and Leoncia.
The couples, as paired by their parents,
were matched on the basis of physical ap­
pearance: «dos mujeres y dos hombres...:
la una hermosa sobremanera, y la otra fea
sobremanera; el uno gallardo y gentil
hombre, y el otro no tanto...» (210). Carino,
the handsome man, quickly confides to
Periandro: «Yo adoro a Leoncia, que es la
fea ... y ... de Solercio ... tengo mas de un
barrunto que muere por Selviana.... De
manera que nuestras cuatro voluntades
estan trocadas» [emphasis ours] (212). El
Saffar has observed that:
In all of Cervantes’ stories of love fulfilled in marriage,
the resolution comes about through the introduction
of a fourth figure who had formerly been neglected
by the characters who saw themselves locked into the
endless frustration of the triangle ... It is no accident,
as the reader might have already noticed, that the
shadowy fourth figure in Cervantes’ stories is always
the undesired, undesirable female» {Beyond 10-11).
In the present case, however, the situation
contradicts this characterization. From the
very beginning, the fourth «term» is present
in the guise of Leoncia «la fea sobre-
manera.» In addition, Carino’s desire for
Leoncia challenges the specular equation of
attractiveness with desirability.
Auristela, once informed by Periandro of
the lovers’ twisted fates, approaches the
women saying:
tu, Leoncia, mueres por Carino, y tu, Selviana por
Solercio; la virginal vergiienza os tiene mudas, pero
por mi lengua se rompera vuestro silencio y por mi
consejo, que, sin duda alguna sera admitido, se
igualaran vuestros deseos (213)
The two women never speak, they never
voice their own desires «sino con besarla
infinitas veces las manos ... confirmaron
ser verdad cuanto habia dicho especial-
mente en lo de sus trocadas aficiones»
(213). As Auristela promised, the next day
she decrees that the couples change part­
ners, explaining simply «Esto quiere el
cielo» (214).
This brief episode lends itself to a criti­
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cal exploration of the representation of de­
sire. The conflict here arises not from mi­
metic rivalry but from compliance with a
societal system that permits parents to dic­
tate the text of their children’s lives.18 More­
over, the women involved never voice their
own desires, they never appear as subjects
of desire. Even though Auristela suppos­
edly voices their position, their desires are
always mediated through an Other. Yet, if
woman has no position from which to
speak, what enables Auristela to bring
about the resolution of the dilemma? As she
assures Leoncia and Selviana, she is confi­
dent that the others involved will accept her
intervention and heed her wishes. Implic­
itly, this interlude explores gender asymme­
try and its relation to power. Whereas the
two women from the same class as their
potential mates do not have the power or au­
thority to express their desires, Auristela—
recognized as belonging to a superior ech­
elon—may speak authoritatively. Nonethe­
less, her intervention does not alter the sub­
ordinate position occupied by the women;
rather, it accentuates their subaltemity by
replicating their objectification within
masculinist discourse. Revealingly, imme­
diately following the weddings, corsairs kid­
nap all three women. Although Carino,
Solercio and Periandro set forth to rescue
them, only Auristela is ever heard from
again. Leoncia and Selviana remain veiled
in silence—theirs truly represents an «un-
told story.*19
The final book of the work also proffers
a telling (re)vision of mimetic desire as
Hipolita, through her «shameless» pursuit
of Periandro, threatens the blissful union of
the protagonists. Throughout the text, the
protagonists have been involved in numer­
ous triangular relationships including the
rivalry between Arnaldo and Periandro for
Auristela as well as that between Sinforosa
and Auristela over Periandro. (Again, one
must note that the genesis of their voyage
stems from a triangle in which Persiles’
older brother, Magsimino, is betrothed to
Sigismunda.) Yet, the triangular dynamic
motivated by Hipolita proves especially in­
triguing. She ardently pursues Periandro,
20 HISPANIA 77 MARCH 1994
resorting to magic to eliminate her female
rival. The spell she commissions com­
pletely destroys her victim’s beauty.
Auristela’s consequent unattractive state
dissuades her faint-hearted suitors, among
them the Duke, but does not diminish
Periandro’s love, proof of his devotion
(454). Her representation in this episode
functions, as does Leoncia’s, to undermine
Girard’s representation of the narcissistic
woman whose purpose is to incite desire
through her physical beauty. Her hideous
appearance frees her from becoming the
object of purely specular desire and pre­
cludes her from participating in the mimetic
dynamic of rivalry. Thus enabled to pursue
a more meaningful relationship, Auristela
initially decides to forsake earthly love in
favor of a union with God, a choice that
brings to mind El Saffar’s observation that:
«the love triangle is an emblem of a mis­
placed desire for God» {Beyond 5). But
Auristela ultimately chooses Periandro over
God, redirecting her desire from the spiri­
tual to the physical. Their union and the
recovery of their original identities as
Sigismunda and Persiles coincide with the
death of Magsimino, the resolution of the
last remaining rivalry. The complete elimi­
nation of the rival signals transcendence
beyond the triangular mode.
Conclusion
Although Girard developed his theory of
mimetic desire in part through his reading
of a Cervantine text, his system does not
account for the untold variety of relation­
ships between self and other found in
Cervantes’ opus. Both «La ilustre fregona»
and the Persiles not only challenge current
theoretical positions espoused by Girard
and others, they also provide greatly
needed strategies for the reinterpretation of
the imposition of specular representation on
woman. Of these strategies, we have out­
lined three. One exposes the means by
which the model of mimetic desire rearticu-
lates androcentric paradigms by masking or
repressing female subjectivity. Another ex­
plores dislocations of the triangular model
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of desire in a text, thereby transforming the
configuration. Resolutions may be sought
through the trivialization or elimination of
a rival, through the addition of a fourth
figure, through gender shifts and rever­
sals in the subject/object relationship or
through ironic or parodic treatment of any
aspect of the model of mimetic desire. Yet
another considers other motivations for the
apparent narcissistic role of the coquette
such as filial or societal pressures brought to
bear upon the individual. Thus, Cervantes’s
construction of gender and desire ultimately
leads us to the re-construction of critical
paradigms.
■ NOTES
‘These studies include Ruth El Saffar’s «Unbind-
ing the Doubles: Reflections on Love and Culture in
the work of Rene Girard,» Patrick Henry’s «01d and
New Mimesis in Cervantes,» Steven Hutchinson’s
«Desire Mobilized in Cervantes’ Novels,® and Debra
Andrist’s Deceit Plus Desire Equals Violence: A
Girardian Study ofthe Spanish «comedia.»
“Ortega y Gasset’s discussion of «enamoramiento»
as the projection of ideal qualities onto the object of
desire anticipates Girardian theory. In his formulation,
the intensity of the subject’s desire causes the object
to take on a «glow.» («Amor en Stendhal® 1612).
30n the conventions of romance, see Ruth El
Saffar, R. M. Price, and Peter Dunn. On the picaresque
elements in the tale and their intersection with ro­
mance elements, see Carlos Blanco Aguinaga,
Americo Castro, Joaquin Casalduero, Robert M.
Johnston and Monique Joly.
4In the introduction to his edition of the Novelas
ejemplares, Harry Sieber confirms this perspective:
«La hermosura de Costanza es la que cambia la vida
de los dos» (22); all subsequent references to the text
of «La ilustre fregona® will correspond to this edition,
Vol. II. Ruth El Saffar also comments upon the re­
demptive associations between Avendano and
Costanza in her article «The Truth of the Matter®
(249).
“William Clamurro follows this line of criticism,
concluding that the work exemplifies a comedic and
conservative vision of social order (40-41).
“For Javier Herrero, «the extraordinary force and
novelty of his new art is bom of a parodic movement®
("Emerging® 49). He particularly examines the pa­
rodic undermining of romance by the use of cash as
a means of retrieving the noble lady from a fallen
world (54-57). R. M. Price deals with the anomalies
in the romance plot, concluding that the conventions
of romance, even for the contemporary reader, are
«shot through with irony® (213).
7Several critics have commented on the presence
 MIMETIC DESIRE AND THE NARCISSISTIC (WO)MAN 21
of the picaresque in this story. See Americo Castro’s
«Lo Picaresco» in El Pensamiento de Cervantes and
Monique Joly.
8Julio Rodriquez-Luis affirms that Avendano’s pas­
sion for Costanza becomes so decentralized by these
secondary scenes that it almost disappears from the
reader’s sight completely, thus diminishing the sus­
pense that the postponed revelation of Costanza’s
identity should create (153-60).
9The toothache might represent Costanza’s re­
pressed desire. See Javier Herrero’s article «The Stub­
born Text: Calisto’s Toothache and Melibea’s Girdle.»
10This attempt to name the unnameable, to fill the
silence of this text with this imagined view of
Costanza’s desire is, at least in part, a response to
Augustin de Amezua y Mayo’s analysis of the female
characters in the Novelas ejemplares. He asserts that
while the female characters are beautiful and charm­
ing, we ought not to search to find in them any psy­
chological depth, significant silences, delicate
subtleties or inner struggles (242).
nIn all her writing, Kristeva seeks a new under­
standing and valuation of the maternal and its relation­
ship to narcissism and subjectivity. However, we have
drawn on her discussion of these concepts in «Stabat
Mater» and «Motherhood According to Giovanni
Bellini» because the insights provided therein are
most pertinent to our analysis.
12On the structure of this and other novelas in the
collection, and the underlying ideology, see J. M. Diez
Taboada.
13For other points of view, see Americo Castro,
Frank Pierce and William Clamurro.
14 In «The Evolution of Psyche Under Empire,»
Ruth El Saffar explores the suppression of the mater­
nal in early modem Spanish texts as a prerequisite for
the literary subject’s autonomy and as a figure or
metaphor of the developing autonomy of a nation and
an empire. She shows that the literary works of the
period «give us a view of the underside of unity and
harmony, an insight into the world of the repressed
in which both the structure of consciousness and the
lifeworld against which consciousness has set itself
can be seen» (177). Such an assertion would certainly
apply as well to «La ilustre fregona.»
15E1 Saffar also underscores the crucial role played
by Persiles’s mother, Queen Eustoquia, who urges
her younger son to embark upon the pilgrimage.
ieThere do seem to be, however, some triangular
relationships that manage to involve Periandro despite
his efforts to remain outside rivalry. His feigned sta­
tus as Auristela’s brother effectively removes him as
rival; nonetheless, as prospective suitors increasingly
question the true nature of their relationship, they
begin to perceive him as a potential rival. In another
case, Policarpo, the aged King, sees him as an obstacle
(if not exactly a rival) impeding his «union» with
Auristela.
17For studies of Periandro’s narration and its rela­
tion to neo-Aristotelian principles, see Fordone. In his
edition, Avalle-Arce points out, as does Zimic, that
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Periandro’s tale can be considered «una ironizacion
de la novela bizantina, con similares interrupciones y
peripecias» (207n). In her article, «Comic Subver­
sion,» Amy Williamsen explores the nonconcurrence
between the various levels of narration surrounding
Periandro’s account as yet another source of irony. El
Saffar, on the other hand, considers Periandro to be
an exemplary narrator («Periandro: Exemplary Char­
acter, Exemplary Narrator»).
18 As Avalle-Arce notes, this episode is related to
«las bodas rusticas» in A? &7/#Zazand in Don Quixote,
II. Alfred Rodriguez’s study «Algo mas sobre las
‘bodas rusticas’ del Persiles y el Quijote» provides a
solid discussion of the parallels. This relationship
becomes even more marked when one considers that
Basilio, the protagonist of the episode in the Quixote,
also avoids mimetic rivalry through his careful ma­
nipulation of events. Moreover, all share a common
emphasis on the need for individuals to be able to
choose their own partners. For a discussion of
Cervantes’s view of marriage, see Marcel Bataillon.
19See Mary S. Gossy, The UntoldStory tor a discus­
sion of related issues in Golden Age texts.
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