The Answer, Section 3

Sor Juana’s poetry addresses depictions of love and images of women. I think that like her letter to Sor Filotea, she uses this poetry to give a voice to women and challenge traditional attitudes of men. She also displays her skill in writing poetry to show anybody reading that women are capable of writing brilliantly in such an elevated form. I believe that poetry is actually more enjoyable for Sor Juana to write than prose is. She even mentioned in the letter that she thinks in verse and it comes naturally to her. In writing in verse, she might feel freer in her expression, plus composing poetry makes her an artist of sorts. There is also a lyrical element to poetry that prose does not have. Writing poetry allows Sor Juana to apply her musical talent and rhythm to words and lines. Thus, she can play with the meanings and sounds of words without having to provide explanation.

I thought poem 145 was interesting because it seems to be referring to women, and how men think of them. It begins by calling the woman “an object,” that is “a painted snare” which is referring to how women make themselves up in order to capture men, like the “cunning trap to snare your sense.” As the sentence before the poem states, Sor Juana “endeavors to expose the praises recorded in a portrait,” so this poem is about flattery men use on women too. Flattery is also mentioned specifically in the poem in its attempts to “overlook the horrors of the years.” So in this case, flattery is like a form of deception that men use to idealize women and make them something that men want them to be. “Philosophical Satire” (poem 92) also discusses images of women that men have. This attacks the double standard applied to women by “foolish and unreasoning men.” Because of men’s unrealistic expectations of women, they are to blame for any “faults” women have. Sor Juana shows in this poem, like Zayas did in her stories, that men “insist that woman be a sultry Thais while you woo her; a true Lucretia once she’s won.” In other words, men want women to abide by the way they define love, which is to have women be whatever they (men) want them to be (a whore or a virgin). 

The Answer, Section 2

In the second part of the letter, I thought Sor Juana raised some very interesting points. One passage I enjoyed was: “For there are many who study only to become ignorant, especially those of arrogant, restless, and prideful spirits, fond of innovations in the Law…” (81). With this, Sor Juana claims that instead of education negatively affecting women, it really did so to men, especially in the Church. Although these men study and should be able to interpret the Bible, their sexist attitudes led them to use passages and Church law against women. Instead of their studies enlightening them about women and their value, they were used to justify unfounded prejudices. A man who has delusions of grandeur before he even begins studying is strongly influenced by his arrogance as he reads and “interprets.” Calling the way men use Church law to oppress women “innovations in the Law” was subtly sarcastic because it implies that these men had to be creative in order to make up discriminatory laws. She also used a sort of antithesis by saying that those who study can become ignorant because most people would think that studying would help them and not make them worse. I think she does this to show how men in the Church embody many contradictions, but aren’t even aware that they do.

Another one I liked was: “And so, good lady, I fear applause more than slander. For slander, with just one simple act of patience, is turned to benefit, whereas praise requires many acts of reflection and humility and self-knowledge if it is not to cause harm” (101). Her entire letter is a response to Sor Filotea’s criticisms and slander against her. She understands that Sor Filotea meant to put her in her place with his letter, but she uses it as a way to refute his weak arguments and lecture him on the important roles women play. In this way, she is mocking him by inviting him to slander her because she can only turn it around on him with her brilliant rhetorical skills. However, it also seems like Sor Juana considers Sor Filotea’s attention as a sort of praise because she feigns humility as if he were complimenting her. Sor Juana seems invincible to Sor Filotea’s insults because she is a superior thinker and writer, which she demonstrates repeatedly.  

The Answer, Section 1

I think that part of what Sor Juana expects readers to understand is how hard women had to fight to educate themselves. Like Pizan, she tells her own story of trying to learn in a society that opposed this. Despite the fact that she usually lacked teachers to instruct her, Sor Juana still managed to learn about many topics like science, rhetoric, math, and more, on her own. She frequently describes her will to learn as a burning desire, something she can’t escape. In doing that, she challenges the thought that women are naturally disinclined to develop their intellects, and pins it instead on society’s repressing them. Sor Juana calls her desire to learn a sin, and thus, sarcastically insinuates that men, especially those in the Church, have imposed this thought on society. Rhetorically, Sor Juana uses a few devices frequently. I noticed that she used ethos to create a persona for herself that was very intelligent, yet humble. She suits this persona to her audience (Sor Filotea) to mock him with her seeming humility and also show that unlike educated men, educated women don't have to act arrogantly. This is also understatement because she calls herself weak and unworthy, when she obviously isn’t. She qualifies her statements to feign uncertainty about her own argument. To get her point across, she also uses rhetorical questions to lead into logical responses that refute Sor Filotea’s argument.   

One thing I found striking in Sor Juana’s answer was when she wrote “Without Logic, how should I know the general and specific methods by which Holy Scripture is written? Without Rhetoric, how should I understand its figures, tropes, and locutions? (53). As a woman, Sor Juana wasn’t supposed to be any kind of scholar. It seems that even nuns, who were expected to uphold God’s word in the Bible, were not encouraged to study the Bible in depth or understand it in the same way that their male counterparts did. Sor Juana could be pointing out that it is ironic that many nuns were simply taught to accept stories in the Bible with little interpretation when they were supposed to know it more profoundly than the average person. She mentions that in addition to knowledge of logic and rhetoric, science, history, law, and math help to know what is happening in the Bible. By bringing up all the different subjects that are integrated into the Bible, Sor Juana also displayed her knowledge of a great variety of topics to Sor Filotea.

Another bit of Sor Juana’s answer I found interesting was “The advantages of intelligence are advantages of being… And thus, as no one wants to be less than another, no one will admit that another possesses superior powers of mind…” (67). This means that intelligence makes those who have it threatening because it empowers them as human beings. Like Pizan and Zayas claimed, men think of the world as a hierarchy; one that they have to be at the top of. Sor Juana is pointing out that any intelligence in women is stifled so they cannot be equal to men. She has personally experienced this, which is part of the reason she has to defend herself in this answer back to Sor Filotea, a man.  

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

The film revolves around Pepa, and the stories of the other women kind of mix into hers. So I think that all the women that Pepa encounters represent extreme, stereotypical aspects of herself and her emotions. It is apparent from the beginning of the film that Pepa has a relationship with Ivan that strongly affects her emotions. She goes from being sad, to angry, vengeful, and later, to being independent. Candela represents how depressed and victimized Pepa felt; Lucia showed how angry, psychotic Ivan made her (Pepa); Paulina might have embodied Pepa’s disgust for herself at letting a man (Ivan) trouble her so much; and since Marisa is in such a deep sleep, then wakes up at the end, it seems she represents the way Pepa “wakes up” about Ivan, and decides she doesn’t need him in her life.

The telephone represents a connection to another person. Pepa is always waiting for Ivan to call her, to reach out and reconnect with her, but he only leaves messages. The messages don’t represent a real connection, especially since they seem so disembodied from the person (Ivan) who leaves them. Though we see Ivan in the beginning of the film, we are led throughout the film to think of him as voice. Ivan uses his voice, or his language, to deceive. This even shows in his career of doing voiceovers, which require imitation and deception. So when Pepa rips the phone from the wall, throws it through a window, and breaks it, we can see her struggle to sever the fake connection she has with Ivan. At some points she attempts to have the telephone fixed, which meant that she still wanted to renew her connection to Ivan. However, she eventually realizes that nothing real can exist between them, and breaks the connection for good.

This film is probably comedic to empower women. I think the point is to play on stereotypes of how women react while in relationships. It shows them as angry, jealous, psychotic, murderous, controlling, or suicidal, or in other words, constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The women in this movie experience serious problems, but stereotypes are funny because they have a way of being ridiculous to the point that you laugh at them. For example, Pepa faints a few times in the movie, and seems dependent on pills to make it through her day, which is a stereotype that women are weak or nervous. It is sad, but made to seem very funny. Since women in the film are acting out these stereotypes and making fun of themselves, it takes the power away from men to stereotype women in order to insult them. 

Disenchantments 7,8, and 10

It seems that Blanca should be happy about the chance to court her fiancé before marrying him. But she is actually unhappy about following through with the marriage. I believe the reason for this lies within the fact that in this relationship, Blanca feels like a commodity that has been promised to a stranger. She also might assume that once she and her fiancé marry, he will not try to love her because men are in love for the challenge of conquering women. Since she would already be “his,” she would become uninteresting to him automatically. Blanca is probably aware that true love cannot exist between them, and so, to gain a sense of control, she tries to learn to love through reason, not desire or emotion. She has to rationalize love by saying things such as “Before you buy merchandise like a dress or a jewel, you must always examine it first to determine…whether it pleases your taste” (246). What is interesting is that she is making him seem like a commodity instead of herself when she says that. The sonnet supports the idea that she feels objectified in this relationship. One line mentions “So long as I see myself in your eyes” which reminds me of our class discussion about men seeing their own reflections in the eyes of women. Of course, this meant that to men, love was more a form of self-love than actually caring about another person. Blanca knows she cannot enjoy a relationship like this.

Gossip can serve to validate or justify certain beliefs because it is a way to find others who will agree with you about something or somebody. It is also a way to scrutinize others and force them to obey the status quo (like the code of honor) because if they don’t, they will be rejected or punished. So in general, speech is a way for individuals, and sometimes, entire communities, to achieve an underlying motive(s). For instance, in the story, Clavela uses her power of speech to anger Alonso because her motive is to punish Mencía for being the center of Enrique’s affections. We have control over our words in a sense because we use them to persuade others. To do that, we have to choose just the right combination of meaning. Although we were all born using words with preexisting significance, we do understand different meanings and manipulate them. We see the power of speech on page 277 when the messenger convinces Mencía to love Enrique, be disgusted with her brother and father; on page 283 with Clavela; and on page 294 when Marco Antonio convinces Alonso to kill Ana. These different passages seem to exemplify how speech plays on insecurities as well. 

It is surprising that a female would be the perpetrator of all the death and destruction instead of a male. After thinking about it, I believe that Zayas was attempting to accomplish a few things. One is to reinforce the idea that through their deception and vice toward women, men have taught the skill to them. It is not just Florentina who deceives, but also her maid. But if women learn to deceive from men’s deceptions, then men are also to blame for the havoc women wreak using this craft. Another goal of Zayas’ could be to exemplify the perfect nobleman in Gaspar. He never tries to force Florentina into loving him, and he rescues her, helps her even though she caused many deaths. This seems likely when, after telling the story, Lisis asserts that true noblemen, like Gaspar, are kind, generous, and protect women. 

Disenchantments 4-6

Filis shines a new light on women’s suffering at the hands of men. As she claims, “It’s one thing to let oneself be deceived and it’s another thing to be deceived” (139). This means that sometimes a person is actually fooled by another and is a victim, while at other times, he or she chooses to be deceived and is at fault for his or her own problems. In this case, Filis is commenting on women who appear to be innocent and are deceived by men. As she reasons, if a woman lets herself be deceived by a man’s words, the man can’t foot all the blame. I think she says this so that her audience understands that she doesn’t believe men are constantly inflicting evil upon women, who seem to be helpless victims. She points out that men hold women to extremely high moral standards because they (men) are threatened by women. What Filis expresses in these lines seems to fit in with the idea of deception and self-deception. Because men are aware that women are equal to them, but they want to hold more power, they must convince or deceive themselves into thinking women are inferior. Of course, they also justify this theory of inferiority with a code of honor that makes women appear weak and deserving of punishment. Through men’s self-deception, women are actually deceived into believing that they must remain absolutely pure, and can’t do what men do (learn to fight and be educated). These thoughts introduce the story in which self-deception allows one person to be cruel to another. Jaime and his wife Elena love each other very much. But when a servant (negress) lies about Elena being unfaithful, Jaime deceives himself into believing this. He had no evidence but his jealousy.

The most apparent meaning of the skull is that it is where the brain, or reason is kept. I think that since Elena drinks out of it, it could mean that she possesses reason. On the other hand, Jaime does not carry around the skull, and is not capable of using reason. He allows a wild assumption and jealousy to take over his ability to think rationally and compel him to harm his wife, whom he loves very much. If the skull can be called a representation of reason, it is ironic that Jaime can see it (when Elena carries it) so often, yet never possess it himself to see his wife’s innocence. And as the skull is meant as a punishment,  reason is punishing Elena because she knows she didn't sin, but has to suffer anyway.

When Esteban pretends to be a woman, his appearance deceives both men and women. When around Laurela, he acts like a man in love with a woman, but nobody really believes he is a man because he has a pretty face and wears a dress. He didn’t have to try very hard to convince them he was a woman. This suggests that even though women are traditionally expected to be beautiful, this is not a feature that defines them exclusively. If it is so easy for Esteban to pretend to be what we would consider a female, then it seems our gender roles are not very truthful or reliable, but limiting.  

Disenchantments 1-3

I can see how some might call Zayas’ writing feminist. However, I think it really depends on which definition of feminism you are looking at. Although different feminist movements strive for the same goal, lifting women from oppression, attitudes about men are not the same across the board. Some types of feminists are less sympathetic toward men because they claim that men are the perpetuators of a patriarchal system of values, and are to blame for women being denied equal rights. On the other hand, I also know of feminists that consider men to be just as much the victims of a patriarchal society as women are. This approach calls for men to be feminists along with women so both sexes can free themselves of the molds they have been forced into. If you try to judge Zayas’ writing by the form of feminism that views both men and women as victims, then I don’t think it would qualify as feminist. This is because, for the most part, her stories represent men as fickle deceivers and abusers of women. Plus, Zayas uses these texts to raise awareness of inequality, but at the same time, does not seek to redefine her society’s idea of honor, and the women are always punished. But it could seem at least like a step toward the feminism we know today as it calls attention to the fact that the law used to work against women’s rights rather than protect them. And the women argue that women are inherently equal to men by proclaiming things like, “Oh how many good women there would be if only men would let them be good!” (115).

 The code of honor greatly affects how characters act. According to the code, women are expected to guard their honor (chastity) against men, but should they fail, men must punish them. Men see the honor of women as something they are responsible for, so when she loses her honor, it is an insult to any man that is connected to this ruined woman. For example, in the second story, Octavia is afraid of her brother finding out about her affair with Carlos because of his “right” to punish her. This code allows inequality between men and women because it clearly gives men power. The code is also a sort of safe haven for men in the stories to avoid responsibility and blame, something the women cannot escape. For instance, don Manuel knows Isabel will not reveal that he raped her because then she would lose her honor (and her good reputation) if she did. As this code is the standard, women judge women with it too. Overall, the code implies that a woman’s chastity is what makes her worthy to be loved, and that since marriage is the only way to avoid dishonor, women should aspire to it. Men are expected to marry, but the code does not punish them harshly enough to enforce this. 

It was interesting that this story showed a man becoming a monk rather than a woman becoming a nun. Through being faithful to God, don Juan was saved from what Roseleta’s beauty would have “made” him do. I get the impression that desire is supposed to be a maddening condition that robs any originally decent person (like don Juan) of their reason. Desire is emotionally driven. The way Roseleta was eventually punished also reminded me that women were often blamed for causing this desire in men. This makes don Juan seem like a victim that couldn’t help but be tempted to do something dishonorable because of his desire. Since God saved don Juan, but did not save Roseleta (who was innocent), justice does not appear to have any meaning in this story. However, Lisis restores a sense of justice at the end of the story by explaining that God works in mysterious ways and does not punish every sinner in the same way. She also argues that the real justice is that Roseleta is rewarded by going to heaven instantly while don Juan had to “repent and earn his reward” in this life (136).