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.