BA # 12 Marcela the shepherdess

1)Marcela is first mentioned when Don Quijote and Sancho meet the band of goatherds in V. 1, Ch. 12 on page 63 of our text.

2)Marcela was daughter to Guillermo the Rich. Before her mother died, she was "the most respected woman anywhere around here" (64). Her father, "at the loss of such a good wife" (65), also died, leaving Marcela to be raised in a cloistered environment of the village priest, her uncle. "The little girl grew so beautiful [. . .] that, by the time she reached fourteen or fifteen, no one had ever seen her without blessing God for making her so lovely, and most of them were hopelessly in love with her" (65). The combination of her physical and fiscal endowments combined to make her incredibly desirable. In fact it is by the death of the "famous student-shepherd, Grisostomo, [who . . .] died of love" (63) unrequited for her, that we are first introduced to Marcela. She eventually tires of her cloistered life and becomes a shepherdess, denying the wishes of her uncle and making herself more available to the advances of the villages' lust filled men. In this way, says the goatherd, "she does more damage, here on this earth, than if she carried the plague" (66), because she does not return their overtures. She is vilified, through no fault of her own, though her "reputation for virtue" (76), remains in tact, "no matter how cruel she may be, and prouder than necessary, and a great deal disdainful" (76), too.

3)The figure of Marcela is interesting to compare to the archetype of the chivalric damsel that Don Quijote speaks of earlier in the novel. The assertive, confident and independent nature of Marcela is nearly antithetical to "the damsel." As Don Quijote says, even though we lock damsels away to protect them, "the amorous plague will make its way to them" and, "the order of knights errant was established, to defend damsels" (60). When viewed with Quijote's antiquated gender roles, Marcela reads as a feminist. She is on her own, in the wilds, without the protection of a male benefactor. She determines her own future.

4)It is for this reason that I find her a heroic figure. In a world that must have been severely patriarchal, she vows to remain outside of masculine determinations. "I was born free, and I chose the solitude of the fields so I could live free" (78) she says. "All my desires have their boundaries here in these mountains, and if they ever do go forth, it's only to contemplate the sky's beauty, and the steps the soul takes as it proceeds toward its primal home" (79). Marcela appears at Grisostomo's funeral to defend herself, with these and other words, from sexist accusations. As a hero, she stands up to not only an entire village of men, but an entire society's condescension. She is a heroic woman in her singular character, but she is an heroic person for remaining true to her beliefs in the face of crowded scrutiny.