Waxen Seals and Fire Storms: Wax and Feminine Desire in the Symbolic System of «El celoso estremeño»

Abstract

This article examines the metaphoric structure of «El celoso estremeño» departing from its central image: wax. After a review of secondary literature on Cervantine metaphors, we examine apparitions and transformations of wax in «El celoso estremeño», as well as their specificity relatively to other works of Cervantes’. This analysis illustrates the meaning of the waxen imagery and its connection with the main subjects of the novel, that is, feminine desire and free will, with which wax shapes a nexus of metaphors and associations present in the song that the characters sing in the novel: as wax, feminine will can be malleable, but the form that it is given can melt in the fires of desire, which only the will of the woman concerned can control. In short, this article reads «El celoso estremeño» as an exploration of feminine desire and an example of Cervantes’ thoughts on the subject, as seen through his use of waxen imagery.