Poetry in La gitanilla : “Is Preciosa’s confidence undermined by her revealing of some form of dishonesty?”

Abstract

This essay, which follows an article written by Monique Joly and Francisco Márquez Villanueva, underlines the way Cervantes used poetry to free the speech of a female character: a little gipsy girl whose noble origins are revealed at the end of this exemplary novel. The recurring praise of Preciosa’s honesty is opposed to several dissonances through metaphorical and ambiguous expressions serving as a tool of protest against a hierarchical, unfair and hypocritical society. This protest finds its highest form in the verses devoted to fortune-telling. Preciosa, identified as poetry, embodies a freedom much cherished by Cervantes, a means to create and re-create by playing with the literary codes of the time. The end of this analysis brings up a comparison between the voices of Preciosa and Altisidora, who in 1615 Quixote reveals herself as an expert in the art of verbal deceit, as in the verses from chapters 44 and 57.