Part I
Julia: Laura, Have you heard about Lorenzo’s wedding to our friend Lisa?
Laura: Oh, She’s getting married you say?
Julia: Oh, yes. The priest gave everybody the good news at the end of Mass.
Laura: When was that?
Julia: This past Sunday. My goodness! You weren’t there?
Laura: I was not. I went down with a mild headache. But if Lisa is getting married to that wretch Lorenzo, That’s too bad for her.
Julia: Aren’t you happy for her?
Laura: Why should I? She’s getting herself into a lifetime of being a slave to that wretch! Her voice won’t matter anymore. Her rights would be gone the moment she signs that death certificate!
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Julia: I don’t get you.
Laura: What is so hard for you to fail to understand? After marriage, she becomes his property. She cannot make any choice and Lorenzo would not have to consult her anymore. All her properties becomes his!
Julia: Oh, But they love each other Laura! I don’t believe that Lorenzo would be such a brute as to lord over our sweet Lisa.
Laura: Oh, wait till you find out that Lisa will no longer meet us until that wretch Lorenzo gives consent. This is why I’d rather be single than be shackled to a man thanks to some laws those menfolk at the King’s Court made! Will you shackle yourself to your ‘handsome Mario’ come Summer?
Julia: Oh, my sweet Mario!
If to the magnet of your graces, attractive
My obedient steel chest serves,
Why do you fall in love with flattery
If you have to make fun of me then fugitive?
Laura: You seem to be infatuated by this Mario. Haven’t I convinced you against marriage already?
Julia: My Mario is different, so is Lisa’s Lorenzo!
Laura: Remember the words of Shakespeare, my dear friend, all that glisters is not gold! (23)
Part II
In my dialogue, I wanted to explore the issue about love and gender. In love, I used Julia, who is excited about her friend’s wedding but Laura is not happy because she believes that the institution of marriage tends to strip women of their rights and makes them subservient to men. This brings me to the issue of gender. Through Laura’s dialogue, I wanted to highlight some of the bad practices that the law of Couverture allows and that made women become second class citizens once they become married women.
Their rights become one to those of the men, who become lords over them. This means that their husbands can do whatever they like without even consulting their wives while the wives cannot do anything without their husbands giving them their approval. It is this kind of a miserable life that makes Laura wish to continue to be single so that she could enjoy her rights. This is because a single woman can do as she wishes rather than get married and lose these rights. She also does not like Lorenzo when you look at the bad names she calls Lorenzo whom she thinks is after the inheritance left to Lisa and that by marrying her he would be able to control them.
When she warns Julia about not taking things by their face value thus the Shakespeare saying that all that glitters is not gold. Laura thinks that Son Juan is just infatuated by Mario’s looks and that he could be as worse. But Julia does not seem to care at all and is stubborn to hold on to her strong belief that Lisa and her lovers would be different despite the fact that it might turn out badly. Laura comes across as a pessimist and has a negative attitude towards marriage because of the evidence she gives about women. Julia is positive throughout when you see the sonnet despite the sarcasm and name-calling from her friend Laura.
References
Shakespeare Quotes: Top 50 Famous Shakespeare Quotes. (2011, July 17). Retrieved from https://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/quotes/famous-shakespeare-quotes/
Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz: Que Contiene Una Fantasía contenta Con Amordecente. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://ingber.spanish.sbc.edu/cgi-bin/sonnets.py?activity=get_poem&poem_id=juana01
