Bad Girl Part 1

It appears as if I'm having flashbacks to Celestina! A young boy hopelessly in love with a distant girl? Who rejects his advances yet welcomes his presence? No, I guess that doesn't sound familiar at all. All joking aside poor Richardo has fallen in love with a pathological liar, but in his reality she is not a pathological liar she is the beautiful, seductive, goddess on a pedestal that he has dreamed of his whole life and she only lives down the street. Richardo  represent a wonderful case study for this class, while he is fully aware of the unraveling lies of Lily he still pines away for her even when the rest of the world condemns his affection he seemingly does not care.

"You're like a calf Slim, You're turning blue, Slim, that crush is melting you, Slim"(7)
Everyone outside besides Richardo is fully aware of the ridiculous state that he's worked himself into over a girl he barely knows. A sane person does not ask out the same person more then 3 times in a lifetime, that should be a red flag indicating one of two things, the first being that perhaps the person that your asking out just is not that into you and the second being that you may have a chemical imbalance in your brain which is causing you to be irrational. In that passage his friends are displaying somewhat of a teasing indifference to his emotional state, they realize that he is too far gone to help but being the good friends they are they still gently try and warn the poor fellow. As we have discussed the first stages "love" can also be confused with the high of a drug, its not love at first sight its more of a chemically induced euphoria at the first or second sighting. Richardo has built up Lily in his eyes so much that he is blind to the fact that the rest of society thinks that she is worthless. Let it be known that I am not saying that I think the negative views of society should impact a persons love life but most of the time they serve to caution you against bad people, a lesson that Richardo should have heeded sooner then later.

With society looking down their noses at Lily and Richardo looking up at her Lily's only option is to preserve the image of her that Richardo idolizes to stay in some form of favor. Although we do not really hear her perspective of the whole thing the idea of her keeping the image for Richardo is echoed when she comes to  him as Comrade Arlette in Paris she knowingly half resigns herself to letting him chase her down for the rest of her life. "She hesitated a moment and, with a sigh, made a concession: "I might even end up falling in love with you.""(27). While she isn't happy and she still holds Richardo at a distance Lily is gently basking in his attention for her, she likes having him on the back burner because he offers her security and things she could never have on her own yet she knows the importance of preserving the false image for him. Even when kissing or making love she still makes herself emotionally unavailable to him. As was the case in Celestina the moment that Melibea gave herself over to Calisto his love for her cooled, I believe that the same will be for poor Richardo once he realizes that he holds all of the cards and his illusion is shattered.