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Gustavo Illades Aguiar
The protagonists of El celoso extremeño and the Novela del Curioso impertinente are dominated by the same ¿sickness¿: jealousy. However, the strategies used by Carrizales and Anselmo, intended to preserve the fidelity of their respective spouses, are opposite. Nonetheless, both characters, dishonored by adultery, die as victims of their afflictions after recognizing their foolishness. Anselmo¿s impertinent curiosity leads him to employ Lotario as a double; Carrizales¿s obsessive vigilance makes him resemble Loaysa. Both cases, which examine the sacrament of matrimony, present the three clinical stages analyzed by the physician and polygraph Francisco de Villalobos: the alteration of imagination under the effect of amor hereos, the dynamics of jealousy, and death caused by despair. Villalobos¿s treatises (Sumario de la medicina, 1498, and Sentencias, 1515¿1543), updated by those of Juan Luis Vives (De Anima et Vita, Instrucción de la mujer cristiana) and by the work of Huarte de San Juan (Examen de ingenios), appear to have influenced Cervantes in the creation of these characters, as is shown by our textual analysis.
