It was against her will, but Marcela became a real life siren. She did not want the attention that she was given, nor did she wish for anyone to succumb to death as a result. However, it still unfortunately happened.

Marcela’s beauty was able to attract a lot of attention from the males that surrounded her. Although she didn’t want such attention, and even ran away from it. Her beauty, plus her kindness and modesty charmed the men around her. She didn’t want this and ran away. However, her character reminded me of a siren from Greek mythology. Sirens are creatures who enchant men and cause them to die. The man Grisóstomo passed away after being consumed by the love he had for her. The story between Marcela and Grisóstomo and how he died reminds me a lot of the stories surrounding the sirens.

“And so, when she got to the age of fourteen or fifteen, no could look at her who didn’t praise God, who has made her so beautiful, and most men fell hopelessly in love with her.” (Chapter 12)

The quote above shows how much affect she had on anyone that saw her. Marcela decided to leave as a shepherdess, only to be followed by many who wished to court her. She lured the men out into the fields. Just like how sirens would lure their victims into the waters towards their death. Now, Marcela was not as bad. She did not wish anyone to pass on, but the fact that Grisóstomo passed away after being consumed by his love still stands.

“But let no one call me cruel and murderous to whom I’ve promised nothing, upon whom I’ve practiced no deception, whom I’ve neither beckoned nor welcomed.” (Chapter 14)

Marcela believed that she shouldn’t be blamed for the death of Grisóstomo. She believed that she had nothing to do with his death. She did amend to the fact that his death was unfortunate and wished it hadn’t come to that, but in her opinion, there was nothing that she could have down to prevent that from happening. She did not force him to do anything.

In my opinion, although Marcela did not want anything of the horrible occurrences to happen, she still had some part in it. She may not have tried for this result, but her actions caused a man’s death, which is unfavorable.

“Don Quixote decided to go look for Marcela and offer her all that he could in her service. But it didn’t happen the way he planned.” (Chapter 14)

Don Quixote easily feel for Marcela’s charms as well. Her “enchantment” won over the knight and now he is chasing after her in hopes of serving her. It appears as though this won’t go as planned however, and something will occur to intervene in his plan.

While Marcela is a nice, modest, and beautiful woman, these characteristics come back to haunt her. Everyone loved her and chased after her. However, once a man died because he became too obsessed, all of them turned against her, except for Don Quixote who is now lured in by her.