What if love isn’t about finding someone else—but about freeing yourself? Undergraduate student Sky Ho explores themes of autonomy and emotional liberation by reimagining a dialogue between two 17th-century literary characters from the Romance World in her final project for RMST 201.
A still shot from Sky Ho's final video project.
“Rather than focusing on conventional romantic love, Sky's project explored deeper themes of autonomy, self-realization, and existential freedom—showing how storytelling can expand our understanding of what it means to love, not just others, but oneself.”
Romance Studies students explored portrayals of love across French, Italian, Spanish, and Latin American literature in a course titled “RMST 201 – Love and its Many Forms: How Storytellers Shape Our Understanding of Romance,” taught by Dr. Elizabeth Lagresa-González in the 2024-25 Winter Session. For their final project, students created digital storytelling pieces to compare a play and another course reading, examining shared themes between both pieces, such as passion, autonomy, inequality, and desire.
One particular student, Sky Ho, created a film reimagining a conversation between two literary characters: Marcela from Don Quixote (1605) by Miguel de Cervantes, and Segismundo from Life is a Dream (1636) by Calderón de la Barca. Rather than focusing on conventional romantic love, her project explored deeper themes of autonomy, free will, and existential realization — showing how storytelling can expand our understanding of what it means to love, not just others, but oneself.
Self-love as the pursuit of freedom
Sky selected these two characters for their shared resistance to the roles society tried to impose on them.
In Don Quixote, Marcela is a shepherdess blamed for a man’s suicide after she rejects his romantic advances. In a striking monologue, she asserts her right to independence, challenging the idea that she owes anyone her love due to her beauty. In contrast to typical portrayals of women as passive recipients of pursuit and affection in chivalric fiction, Marcela stands as a bold declaration of agency.
Segismundo, in Life is a Dream, is a prince raised in captivity, told that life itself may be nothing more than a dream. His journey isn’t a quest for romantic love, but a philosophical and emotional awakening—an internal battle between fatalism and free will. For the Sky, Segismundo represents the human struggle to rise from despair and the shackles of one’s own mind, and to step into consciousness and free will—even when life feels illusory or predetermined.
By placing these characters in dialogue, the project highlighted their differing—but complementary—approaches to reclaiming freedom. Marcela embodies steadfast self-possession, while Segismundo wrestles with inner chaos on the path to clarity. Both are labeled “wild beasts” by society, yet both defy the expectations that seek to limit them.
A psychological lens
“What binds you here—these walls, or the weight of your thoughts?”
As a psychology student, Sky saw strong parallels between these characters and the emotional realities of modern life. In particular, she was inspired by the way Segismundo’s physical prison mirrors the mental prisons many people experience today—especially those facing depression or trauma. In the film project, Marcela challenges Segismundo’s beliefs about fate, asking him, “What binds you here—these walls, or the weight of your thoughts?” This question becomes the project’s emotional centerpiece, reframing “freedom” as something that begins not in the external world, but within the mind.
Through this creative reinterpretation, Sky emphasized how literature from centuries past can speak to contemporary struggles with identity, autonomy, and healing. Her film project doesn’t portray romantic fulfillment between two characters, but instead invites viewers to witness an inner transformation that leads to a deeper form of love: the love of self-determination.
Embodied storytelling
By performing both roles herself, Sky sought not just to interpret Marcela and Segismundo, but to become them—inhabiting their fears, convictions, and emotional journeys.
“When crafting their dialogue, I had to embody their thoughts, not just interpret them. I had to feel the weight of Segismundo’s despair and the strength behind Marcela’s silence. I became a participant in their inner worlds rather than just an observer,” she reflected.
Sky’s video incorporated meaningful quotes from both texts, delivered through voiceover and layered with moody, shadow-heavy visuals to reflect the characters’ emotional states.
Sky’s work stood out for its emotional depth, philosophical ambition, and fusion of classical literature with modern psychological insight. Her project ultimately reminds us that love—whether for freedom, truth, or oneself—is often forged not in union with another, but in the lonely, courageous act of choosing who we will become.
