MAY DAY EVENICK JOAQUIN

CHARACTERS

AGUEDA

• A BEAUTIFUL YOUNG WOMAN WITH LONG DARK HAIR. SHE IS BOLD, LIBERATED AND A NON-CONFORMIST.

AGUEDA

• AS AN OLD WOMAN, SHE HAD A HARD, BITTER, VENGEFUL FACE WITH GRAYING HAIR.

DON BADOY MONTIYA

• A YOUNG MAN WITH CURLY HAIR, A MUSTACHE AND A SCAR ON HIS CHEEK. HE IS VAIN, PROMISCUOUS, A STEREOTYPICAL MAN, WHO INTENDS TO PROVES HIS MACHISMO.

DON BADOY MONTIYA

• AS AN OLD MAN, HE HAD TURNED VERY PALE.

ANASTASIA

• A MISCHIEVOUS OLD WOMAN, WHO WAS CALLED A MAGA.

IMPORTANT EVENTS

•AGUEDA LOOKS IN THE MIRROR DURING MAY DAY EVE AND SEES HER FUTURE HUSBAND, BADOY.

IMPORTANT EVENTS

•AGUEDA MARRIES BADOY

•In Nick Joaquin’s May Day Eve, Agueda and Badoy’s bitter marriage all began on a May night.

•Agueda and Badoy are two, completely diverse people.

•Agueda is a girl ahead of her time. She is boldand liberated unlike most girls her age. She stands out from the broad spectrum of conformists of her era.

•Badoy, who at first comes off as a stereotypical, forceful man intent on proving his machismo, is more of a promiscuous fellow who is used to getting his way. This is shown in how he initially treats agueda.

•Badoy was a strong-willed young man, who just came from Europe when he met Agueda. It was the defining incident that clearly portrayed the inner anguish of Doña Agueda in her marriage to a man she never loved. Men like Badoy had a seemingly irresistible power over the society especially to women like Agueda, enabling him to have her in the end. Agueda was a beautiful and brave young girl who despised men like Badoy. In this light, Badoy in the story was depicted as a representative of men abusive of their superior status.

•The short story, May Day Eve, by Nick Joaquin carefully and brilliantly depicted the status Filipino women had during in the past. In this still seemingly patriarchal world, we are somehow forced to believe that men are superior and that women are just subordinate to men. This ideology was even more highlighted in the past, where women were totally deprived of the necessary rights that men had always enjoyed. In the story, the vital issue of marriage, wherein women are forced to marry men, was particularly portrayed.

•Women had lost the capacity to decide and fulfill their own desires, making their lives almost meaningless. Agueda in the story had died miserably because her life was molded into something she didn't wish. She was forced to marry don badoy montiya because the latter had a tremendous desire for her. Her whole life was spent grieving for the situation she can't escape.

IMPORTANT EVENTS

•RESULTED TO A BITTER MARRIAGE

•THE TRAGEDY IS NOT THAT. THE TRAGEDY IS WHEN BADOY·S HEART FORGETS HOW MUCH HE FELT FOR AGUEDA. THETRAGEDY IS HOW BOTH WERE NOT CAREFUL ENOUGH TO MEND THEIR DRIFTING MARRIAGE.

•An irony surfaced in the latter part of the story: Doña Agueda was telling her daughter about a devil she saw in the mirror on a may day eve, while deep inside she means the DEVIL to be her husband.

•As with Badoy, he illustrated his WITCH to his grandson with features that were of his wife’s. This just goes to show how each of them saw their marriage.

•Both Badoy and Agueda perceived their marriage to be a taste of hell. Instead of admitting that they saw their spouses in the mirror, they claimed that it was the witch/devil they saw for that was probably how each of them was to each other during their life together.

•Perhaps this was because the premise of their love was based only on raging passion and nothing more. Passion, after all, is evanescent and transitory. Love cannot be based on passion alone. Their contrasting attributes perhaps were what brought them together. But it could also have been the root of the bitterness that concluded their time together.

SOCIAL ISSUES

• GENDER INEQUALITY

SOCIAL ISSUES

• FILIPINO SUPERSTITIONS

SOCIAL ISSUES

• MARRIAGE WITHOUT LOVE