A Story of “What If” in Paz Marquez Benitez’s “Dead

Stars”

Rey-an M. AdriosulaIV-Achievers

The moral/intellectual critical approach is concerned with content and values.  The approach is as old as literature itself, for literature is a traditional mode of imparting morality, philosophy, and religion.  The concern in moral/intellectual criticism is not only to discover meaning but also to determine whether works of literature are both true and significant.

I. ContextA. Moral/Philosophical and

Intellectual

Paz Marquez-Benitez was a Filipina short-story writer born in Lucena City, Quezon. She authored the first Filipino modern English language story, Dead Stars, published in the Philippine Herald in 1925.

II. BackgroundThe

Author

>Alfredo Salazar – son of Don Julian; engaged to Esperanza but is still fleeting to Julia Salas

>Esperanza – literal-minded and intensely acquisitive; one of those fortunate women who have the gift of uniformly beauty; engaged to Alfredo Salazar

>Julia Salas – sister-in-law of Judge Del Valle; the other girl of Alfredo Salazar that remains single in her entire life

III. The StoryCharacter

s:

>Don Julian – father of Alfredo Salazar and Carmen

>Carmen – sister of Alfredo Salazar>Judge Del Valle – brother-in-law of

Julia Salas>Donna Adella – sister of Julia Salas;

small and plump, a pretty woman with a complexion of a baby with an expression of a likeable cow

>Calixta – note-carrier of Alfredo Salazar and Esperanza

III. The StoryCharacter

s:

>Dionisio – husband of Donna Adella>Vicente – husband of Carmen>Brigida Samuy – illusive woman

whom Alfredo is looking for

III. The StoryCharacter

s:

Introduction

III. The StoryPlot

At Don Julian’s house, Carmen was asking Don Julian about Alfredo and Esperanza. Alfredo reminisced how he met Julia Salas.

Rising Action

III. The StoryPlot

Alfredo had gone neighboring with Don Julian to Judge Del Valle’s house. He met Julia Salas. All the time he was calling her Mrs. Del Valle which led him to embarrassment afterwards. Coming to the Judge’s house became often. Then he realized he was in love with Julia despite his engagement with Esperanza.

Climax

III. The StoryPlot

After the procession for The Lady of Sorrows, Alfredo caught up with Julia. It was when Julia found out about Alfredo’s wedding so she congratulated him. Alfredo needs to make a very difficult situation. Would he choose what he WANTS to? Or would he choose what he HAS to?

Falling Action

III. The StoryPlot

Julia wants Alfredo to honor his understanding with Esperanza so she said goodbye. Alfredo went home to Esperanza. And there, the last word has been said.

Denouement

III. The StoryPlot

Alfredo and Esperanza got married. After eight years, he went to Sta. Cruz, Julia’s hometown, to search for a lady named Brigida Samuy who is important for his defense in the court. He went to Julia’s house and he found her there, still unmarried. And he realized that his love for Julia was like a Dead Star. It was non-existent.

Alfredo Salazar was betrothed to Esperanza, his girlfriend for four years. The start of their relationship was relatively “warm”, with Alfredo wooing Esperanza like a man in dire lovesickness. But as the years went by, the warm love’s fire slowly flickered and it was because of Julia Salas.

III. The StorySynopsis

She was charming and gleeful. Alfredo shared moments of light with her but sometimes deep conversations when he visits Julia’s brother-in-law, who was a judge. He always went there with his father and since it was his father who needed to talk to the judge, he was always left to Julia’s company. He never told her he was engaged. At first he didn’t notice that a change in his heart was taking form.

III. The StorySynopsis

But then he started keeping details of his activities to his fiancée and then the guilty feeling crept in. When he found out that Julia was about to head back to her distant hometown, he felt blue and frightened.

III. The StorySynopsis

He met her in the church after the Holy Thursday procession, although he knew that Esperanza was already waiting for him. He approached her and she conversed with him with an expression that told him she finally knew. She congratulated him and said she will be at his wedding. Then they parted.

III. The StorySynopsis

When he visited Esperanza in her house, he overheard her talking to another woman about infidelity and immorality, to which he reasoned in favor of the condemned. The statement caused an intense fury to Esperanza and she told him that she knew. She dared Alfredo to abandon her, along with morality and reason and her dignity as a woman as well as her image before the society all for the sake of his “being fair to himself”.

III. The StorySynopsis

Eventually the wedding took place. And after several years, Alfredo was sent to a distant village due to a legal assignment. It bothered him so much because it was near Julia’s hometown. But he still found himself making his way to her house. And there, he found her, just as how and where he expected her to be. She never married. And he wondered how life would be if he ended up being with her.

III. The StorySynopsis

But all was too late and he could never bring things back. He also noticed that Julia lost something, albeit the fact that he didn’t know what that is – youth, love, luster? And when he looked at her he doubted if she ever cared for him, if he has mistaken the past light in her eyes as manifestations of a possible romance. But now they’re all gone and so it was indeed all done.

III. The StorySynopsis

>Don Julian’s house>Judge Del Valle’s house>Don Julian’s house in Tanda >Calle Real>Sta. Cruz

III. The StorySetting

The short story "Dead Stars" by Paz Marquez Benitez is conveying the theme that pertains to forbidden love. It says that forbidden love is only apparent, and its banes haunt the person until such time that he realizes his faults.

III. The StoryTheme

Carmen sighed impatiently. "Why he is not a bit more decided, I wonder. He is over thirty, is he not? And still a bachelor! Esperanza must be tired waiting."

"She does not seem to be in much of a hurry either," Don Julian nasally commented, while his rose scissors busily snipped away.

IV. Analysis*Point of View: Third Person

Omniscient Evidences:

"A last spurt of hot blood," finished the old man.

He and Julia Salas stood looking out into the quiet night. Sensing unwanted intensity, laughed, woman-like, asking, "Amusement?"

IV. Analysis*Point of View: Third Person

Omniscient Evidences:

Carmen sighed impatiently. "Why is he not a bit more decided, I wonder. He is over thirty, is he not? And still a bachelor! Esperanza must be tired waiting."

"How can a woman be in a hurry when the man does not hurry her?" Carmen returned, pinching off a worm with a careful, somewhat absent air.

IV. Analysis*Approach: Moral/Philosophical and

Intellectual Approach

Evidences:

At last Our Lady of Sorrows entered the church, and with her the priest and the choir, whose voices now echoed from the arched ceiling. The bells rang the close of the procession.

IV. Analysis*Approach: Moral/Philosophical and

Intellectual Approach

Evidences:

Alfredo was suffering as he could not remember ever having suffered before. What people will say--what will they not say? What don't they say when long engagements are broken almost on the eve of the wedding?

IV. Analysis*Approach: Moral/Philosophical and

Intellectual Approach

Evidences:

"Julita," he said in his slow, thoughtful manner, "did you ever have to choose between something you wanted to do and something you had to do?"

IV. Analysis*Conflict: Man vs.

CircumstancesEvidences:

Thank You!!Thank You!!