Summary:
“So
all these years–since when?–he had been seeing the light of dead stars, long
extinguished, yet seemingly still in their appointed places in the heavens.”--
Alfredo Salazar
Dead stars is a short story by Paz Marquez Benitez,
written in 1925. The story is basically a compilation of the complicated
circumstances that every man has to go through in life. Alfredo was torn between
doing what is right and what is in his heart.
Alfredo Salazar is a lawyer and the main character in the story. He is
the love of the life of Esperanza. They have been together for four years and
meant to get married in May. Their relationship in the beginning was full of
enthusiasm, full of love and happiness. But like other long term relationships,
their feelings for each other changes as time goes by. Esperanza was beautiful,
elegant, reserved, and distinctly not average type of a woman. She loves her
Alfredo so much and trusted him with her whole heart. After their four years of
engagement, Alfredo thought of finding his real wants. When Alfredo tried to do
some neighboring with his dad Don Julian, he met Julia Salas, their neighbor's
sister-in-law. She was just a visitor in town and been there for only six
weeks. They found good company between themselves and as they knew it, it
became a weekly habit for Alfredo to visit her after every Sundays mass. Julia
is the average type, not so beautiful but still it interests Alfredo so much.
As they grew their new friendship, Alfredo found new happiness and starts to
fall for her.
One day, his
family invited Julia's family in their coconut plantation near their beach.
It's a chance for them to have some quality time together, but this is also the
time to say goodbye. Julia is planning to leave the town and go back home. It
breaks the heart of Alfredo and made him more confused than ever. He is
thinking of choosing Julia over his fiancée Esperanza, but what people will say
is what he thinks matter most. He married Esperanza after Julia left the town,
he was not unhappy and realizes that everything have fallen back into place.
After eight years of marriage, Alfredo still can't get over Julia's memories.
His thought of Julia is hunting him, and those what-ifs dilemma. Alfredo goes
for a business trip to the town where Julia lived. While he is there, Alfredo
runs across Julia. He has never forgotten about his feelings for her, but over
time, he has come to accept his marriage to Esperanza. Alfredo finds that the
feelings he had for Julia are gone. He is content with his life, and the
perceived love he had felt for Julia all those years was like the "light
of dead stars, long extinguished, yet seemingly still in their appointed places
in the heavens."
Literary Criticisms:
Historicism is
a mode of thinking that assigns a central and basic significance to a specific
context, such as historical period, geographical place and local culture.
“Dead Stars” is the 1925 short story that gave birth to
modern Philippine writing in English. English was still a young
language in the Philippines, and many of the writers using the language were
still struggling with it.
Paz Marquez-Benitez, in her masterpiece Dead Stars, did
not only write about a love story. Most importantly, her writing reflects the
time in which the literary work was written along with the language, the norms
and the way people think. It serves as a literary time machine for readers as
it enables them to understand how courtship, marriage and fidelity were viewed
through the early 1900 standards. It renders a sound comparison between the
past and the present, the existing modern culture and the fading, almost
obsolete tradition.
New
Criticism, emphasizes explication, or "close reading," of
"the work itself."
“Dead stars” was a narrative story and it was written in
third person point of view. The author tells the story in third
person (using pronouns they, she, he, it, etc.).
Characters:
Alfredo Salazar - son of Don
Julian, a more than 30 year’s old man and a bachelor. He is engaged to
Esperanza but he is in love with Julia Salas.
Esperanza - wife of Alfredo
Salazar. She is a homely woman, literal minded and intensely acquisitive. She
is one of those fortunate women who have the gift of uniformly beauty.
Julia Salas - sister-in-law
of Judge Del Valle. She is the other girl of Alfredo Salazar thatremains single
in her entire life.
Don Julian - an old man, a
father of Alfredo Salazar and Carmen.Carmen - sister of Alfredo Salas.
Judge Del
Valle - brother-in-law of Julia Salas.
Donna Adella -- sister of
Julia Salas. She is small and plump, a pretty woman with acomplexion of a baby
with an expression of a likeable cow.
Calixta - note-carrier of
Alfredo Salazar and Esperanza.
Dionisio - husband of Donna
Adella.
Vicente - husband of Carmen.
Brigida Samuy - She is the
illusive woman whose Alfredo is looking for.
Setting:
Don Julian’s house
Judge Del Valle’s house
Don Julian’s house in Tanda
Calle Real
Sta. Cruz
Plot
Exposition: At
Don Julian’s house Carmen was asking Don Julian about Alfredo and Esperanza.
Alfredo reminiscence how he met Julia Salas.
Rising
action: He 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. Coming to the judge’s house became often.
Then he realized he was in love with Julia in spite his engagement with
Esperanza.
Climax:
After the procession for The Lady of Sorrows Alfredo caught up with Julia. It
was when Julia found out about Alfredo’s wedding so he 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: Julia didn’t want Alfredo not to honor his
understanding with Esperanza. She said goodbye. He went home to Esperanza. And
there, the last word has been said.
Denouement:
Alfredo and Esperanza got married. After eight years, he was searching for a
lady named Brigida Samuy-a lady important for his defense in the court-in Sta. Cruz,
Julia’s hometown. 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
nonexistent.
Conflicts:
Man vs. Circumstances, Man vs. Society, Man vs. Himself.
Man
vs. Circumstances
In the story, Alfredo
struggles against his fate and the circumstances of life and love facing him.
He needs to face problems in choosing between difficult choices of his life.
The
story is basically a compilation of the complicated circumstances that every
man has to go through in life.
Man
vs. Society
In the story, Alfredo struggles
against the society because he was afraid to the reaction of the people around him
especially during the time of the story. People
oftentimes give high regard to the society in which they belong. They try to
adhere to the norms, traditions and culture of their society, though sometimes
the conformity would require them to sacrifice a part of themselves – an
opinion, an emotion or a decision.
Man
vs. Himself
In the story, Alfredo was
uncertain and confused by his decisions. He was torn between doing what is
right and what is in his heart.
Symbolism:
Dead stars symbolize things
that are present but are left unspoken of. The love between Alfredo and Julia seemed
to be real but, as time goes by the love they had lost and fades like a dead
star so
disillusionment, reminiscent of the past that doesn't exist anymore. No, not
because of lost youth, he finds her to be different from that person he
perceived her to be all these years. And he is disenchanted. The illusion he
harbored all these years are nothing but dead stars, long dead but emits light
that seems real for the distance it has to travel, light being seen even if the
source has lost its own brightness or died.
Esperanza's devotion to
Alfredo also resembles love, but since she believes in the "regenerative
virtue of institution" more than true love, it is safe to say that she is
in the relationship, because of moral obligation.
Theme:
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. The underlying theme is
responsibility, as shown by the story that Alfredo is engaged to be married to Esperanza
and the people expect him to get married with her.
Feminist
literary criticism, arising in conjunction with sociopolitical
feminism, critiques patriarchal language and literature by exposing how these
reflect masculine ideology. It examines gender politics in works and traces the
subtle construction of masculinity and femininity, and their relative status, positioning’s,
and marginalization’s within works.
In this story Women represents as meek and considers men
to be superior. They are faithful and easy to fall in love while men are
rational and uncertain. The story broke the notion of patriarchal system as the
society sees men as rational type or in line with logic while women are the
emotional kind.
Reader-response
criticism is a school of literary theory that focuses on the
reader (or "audience") and their experience of a literary work, in
contrast to other schools and theories that focus attention primarily on the
author or the content and form of the work.