Introduction
“The search to be a woman” from La Virgen de Kerima Polotan Tuvera is a perfect title that shows the same meaning of what feminist criticism is about. The feminist approach defines the revelation of the true desires and struggles of women in society. It aims to expose the patriarchal premises resulting from prejudice and the discovery of history or any type of literary piece using character analysis. This article would provide readers with a clearer view of how feminist criticism applies its characteristics to a well-known tale called La Virgen.
Author’s background and summary of the story.
Kerima Polotan Tuvera was a renowned Filipino author. Her works garnered some of the highest literary recognition in the Philippines, with her short story ‘The Virgin’ being one of her most notable literary pieces. The word “virgin” that she mentions in her story implies someone who is pure and without blemish. As society dictates, to gain respect and dignity, a woman must be pure and virgin because it is said that a woman’s virginity is equal to her dignity. Society dictates that a woman must keep her virginity until she marries, as Miss Mijares did to herself. She couldn’t express her feelings to men because she had to protect her virginity/dignity. Therefore, the story presents the struggles of Miss Mijares caused by the social dictates about her individuality that prevented her from finding her own identity as a person and as a woman through a feminist perspective.
Discussion (application of the feminist approach)
Miss Mijares, protagonist of the story entitled La Virgen, as a writer and as a woman revealed her desires through her metaphors and symbols in her writing. Despite being a responsible daughter of her family, she also wanted to be loved by others, above all, she has always dreamed of having a man in her life. But her duties as her daughter and as a member of society prevented him from fulfilling her dreams. The following lines show her desire to have a man:
“But neither love nor glory was behind her, only shadows empty and lurking, and nine years gone, nine years. In the room of her unburied dead, she raised her hands to the light, feeling the thick fingers and lasting, thinking of a mixture of shame, bitterness and guilt for never having touched a man.
There was also a scenario in the story that shows his romantic feelings when he was angry to learn that the carpenter had a son and thought he was married. But after the carpenter admitted that he is not married to the mother of his child, she was relieved. After that event, it suddenly rained and the atmosphere became unhappy. The setting reveals Miss Mijares’ emotions about the carpenter. She illustrated that she was emotionally affected by the carpenter’s revelations. With the rain and the weather as a metaphor for her feelings; she tests her hidden emotions with the man.
There was also a symbolic revelation about her desire to be loved. The paperweight that the carpenter molded in the shape of a dove symbolizes intercourse because he flies. The carpenter offered it to her, which shows that the carpenter was offering something to Miss Mijares. The fact that Miss Mijares laughs about it shows that she likes the offer. Thus, she confirms that Miss Mijares is attracted to the carpenter as implied by her acceptance and affection for the flying object that symbolizes lovemaking in the psychoanalytic approach.
Miss Mijares’ entire life was dedicated to fulfilling her responsibilities, such as finishing college, sending her niece to school, and taking care of her mother. That was her duty as a woman, to nurture her family unconditionally. This role dictated by society and perhaps by her own family shaped her to be a woman for others and not a woman with herself. Society dictates that women must protect their virginity, which is equal to her dignity, which Miss Mijares respectfully accepted. Miss Mijares was portrayed not only as a woman who wanted to go beyond her roles, but also as a woman who wanted to build her own life.
In addition, Túvera shows the inner struggle of a woman in the story. Ms. Mijares’s struggle to conform to social expectations of a woman and hide her own self was exposed and reiterated. Her struggle was symbolically shown by her encounter with unknown places and the fun of the jeepney. She symbolizes her own loss because she can’t be herself and has to be the woman that society tells her to be.
In society, women are responsible for caring for family members. This was the case with Miss Mijares, when she was the only one left to care for her sick and elderly mother. She made all the responsibility that she forgot about her own life. Miss Mijares in the story can be characterized as the spinster. At the age of 34, she has yet to touch a man. The depiction of her in the story and her life really fit her as the archetype of the untouched spinster.
The three stages of the history of women, feminine stage, feminist stage and feminine stage, can be identifiable in the life of Miss Mijares. The feminine stage according to Showalter’s theory is the stage that involves the imitation of the prevailing modes of the dominant tradition and the internalization of its standards. Indeed, Miss Mijares from the beginning has gone through this stage in which she allows the dictates of society to govern her life. She responsibly took care of her mother and had protected her virginity for a long time. However, as the story progresses, her character has gradually evolved and she is already approaching the feminist stage. The feminist stage can be described as a stage of protest against the rights of minorities.
Miss Mijares did not protest explicitly or politically, but there is an inner protest in her. Her experiences of being lost and rainy days symbolize her inner protest that she has to go beyond what is expected of her. This symbolic protest actually created confusion within her, because she is torn between social dictates and herself. The last stage which is the feminine stage can be described as the phase of self-discovery, a search for identity. The last part of the story shows that Miss Mijares has gone through the female stage. The preceding lines actually imply that she was freed from the social roles dictated around her:
In her secret heart, the dreams of young Miss Mijares fluttered faintly to life, seeming monstrous in the rain, close to this man – apparently monstrous but also sweet and overwhelming. I must escape, she thought savagely, but he had moved and brushed against her, and where her touch had landed, her flesh jumped, and she remembered how her hands had looked that first day, lying tenderly on the edge of her desk and around the wooden bird (which looked like a bright, shiny dove). moving) and she turned to him: with wet and withered ruffles, in the dark she turned to him”.
The last paragraph proves that in her heart she has gone through the stage of protest and is now able to express herself, her own feelings and her own desires. She shows that she is now able to go beyond her social roles by revealing that she is ready to give up her virginity. Her virginity is in fact a symbol of dignity; however, it is part of a woman’s purpose to have a man who can consume that long-preserved virginity.
Conclusion:
The story describes the success of women in overcoming the stereotyped world of men. The main character was able to defy the dictates of society and she was able to establish herself in her quest to be a woman.