Philippine Normal University
The National Center for Teacher Education
Cadiz Campus
In Partial Fulfillment for the Requirement in English 03
Philippine Literature
IMAGES OF FILIPINO
WOMEN IN SELECTED PLAYS
Presented to:
Dr. Ruel Bonganciso
Presented by:
Nicah Claire C. Faur
Jona Joyce D. Azucena
II – 1 BSE-English
A.Y 2014 - 2015
“IMAGES OF
FILIPINO WOMEN IN SELECTED PLAYS”
Title: World is an apple
By: Alberto Florentino
Female Character:
Ø Gloria – The wife of Mario who was so loving
and so concerned of Mario’s work. She still manage to keep her good virtuous
even if her family happens to be in the lower bracket of society, she insists
that the way they are living is a much better than the one they will have if
they do wrong acts.
Ø Tita – the daughter of Mario and Gloria, the motivation of Mario
to bring the apple because she was sick and she cried when Mario left with
Pablo.
Title: The
New Yorker in Tondo
By:
Marcelino Agana Jr.
Female
Character:
Ø Kikay – She went to New York and fell in love with it. She
acquires all the New Yorkish things - style, looks, language and manners. These things are very obvious when she
arrives in the Philippines specifically in Tondo. Near the end, Kikay was back to her old self - simple and kind. Most
of all, the Filipino value learned by Kikay which is "there is no place like home", is a
lesson on love of country and its culture.
Ø Aling Atang – She is the Mother of Kikay and she
was so supportive and funny in the sense that she has also been carried away by her
daughter’s way of living. She tries to converse with everybody in broken
English.
Ø Nena - is a tomboyish type of girl and the childhood friend of
Kikay. She was secretly engaged to the man that was also engaged with Kikay,
Tony. On her visit in Kikay's house, she finds her friend different and weird.
She gets irritated and even imitates Kikay's ways.
Title: “Three Rats”
By: Wilfredo Ma. Guerero
Character:
Ø Nita – a 19-year old lady married to Gonzalo. An unfaithful wife
to her husband for she was having an affair to her husband’s best friend
Adrian.
Title: “Sabina”
By: Severino Montano
Characters:
Ø Sabina– the main character of the play that’s not of noble
birth. She is the only daughter of a
poor family in Kawakan. Her
great esteem and faith for her love were very important to consider. She is the
girl who almost became insane when she discovered that Mr. George Price is a
married man. She was also so naive and gullible that she only focused on the
love she felt towards Mr. Price and the happiness she felt.
Ø Cleta and Ursula – they are the relatives of Sabina who are not in favor with Sabina’s relationship with Mr. Price. Until they have said
and explained everything to Sabina that she thought she’s hate by her relative
only to find out that they're just worried for her.
Ø Grandmother Rustica – She is the grandmother of Sabina who
also worried about the relationship Sabina has to Mr. George Price. She is a
kind Grandmother.
Title: “Sepang Loca”
By: Amelia Lapena –
Bonifacio
Characters:
Ø Sepang–she is the girl in the story describes
as a girl wearing a tattered red skirt with a shapely legs. She always dances
for Sta. Clara to give her a child which made her become more sexually
attractive to the menfolk. Sepang is a mother of a baby who died in the well
which is also the reason why she died.
Ø Paz - She shared the popularity of her husband. A doting wife and mother,
she took care of the household. She herself went to the market and cooked their
meals. She was particularly proud about her mutton and broth which both father
and son relished and enjoyed. She was religious and kind. She was
aghast at the fate of Sepang Loca and denounced the father of her child.
Ø Mother Elena - She was Danilo’s best friend’s
mother, the neighbor of Sepang who heard the baby cry. She represents the
humane side of society. She brought Sepang a bowl of broth to stir her
milk.Mother Elena still had keen hearing. She heard the baby cry. But Sepa
and the child had vanished. She panicked when she saw the mat and the crumpled
blanket spread upon the floor. She
was a respect elder in the community that even the mayor kissed her hand.
She showed anguish over how Pedro, her son and the best friend of Danilo, had
become. A religious woman, she had grown callouses on her knees to make
devotions to the Holy Virgin and immaculate saints but these did not do any good
for Pedro.
ANALYZING THE CHARACTERISTICS OF
FILIPINO WOMEN IN SELECTED PLAYS
We Filipinos have cultural awareness which until now we
still practiced. The authors portrayed their characters in their written plays
as women who have the attitude why we Filipinos until now have that is, feeling
the happiness we want to feel and chasing the love we always wanted to have.
Like Sabina in the play “Sabina” written by Severino Montano, she never fail to
instill that she really love Mr. George Price and that no one can stop her from
loving him even her own family, Nita (from the play “Three Rats” by Wilfredo
Ma. Guerero) who followed her heart and want to feel the happiness she wants to
feel so she had an affair with her husband’s friend. Kikay, who just went to
New York and changed her ideals about the love on her own country but then had
changed again and found out that there’s no place like home and that she saw
happiness from it, and Gloria (from the play “The world is an Apple” by Alberto
Florentino) who’s contented and happy even if they are in the lower bracket of
the society.
The entire female protagonists in the
plays have conflicts and that’s how the author portrays their attitude and
characters especially on how they managed those conflicts. In the play “The
world is an Apple” Alberto Florentino portrays Gloria, like some wives who were
treated unfairly by their husbands, and that their husbands spend nights with
prostitutes. In this angle, Gloria as a representation of all women was treated
unfairly. Florentino has also managed to use another angle in the story
to make his readers see that money is not
the evil but the man who uses the money is to be blamed for his personal
woes. But in the case of Wilfredo Guerero’s “Three Rats” Nita was portrayed as
a woman who also thinks that not only men can treat their wives unfairly and
that women can also have an affair with another man. This idea shows the behavior
of the person to do bad things even if he or she is a male or a female.
Amelia Bonifacio’s “Sepang Loca” has
portrayed another unfair treatment of the women in the society like how Danilo
treated Sepa. Danilo, also by virtue of his circumstances, understood the higher hierarchy of needs and his place in the society, that’s
why he just used Sepa’s body to indulge from his manly needs. Another unfair
treatment of the portrayals of the women in plays is Severino Montano’s
“Sabina”. There he portrayed how a woman like Sabina who just only wants the
happiness she long to feel toward her beloved Mr. George Price and yet her
family force her not to continue the relationship they have. It’s like taking
away the right of Sabina to be happy; every one of us deserves to be happy
right?
Kikay in the play
“New Yorker in Tondo” by Marcelino Agana only portrays how we Filipino
sometimes carried other country’s culture and that we forget to love our own
country. Kikay had also experienced unequal treatment for being woman, because
without her knowledge, her fiancé was also secretly engaged to her childhood
friend while she was in New York.
In all, the characters portrayed by our Filipino authors show that
men always took advantage in women’s goodness.
REACTION ABOUT
THE IMAGES PORTRAYED BY WOMEN IN SELECTED PHILIPPINE PLAYS
I was able to observe different attitude of our Filipino
women and I was able to see that it really came far from our past and are
present until today. Like those attitude of Gloria
who insists and believes that
the way they are living is a much better than the one they will have if they do
wrong acts. Kikay, who already love New Yorkish things but still went back to
her old self, simple and believes that she loves her country and Nita, who
really mirrors some of the women today which had made an affair with her
husband’s friend. Having great esteem and faith in her love showed how Sabina
mirrors other women today that’s why I like the way Severino Montano portrays
this attitude of Sabina. Another character that I observed and find it funny is
that of Paz’s, being tsismosa until today is very visible.
From my own point of view, authors have really become
observant and aware of what is happening in their society – the people, the
events, the roles and the beliefs.
COMPARING THE WOMEN’S ROLES IN THE
STORIES TO THE ROLES OF WOMEN OF TODAYS
Aida
from the story of “World is an Apple” is a type of woman that has a name that
suggest who she is, if you compare her to the women of today their name are
just modernized but still have the same meaning. They serve as men’s lesson.
Kikay
in the story entitled “The New Yorker in Tondo” is a versatile kind of woman to
cope with the things in any situation that requires. These type of women wouldn't find it hard to get along for they are flexible to all types of
instances. Looking to the women of today, a lot of them show the same character
that even a work of a man they can handle.
From
the same story Aling Atang was a very supportive but at the same time she doesn't have her own principle for she just get along to whatever life suggest
like some women of today who barely shows weaknesses that whatever comes their
way they easily submit their selves.
Nena
is also from the same story; she was a kind of woman who was hard to deal with
because of envy. The same to the modern women that a lot of them easily gets
envy and tries to get involved even though in a very hard situation just to
satisfy their desire.
Nowadays there are a lot of
women like Nita from the play “Three Rats” who are having an affair with
another man even though she’s already married. And some women of today are
greatly different from Nita’s attitude and that’s being faithful like Sabina’s
attitude in the play “Sabina”.
There are some relatives
like those of Cleta, Ursula and grandmother Rustica in the play “Sabina”that
really give comments or judge their own relative when it comes in choosing the
perfect partner for their niece, cousins, sisters or granddaughters.
Sepang from the play
“Sepang Loca” was the town’s clown but admired by a lot of men and today there
are only few women who are exactly like this, but most of them lacks respect
from men. And Paz from the same play mirrors the most visible attitude which is
present until today and that is being a “chismosa”. And mother Elena was a lot
more likely of a women of today who are totally caring and reaches out on
others just to help.
SUPPORT ALL YOUR CLAIMS BY CITING
PRINCIPLES AND IDEAS OF THE PORTRAYALS OF FILIPINO WOMEN.
In dealing with the comparisons of
women’s role in the story with the role of the women today, which is specifically
on women’s attitudes, we’re able to unraveled it through summing up.
Like woman in nature, women’s role
shows several of details and account of each individual character. As far as I
am concerned, the justification I have came up was all pertinent to the topics
being talk about and surely give enlightenment as their portrayals in the
mentioned principles were generally illustrated.
In order to substantiate my statement
from the different stories that I have read comparing with the women of today,
I would like to present the following principles to carry up my assertion with
regards to this matter; establish high level corporate leadership for gender
equality; support human rights and nondiscrimination; promote education, training and professional
development for women; and measure and report on progress report on progress to achieve gender equality; Economic
empowerment is central; Awareness:is the first step to the resolution of any
problem; Being yourself: it is better to be first rate version of yourself than
a second rate version of someone else. (Judy Garland); Beliefs: your beliefs
affect your life more than you think they do. If you want to have the best life
experience you can ever have, switch out your disempowering beliefs with empowering
ones.
