IMAGES OF FILIPINO WOMEN IN SELECTED PLAYS

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.