“May Day Eve” by Nick Joaquin

Author Biography

NICK JOAQUIN

 Born: May 4, 1917, Paco, Manila

 Died: April 29, 2004
 Nicomeses “Nick” Joaquin y Marquez, fondly called “Onching” by close
family and friends.
 Filipino writer, historian and journalist, best known for his short stories
and novels in the English language
 Conferred the rank and title of National Artist of the Philippines for
Literature
 Genre: Literature and Fiction, History, Short Stories
 Awards: José Garcia Villa’s Honor Roll (1940), Philippines Free Press
Short Story Contest (1949), and etc.

Writing Style

 Joaquin utilized poetic, rich and evocative language, vivid imagery, and
a focus on the complexities of human emotions and relationships.

Period

 The story was published in 1947 which places it within the Spanish
colonial period.

Point of View

 The POV in the narrative is third person omniscient.

Plot Summary

 A late 1840s dance party ends with a mirror ritual, involving Anastasia,
a woman known for witch tales.
 Agueda, a girl, performs the ritual in front of a mirror, revealing a devil,
Don Badoy, who was in love with her.
 Agueda’s daughter learns about the mirror ritual and draws parallels
between the devil and Don Badoy.
 Don Badoy witnesses his grandson named Voltaire, doing the ritual, to
whom he shares his own mirror ritual and encounter with a witch.
 Don Badoy realizes the old affection has resurfaced, but it’s too late;
Agueda passed away, revealing his love for her.

Theme

The theme of the story is about not relying on superstitious beliefs about the
person whom you will marry. Marriage is very sacred, and it will not work if
you rely on superstitious beliefs like incantation and fate. A happy marriage
doesn’t happen by magic because it requires love, trust, respect,
commitment, and effort on both sides. Moreover, the story also emphasizes
that life is full of regrets. The harsh reality is that we often realize the
importance of someone in our life when it is too late because they are gone.
Just like when Don Badoy regrets that he failed to show Doña Agueda how
important she is in his life.

Characterization

1. Agueda: Her emotions are anger, bitterness, curiosity, and eagerness.

Agueda's curiosity began when Anastasia said that she and her friends
could see the person whom they would marry in the future through the
mirror. It drives her eagerness to know whom she would marry, despite
the warnings from her friends and the chance that she might see the
devil instead of her future husband. During her confrontation with
Badoy, she feels the anger and bitterness emotions because she
believes that girls like her are always inferior and suppressed by men
like Badoy.
2. Badoy: His emotions are frustration, guilt, love, anger, and desire for
vengeance. He feels frustrated when Agueda rejects him. When she
cries after their confrontation, his emotions shift to guilt. Then, when
she bites his arm, his emotion change again to anger and desire for
revenge. When Agueda is gone and he is alone in the dark sala, he
realizes that he has fallen in love with her, but he still wants to seek
revenge.
3. Doña Agueda: Sadness and bitterness are evident on her face as she
looks at herself in the same mirror, now reflecting her bitter, aged face.
While retelling her past to her daughter, she feels nostalgia as she
reminisces, but at the same time she also feels the bitterness and
resentment emotions as she describes Badoy as a devil she saw in the
mirror.
4. Don Badoy: He feels the nostalgia emotion as he retells to her
grandson that the witch he saw before was the most beautiful creature
he had ever seen. At the same time, he feels bitter when he says that
he should have known how dark and fatal creature she is. He then feels
the regret and remorse emotion when he remembers that her wife has
already passed away. He regrets that he failed to show her how
important she is in his life.
5. Don Badoy and Doña Agueda's daughter: Her emotions are
curiosity and amusement. She is curious about what her mother sees
in the mirror. After hearing the story, she feels amuse in it.
6. Voltaire: He feels disbelief when his grandfather tells him how he will
be bewitched, tortured, and drink his blood by a witch. Since it is
already 1890 during that time, and he does not believe in witches. He
then feels amuse after his grandfather describes that the witch that he
saw was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. After hearing
his grandfather's story, he feels fear towards the mirror because he
remembers the story of his grandmother in the same mirror.
7. Anastasia: She feels amuse when she sees the frightened reactions of
the young girls while she is telling the superstitious beliefs of May Eve.

Conflict
Internal Conflict:

 The realization of Badoy on how sudden he fell in love with Young

Agueda as well as their hatred and regret after marrying each other as
reflected in their description of each other as devil who inflicts them
harm.
 Badoy’s regret of not letting his wife Agueda knew that he really loved
her from the moment that he saw her.

External Conflict:

 When Badoy’s heard his grandson, Voltaire, that his grandmother,

Agueda, once told her mother that she also saw the devil in the mirror
after doing the ritual. Badoy knew that he was the one Agueda is
pertaining.

Setting

 The story begins in 1847 and ends in 1890. It happens at a ball in a

fine hacienda in Intramuros, Manila.

Symbolism

 Mirror: A reflection of Badoy’s and Agueda’s bitterness they harboured

for each other during the wedding.
 Shadow cast by a candle light: The candle was supposed to give the
light for the marrige and make them bring out the best in each
other,however it also enables them to see the worst.

Reflection

“ The boys at school said I would see her if I looked in a mirror tonight and
said: Mirror, mirror show to me her whose lover I will be.”

We must not put our lives in the conviction of fortune tellers and
superstitious beliefs because half of our fate depends on how we do things
and how we value them.

~ Ericka Bacquel

"Charms like you have no need for a candle, fair one "

"very black elagant mustaches ,his fine clothes ,curly hair "

As I reflected on the phrase physical attraction was very evident when they
saw each other.However,their attraction being founded on something
superfical, their love's root are not anchored deeply so their feelings for each
other faded.

One must not commit in a relationship if the only reason is physical

attraction because it will fade in time,instaed commit because of love, and
love a person that will accept you for who you are.

~ Donna Cris Hernandez

“Now, nothing--- nothing save a name on a stone; save a stone in a
graveyard--- nothing!”

This line emphasizes the regrets of Don Badoy when he failed to show in
Doña Agueda her importance in his life. It pains him that he realized her
worth when it is too late. Now, no matter how much regret and sorrow he
feels, it cannot bring back the chance that he wasted. I chose this lines
because it reminds me of my regrets in life. Like Don Badoy, I also missed
the chance to fully expressed my love to my mommy, and make her feel how
much she means to me before she passed away. Overall, this story made me
realize the importance of being vocal and expressive to our love ones, so
that when they are gone, we don’t have regrets. Since, “regrets always
comes at the end,” no matter what we do, we cannot bring it back and make
it right because we have already wasted our chance.

~ Jena Praise Perlado

The line that captivated my mind is the line that says “Oh, it was a dark den
a weird cavern for the windows had been closed and the furniture stacked up
against the walls.” In my view, this is a very important line in the story. This
line is definitely eerie as it sets a place that is really unsettling and
foreboding. And in a real life situation, this line represents the feeling of
being stuck in a heavy environment. It may reflect the experience of a place
in which you feel will feel being constrained, or surrounded by walls. It could
mirror possible or rather, situations that make it hard, perhaps, hopeless to
easily maneuver or retreat. It’s the feeling of being in a dark and foreboding
place, and the emotional weight of feeling trapped or constrained in
challenging situations.

~ Zandro Sarmiento

“She bewitched me and she tortured me. She ate my heart and drank my
blood.”

This significant quote from Don Badoy illustrates that love is not discovered
in a fleeting moment. It begins as a growing feeling within us until it
transforms into a decision to remain together for a lifetime. It requires one
person to consistently express their affection while the other must
demonstrate her appreciation. While staying in love can be daunting, we
often do not realize how it changes us until that person we cherish stops
breathing. All we can do then is mourn their memory in silence.

~ Ruth Faith Torres

Group 4:
Bacquel, Ericka
Hernandez, Donna Cris
Perlado, Jena Praise
Sarmiento, Zandro
Torres, Ruth Faith