Literary Analysis of “May Day Eve”

By: Nick Joaquin

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

To be submitted For Lit 1 to:

Prof. Jose Marino Reyes

By Group #8:
Jericho Charmaine Reyes
Kennedy Pacle
Mark Jason Dometita
 Literary Analysis of “May Day Eve” by Nick Joaquin

Theme
Love is not just full of happiness. It also has a sad or an “evil” side of bitterness and hate.

Characters
Main Characters:
Agueda – a bold and liberated girl unlike girls among her age
Badoy Montiya – a rich stereotypical, forceful man intent on proving his machismo
Doña Agueda - old lady who has gray hair, full of sentiments, emotional and Resentful
Don Badoy Montiya – full of sentiment old man, who regrets the fact that he failed to show his late wife
how important she really is to him
Minor Characters:
Agueda’s Daughter – a very keen child who is close to her mother
Voltaire – Don Badoy’s grandson, a very curious child like any other child who believes in superstition
Anastasia – an old lady who is so obedient to her mistress, and believes in superstitious beliefs
Girls in the dormitory

Plot
Man in a tub
AHA Experience: The relationship between the characters of the story
The story has two parts, the story told by Agueda to her daughter and the story told by Don Badoy to his
grandson.

Settings
Place:
In an unnamed place, possibly in a rural area
Room with a big hanging mirror
Time:
May of 1847
Unknown time
1890

Point of View
Third Person Point of View (limited)
 Literary Analysis of “May Day Eve” by Nick Joaquin

Short Analysis and Summary:

The short story May Day Eve revolves around the meeting of Agueda and Badoy on a faithful May Day
eve and their bitter marriage. It also shows the comparison of things that are beautiful, luxurious and
tempting to the concept of being “evil”.

May Day Eve is the magic night, proper time to consult oracles, hold séances. Certain rites and runes are
supposed to enable you at midnight to behold in a mirror the face of the person fated to be yours love.

The title of the story May Day Eve can give us a hint of what the story may show us. The month of May
symbolizes the early part of one’s life, especially the prime. This perfectly describes the young
protagonist of the story. The word May Day means festivities, which is the setting of the story.

Agueda and Badoy are two completely different people. The only similarity between them is how they
describe each other as the “Witch” and the “Devil”. Agueda was a beautiful young girl who is bold and
liberated unlike most girls her age while the young Badoy was just a typical man of his time who is
forceful and full of machismo. The story was told in two parts, the story told by Agueda to her daughter
and the story told by Don Badoy to his grandson.

One May Day eve, Agueda went to a dark room with a big hanging mirror to say a chant, told to her by
Anastasia, which will make her see her future husband and if ever it fails, she will see the devil.

“Mirror, mirror, show me him whose woman I will be”

After saying the chant, Badoy appeared behind her. Then suddenly, Agueda’s daughter appeared in the
story. It is revealed that the story was just a story being told by Agueda. Agueda’s daughter asked her
what she saw and Agueda responded that she saw the Devil. Agueda’s daughter noticed that the devil
she described was very close to his father, this gives us a hint that Badoy and Agueda eventually got
married. On this point, Agueda was described as:

“she now saw in it was an old face---a hard, bitter, vengeful face, framed in graying hair, and so
sadly altered, so sadly different from that other face like a white mask, that fresh young face like
a pure mask than she had brought before this mirror one wild May Day midnight years and
years ago....”.

We could see here that Agueda could have had a bitter marriage life. Continuing from the story of
Agueda; Badoy tried to make advances to Agueda that made her mad and bit his fingers. These made
Badoy very furious and sought for revenge. But despite his hate, he realized that he had fallen deeply in
love with Agueda.
 Literary Analysis of “May Day Eve” by Nick Joaquin

“But–Judas!–what eyes she had! And what a pretty color she turned when angry!… and
suddenly realized that he had fallen madly in love with her. He ached intensely to see her again–
at once!–to touch her hand and her hair;… It was May, it was summer, and he was young—
young!—and deliriously in love”

After the story of Agueda, the tragedy of the story is then revealed. In this point, Badoy’s heart forgets
how much he felt for Agueda. The tragedy is how both were not careful enough to mend their drifting
marriage.

“But alas, the heart forgets; the heart is distracted, and May-time passes; summer ends; the
storms break over the hot-ripe orchards and the heart grows old; while the hours, the days, the
months and the years pile up and pile up till the mind becomes too crowded, too confused: dust
gathers in it; cobwebs multiply; the walls darken and fall into ruin and decay; the memory
perishes…”

When Agueda described the devil she saw to her daughter using characteristics her own husband, Badoy
had. “Well, let me see… He had curly hair and a scar on his cheek--”. As with Badoy, he illustrated his
witch to his grandson with features that were of his wife’s. This just goes to show how each of them saw
their marriage. Both Badoy and Agueda perceived their marriage to be a taste of hell. Instead of
admitting that they saw their spouses in the mirror, they claimed that it was the witch/devil they saw for
that was probably how each of them was to each other during their life together. Perhaps this was
because the premise of their love was based only on raging passion—and nothing more. Passion, after
all, is evanescent and transitory. Love cannot be based on passion alone.

Their contrasting attributes perhaps were what brought them together. But it could also have been the
root of the bitterness that concluded their time together. Badoy harked back to the time “of the girl who
had flamed so vividly in a mirror one wild May Day midnight, long, long ago” and refreshed his memory
of “how she had bitten his hand an fled” which “surprised his heart in the instant of falling in love” with
Agueda. But it has been a while and time has healed the wounds of their relationship. The old love that
was blinded by hatred which brought pain has now resurfaced. The tragedy is that it is too late. It is
good that Badoy can live in the sweet past he and Agueda had but it is sad that Agueda never found out
how much she really meant to Badoy all this time. She died not knowing that what she and Badoy had
was real. The love did not go away. It was just covered up in the dust of time.
 Literary Analysis of “May Day Eve” by Nick Joaquin

10 point Guideline Questions:

1. Do any of the characters change in the story? If yes, what caused the change in the story?
I think the only change would be Don Badoy’s feelings towards Agueda; from hating, then loving, to
forgetting, reminiscing and lastly, regret. These were caused by time and the bitterness of their,
slowly erasing the intensity of his emotion towards his one true love.
2. How are you different from one of the characters? Explain.
I am different from Agueda because obviously, she is a girl and also, I am not someone who believes
in superstitions.
3. If you could trade places with one of the characters, which one would it be and why?
If I could trade places with one of the characters, I would want it to be with Badoy simply because of
his status in life. I actually don’t want to trade place with anyone because I don’t want to experience
this tragedy.
4. Was there a character you didn’t like and why?
I do not have any character that I didn’t like. All of the characters are just simple people and I think
none of them did something horrible to any of the other characters in the story.
5. What was the theme or the author’s message? What events helped you figure out the message?
I think that the author’s message is that love is not just full of happiness. It also has a sad or an “evil”
side of bitterness and hate. The way the main characters described each other and the way the
author portrayed them helped me figure out this message.
6. Would you like to read something else written by this author? Why or Why not?
I would really like to read something else by this author because this story is actually very well made
and it actually touched me.
7. How might the story be different if it had had happened somewhere else? (time or place)
The story might be not so different if it had happened in a different setting because a failed marriage
is just as common anywhere as in the story. The story would only be different if the characters took
different actions.
8. If you had been the main character in this story, would you have acted differently? Explain why
or why not?
If I had been the main character in the story, I think I would not have acted differently knowing my
nature. But I think, the main characters should have mended their marriage for them to have lived a
happy life.
9. What do you think is the best part in the story? Why?
I think the best part of the story would be when the old Don Badoy remembered the love that he
had lost. I chose this because I think this gave the most emotion among all the events in the story.
10. How did you feel about this story? Would you recommend it to someone else? Why or why not?
I loved the story, even if it made me a little sad. The tragedy in this story is so easy to relate to and I
think I would recommend it to someone else because of this.
 Literary Analysis of “May Day Eve” by Nick Joaquin

Introduction to the author

Nicomedes Márquez Joaquín (May 4, 1917–April 29, 2004) was a
Filipino writer, historian and journalist, best known for his short
stories and novels in the English language.
He decided to quit after three years of secondary education at the
Mapa High School. Classroom work simply bored him. He thought
his teachers didn't know enough. He discovered that he could learn
more by reading books on his own, and his father's library had
many of the books he cared to read. He read all the fiction he could
lay his hands on, plus the lives of saints, medieval and ancient
history, the poems of Walter de la Mare and Ruben Dario. He knew
his Bible from Genesis to Revelations. Of him actress-professor
Sarah K. Joaquin once wrote: "Nick is so modest, so humble, so
unassuming . . .his chief fault is his rabid and insane love for books.
He likes long walks and wornout shoes. Before Intramuros was
burned down, he used to make the rounds of the churches when he
did not have anything to do or any place to go. Except when his work interferes, he receives daily
communion." He doesn't like fish, sports, and dressing up. He is a bookworm with a gift of total recall.
He was born "at about 6:00 a.m." in Paco, Manila, on 04 May 1917. The moment he emerged from his
mother's womb, the baby Nicomedes--or Onching, to his kin--made a "big howling noise" to announce
his arrival. That noise still characterizes his arrival at literary soirees. He started writing short stories,
poems, and essays in 1934. Many of them were published in Manila magazines, and a few found their
way into foreign journals. His essay La Naval de Manila (1943) won in a contest sponsored by the
Dominicans whose university, the UST, awarded him an A.A. (Associate in Arts) certificate on the
strength of his literary talents. The Dominicans also offered him a two-year scholarship to the Albert
College in Hong Kong, and he accepted. Unable to follow the rigid rules imposed upon those studying for
the priesthood; however, he left the seminary in 1950. He also wrote using the pen name Quijano de
Manila. Joaquin was conferred the rank and title of National Artist of the Philippines for Literature.
He is the most anthologized of all Philippine authors.
Works
 May Day Eve (1947)  Nora Aunor & Other Profiles (1977)
 Prose and Poems (1952)  Ronnie Poe & Other Silhouettes (1977)
 The Woman Who had Two Navels  Reportage on Lovers (1977)
(1961)
 Reportage on Crime (1977)
 La Naval de Manila and Other Essays
 Amalia Fuentes & Other Etchings (1977)
(1964)
 Gloria Diaz & Other Delineations (1977)
 A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino (1966)
 Doveglion & Other Cameos (1977)
 Tropical Gothic (1972)
 Language of the Streets and Other
 A Question of Heroes (1977)
Essays (1977)
 Joseph Estrada and Other Sketches
 Manila: Sin City and Other Chronicles
(1977)
(1977)
 Literary Analysis of “May Day Eve” by Nick Joaquin

 Tropical Baroque (1979),  Collected Verse (1987)

 Stories for Groovy Kids (1979)  Culture and History: Occasional Notes
on the Process of Philippine Becoming
 Language of the Street and Other
(1988)
Essays (1980)
 Manila, My Manila: A History for the
 The Ballad of the Five Battles (1981)
Young (1990),
 The Aquinos of Tarlac: An Essay on
 The D.M. Guevara Story (1993),
History as Three Generations (1983)
 Mr. F.E.U., the Culture Hero That Was
 Almanac for Manileños
Nicanor Reyes (1995).
 Cave and Shadows (1983)
 Rizal in Saga (1996)
 The Quartet of the Tiger Moon: Scenes
from the People Power Apocalypse
(1986)
Awards
 José García Villa's Honor Roll (1940)
 Philippines Free Press Short Story Contest (1949)
 Ten Most Outstanding Young Men of the Philippines (TOYM), Awardee for Literature (1955)
 Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Literary Awards (1957–1958; 1965; 1976)
 Harper Publishing Company (New York, U.S.A.) writing fellowship
 Stonehill Award for the Novel (1960)
 Republic Cultural Heritage Award (1961)
 Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan Award from the City of Manila (1964)
 National Artist Award (1976).
 S.E.A. Write Award (1980)
 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Literature (1996)
 Tanglaw ng Lahi Award from the Ateneo de Manila University (1997)
 Several ESSO Journalism awards, including the highly-covetedJournalist of the Year Award.
 Several National Book Awards from the Manila Critics' Circle for The Aquinos of Tarlac: An Essay
in History as Three Generations; The Quartet of the Tiger Moon: Scenes from the People Power
Apocalypse; Culture and History: Occasional Notes on the Process of Philippine Becoming; The
World of Damian Domingo: 19th Century Manila (co-authored with Luciano P.R. Santiago); and
Jaime Ongpin: The Enigma: The Profile of a Filipino as Manager.
 Literary Analysis of “May Day Eve” by Nick Joaquin

Bibliography:
http://pinoylit.webmanila.com/filipinowriters/njoaquin.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Joaquin
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/joaquin.htm
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/Literature/Short%20Stories/May%20Day%20Eve.htm
http://geemiz.blogspot.com/2008/09/may-day-eve-characters.html
http://ithmlit102.blogspot.com/2007/12/some-notes-on-may-day-eve.html
http://ithmlit102.blogspot.com/2007/12/more-notes-on-may-day-eve.html
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/may
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Tng3_5tMxHY/TJWug2Qfb2I/AAAAAAAAHJM/4p1v3UHa-04/s1600/may-day-
eve-viare-nick-joaq.jpg