Doña Victorina stands out in the novel as a native who is so obsessed in being Spanish that she dresses

up like them. She is said to have many suitors in her younger days. In fact, even Capitan Tiago had made
love to her in vain.

Her cockiness had her marry an old, lame, and stuttering Spaniard instead.

Doctora Doña Victorina de los Reyes de Espadaña

 married to Don Tiburcio, a self-proclaimed Doctor using fake documents

 self-proclaimed Dona
 Filipino by birth but would like to be Spanish
 Fond of speaking Spanish (always grammatically incorrect)

A domineering person, she was committed to do anything to gain esteem, and even forced her husband
to improve their social standing by lying about his profession.

She… despises her origin and possesses crab mentality

She is also arrogant and spiteful

Other facts…

She smokes tobacco.

She used to be a maid.

She was all about appearances

She always wore European dresses

Has curly hair

Wears heavy make up

Chapter 43

The espadanas

The chap starts with Maria Clara being ill

Cap. Tiago hires a famous and expensive doctor to cure her.

Dona Vic is described to wear something very Western.

Flashback on how the 2 came to be

Reminisces about a time when she was young, beautful and had a lot of admirers and suitors

Remembers her dream of wanting to marry a Spaniard

Don Tiburcio – customs official who got dismissed while in the PH

Although after an hour of them conversing and getting to know each other, they got engaged.

Even though they both didn’t want each other, desperation took them over, that is why they decided to
marry.

Doña Victorina controls her husband and wears the pants in the family.

Chapter 48 Two Ladies

Doña Victorina walks through the town with Don Tiburcio, to show off to the natives “how far they were
below her sacrosanct person."

Doña Victorina starts to lose her composure and her temper due to her husband’s response.

Due to these events, she decides to go home. On the way home, they ran to the lieutenant and
exchanged acknowledgements.

They pass by in front of the lieutenant’s house and Doña Consolacion is at the window in her flannel
blouse, smoking a cigar. They exchanged meaningful disapproving looks.

Doña Victorina challenges Doña Consolacion to face her.

Don Tiburcio tries to stop them again with the help of the lieutenant.

*pics of DV*

Doña Victorina provided comic relief in the novel. Rizal had her criticize the natives' inherent culture and
that she had been rubbing elbows with the powers in a humorous way. The way she hen-pecked
Tiburcio for slight mistakes was meant to elicit smiles from the reader.

She dislikes the cruel Doña Consolacion for the latter's rudeness.

As one of the lesser evils in the novel, Doña Victorina symbolizes those who have a distorted view of
their identity.

Those who view everything that is indigenous as inferior and everything foreign as superior.

It is the comedic form of ‘’colonial mentality’’. The novel warns that this delusion will end in one being
avoided by the foreigners they admire and a caricature of sort to their countrymen.

Victorina brought her obsession to the point where she rejected her heritage. This, Rizal showed us, was
what really made Victorina corrupted: She knowingly turned her back on her country for her selfish
ambitions.

Victorina, the consummate “social climber,” showed that people would do anything to get attention and
respect. And people like her are still present today.

Doña Victorina contributed nothing to her society, just as the social climbers of today do nothing to help
our society, as they step on each other to reach the highest pedestal.
She never seemed to find security in who she really was. Aside from denying her nationality, she
covered herself in cosmetics and frills to improve the appearance she valued so greatly.

The “improvements” helped her mask her Filipino identity to assume a more Spanish-like appearance:
pale skin and curly hair.

Today’s Victorinas, dissatisfied with their true identities, adopt the traits most desired by the majority,
or those they believe are superior to their own.

Today, people use treatments like glutathione to whiten their skin, still believing that pale skin makes
one more attractive. Often, people undergo procedures to make their hair straighter, curlier or even
lighter in color.

What Rizal wants us to learn:

Rizal taught us, as we read about Victorina’s shallow desires, that there was a difference between
appearing to be great and being truly great as a person, and that respect earned through petty, shallow
means was not worth it. Esteem must be gained through sincerity, honesty and hard work.

In his time, Rizal saw this notion of inferiority as a hindrance to achieving our full potential as a nation.
Through Victorina, he wanted to show Filipinos that the only way they could rise above oppression was
to embrace their national identity.

Rizal also showed us we would remain enslaved by our country’s present problems and our colonial
mentality if we could not find enough pride and love to make the Philippines a better place.

To summarize:

Be loyal and true to your country.

Be proud of the heritage Victorina denied and make yourself a better person by becoming a better
Filipino.