At Last This Fragrance

Arturo Belleza Rotor

Arturo B. Rotor
Major figure in
Philippine
Literature in
English
Accomplished
doctor, musician,
and public
servant

Writing Career
Awarded the Republic
Cultural Heritage
Award in 1966
Confidentially, Doctor
(1965), Selected
Stories from the
Wound and the Scar
(1973), The Men Who
Play God (1983)

Medical Career
Graduated
simultaneously from
the Conservatory of
Music and College of
Medicine
Invented the Rotor
Syndrome
Appointed the
secretary for the
Department of Health
and Welfare post-WWII

Plot Summary
The narrator, an intern at a
hospital, is assigned to be on
duty on Christmas Eve. As he
waits for the 24th of December he
reflects on the nature of sickness,
familial care, death and also
visits one of his patients, a
former taxi dancer who clings on
to a box of perfumes. On
Christmas eve, as all the patients
are celebrating, the narrator
stumbles upon the old lady who
had died in her sleep.

Theme
The fleeting nature of life
Acceptance of sickness and death and
the narrators forced impartiality on his
patients to avoid intimacy.
Evident in the few times that the taxi
dancer was mentioned and yet the story
revolved around her.
The sudden and untimely death of the
taxi dancer during Christmas Eve.

 I thought she would never reach me,

that she tarried too long at each
bedside, but I knew that was because
she did not know how much I needed
her help, how much I wanted to show
her the empty vial.

Criticisms
Personal, knowledgeable, deep understanding
of the medical field with extensive descriptions
Breakthrough story in the medical field genre
Sudden shift in points of view as if the narrator
is talking to an invisible audience
The dialogue sounds very descriptive and not
normal and the characters arent fleshed out
Sentences feel rough