A Story of What If in Paz

Marquez Benitezs Dead Stars

Rey-an M.
Adriosula
IV-Achievers
 I.
Context
A. Moral/Philosophical and
Intellectual
The moral/intellectual critical approach is
concerned with content and values. The
approach is as old as literature itself, for
literature is a traditional mode of imparting
morality, philosophy, and religion. The concern
in moral/intellectual criticism is not only to
discover meaning but also to determine
whether works of literature are
both true and significant.
 II. Background
The Author
Paz Marquez-Benitez was a Filipina short-
story writer born in Lucena City, Quezon. She
authored the first Filipino modern English
language story, Dead Stars, published in the
Philippine Herald in 1925.
 III. The Story
Characters:
>Alfredo Salazar son of Don Julian;
engaged to Esperanza but is still fleeting to
Julia Salas
>Esperanza literal-minded and intensely
acquisitive; one of those fortunate women who
have the gift of uniformly beauty; engaged to
Alfredo Salazar
>Julia Salas sister-in-law of Judge Del
Valle; the other girl of Alfredo Salazar that
remains single in her entire life
 III. The Story
Characters:
>Don Julian father of Alfredo Salazar
and Carmen
>Carmen sister of Alfredo Salazar
>Judge Del Valle brother-in-law of Julia
Salas
>Donna Adella sister of Julia Salas; small
and plump, a pretty woman with a complexion
of a baby with an expression of a likeable cow
>Calixta note-carrier of Alfredo Salazar
and Esperanza
 III. The Story
Characters:
>Dionisio husband of Donna Adella
>Vicente husband of Carmen
>Brigida Samuy illusive woman whom
Alfredo is looking for
 III. The Story
Plot
Introduction
At Don Julians house, Carmen was
asking Don Julian about Alfredo and
Esperanza. Alfredo reminisced how he met
Julia Salas.
 III. The Story
Plot
Rising
ActionAlfredo had gone neighboring with
Don Julian to Judge Del Valles house. He
met Julia Salas. All the time he was calling
her Mrs. Del Valle which led him to
embarrassment afterwards. Coming to the
Judges house became often. Then he
realized he was in love with Julia despite
his engagement with Esperanza.
 III. The Story
Plot
Climax
After the procession for The Lady of
Sorrows, Alfredo caught up with Julia. It
was when Julia found out about Alfredos
wedding so she congratulated him.
Alfredo needs to make a very difficult
situation. Would he choose what he
WANTS to? Or would he choose what he
HAS to?
 III. The Story
Plot
Falling
ActionJulia wants Alfredo to honor his
understanding with Esperanza so she said
goodbye. Alfredo went home to
Esperanza. And there, the last word has
been said.
 III. The Story
Plot
Denouemen
t Alfredo and Esperanza got married.
After eight years, he went to Sta. Cruz,
Julias hometown, to search for a lady
named Brigida Samuy who is important
for his defense in the court. He went to
Julias house and he found her there, still
unmarried. And he realized that his love
for Julia was like a Dead Star. It was non-
existent.
 III. The Story
Synopsis
Alfredo Salazar was betrothed to
Esperanza, his girlfriend for four years. The
start of their relationship was relatively warm,
with Alfredo wooing Esperanza like a man in
dire lovesickness. But as the years went by, the
warm loves fire slowly flickered and it was
because of Julia Salas.
 III. The Story
Synopsis
She was charming and gleeful. Alfredo
shared moments of light with her but
sometimes deep conversations when he visits
Julias brother-in-law, who was a judge. He
always went there with his father and since it
was his father who needed to talk to the judge,
he was always left to Julias company. He never
told her he was engaged. At first he didnt
notice that a change in his heart was taking
form.
 III. The Story
Synopsis
But then he started keeping details of his
activities to his fiance and then the guilty
feeling crept in. When he found out that Julia
was about to head back to her distant
hometown, he felt blue and frightened.
 III. The Story
Synopsis
He met her in the church after the Holy
Thursday procession, although he knew that
Esperanza was already waiting for him. He
approached her and she conversed with him
with an expression that told him she finally
knew. She congratulated him and said she will
be at his wedding. Then they parted.
 III. The Story
Synopsis
When he visited Esperanza in her house,
he overheard her talking to another woman
about infidelity and immorality, to which he
reasoned in favor of the condemned. The
statement caused an intense fury to Esperanza
and she told him that she knew. She dared
Alfredo to abandon her, along with morality
and reason and her dignity as a woman as well
as her image before the society all for the sake
of his being fair to himself.
 III. The Story
Synopsis
Eventually the wedding took place. And
after several years, Alfredo was sent to a
distant village due to a legal assignment. It
bothered him so much because it was near
Julias hometown. But he still found himself
making his way to her house. And there, he
found her, just as how and where he expected
her to be. She never married. And he
wondered how life would be if he ended up
being with her.
 III. The Story
Synopsis
But all was too late and he could never
bring things back. He also noticed that Julia
lost something, albeit the fact that he didnt
know what that is youth, love, luster? And
when he looked at her he doubted if she ever
cared for him, if he has mistaken the past light
in her eyes as manifestations of a possible
romance. But now theyre all gone and so it
was indeed all done.
 III. The Story
Setting
>Don Julians house
>Judge Del Valles house
>Don Julians house in Tanda
>Calle Real
>Sta. Cruz
 III. The Story
Theme
The short story "Dead Stars" by Paz
Marquez Benitez is conveying the theme that
pertains to forbidden love. It says that
forbidden love is only apparent, and its banes
haunt the person until such time that he
realizes his faults.
 IV.
*Point of View:Analysis
Third Person
Omniscient
Evidences:
Carmen sighed impatiently. "Why he is
not a bit more decided, I wonder. He is over
thirty, is he not? And still a bachelor! Esperanza
must be tired waiting."
"She does not seem to be in much of a
hurry either," Don Julian nasally commented,
while his rose scissors busily snipped away.
 IV.
*Point of View:Analysis
Third Person
Omniscient
Evidences:
"A last spurt of hot blood," finished the
old man.
He and Julia Salas stood looking out into
the quiet night. Sensing unwanted intensity,
laughed, woman-like, asking, "Amusement?"
 IV.
Analysis
*Approach: Moral/Philosophical and
Intellectual Approach
Evidences:
Carmen sighed impatiently. "Why is he
not a bit more decided, I wonder. He is over
thirty, is he not? And still a bachelor! Esperanza
must be tired waiting."
"How can a woman be in a hurry when
the man does not hurry her?" Carmen
returned, pinching off a worm with a careful,
somewhat absent air.
 IV.
Analysis
*Approach: Moral/Philosophical and
Intellectual Approach
Evidences:
At last Our Lady of Sorrows entered the
church, and with her the priest and the choir,
whose voices now echoed from the arched
ceiling. The bells rang the close of the
procession.
 IV.
Analysis
*Approach: Moral/Philosophical and
Intellectual Approach
Evidences:
Alfredo was suffering as he could not
remember ever having suffered before. What
people will say--what will they not say? What
don't they say when long engagements are
broken almost on the eve of the wedding?
 IV.
*Conflict: ManAnalysis
vs.
Circumstances
Evidences:
"Julita," he said in his slow, thoughtful
manner, "did you ever have to choose between
something you wanted to do and something
you had to do?"
Thank You!!
Thank You!!