The Virgin of Kerima Polotan Tuvera: The feminist approach "The search to be a woman"

Introduction

“The search for being a woman” from The Virgin of Kerima Polotan Tuvera is a perfect title that shows the same meaning that feminist criticism is about. The feminist approach defines the disclosure of the true desires and struggles of women in society. Its objective is to expose the patriarchal premises resulting from prejudices and the discovery of history or any type of literary piece using character analysis. This article would give readers a clearer view of how feminist criticism applies its characteristics to a well-known tale called The Virgin.

Author background and story summary.

Kerima Polotan Tuvera was a renowned Filipino author. Her works garnered some of the highest literary accolades in the Philippines, with her short story ‘La Virgen’ being one of her most notable literary pieces. The word “virgin” that she mentions in her story implies someone who is pure and spotless. As society dictates, to gain respect and dignity, a woman must be pure and a virgin because it is said that a woman’s virginity is equated with her dignity. Society dictates that the woman should keep her virginity until she gets married, as Miss Mijares did to herself. She couldn’t express her feelings to men because she had to protect her virginity/dignity. Therefore, the story presents Miss Mijares’s struggles caused by social dictates about her individuality that prevented her from finding her own identity as a person and as a woman through a feminist perspective.

Discussion (application of the feminist approach)

Miss Mijares, protagonist of the story entitled La Virgen, as a writer and as a woman revealed her desires through her metaphors and symbols in her writing. Despite being a responsible daughter of her family, she also wanted to be loved by others, above all, she has always dreamed of having a man in her life. But her duties as her daughter and as a member of society prevented her from fulfilling her dreams. The following lines show her desire to have a man:

“But neither love nor glory was behind her, only the empty, lurking shadows, and nine years past, nine years. In the room of her unburied dead, she raised her hands to the light, feeling the thick, thick fingers. lasting, thinking about a mixture of shame, bitterness and guilt for never having touched a man”.

There was also a scenario in the story that shows his romantic feelings when he got angry when he found out that the carpenter had a son and thought that he was married. But after the carpenter admitted that he is not married to the mother of his son, she was relieved. After that event, it suddenly rained on her and the atmosphere became unhappy. The setting reveals the emotions of Miss Mijares about the carpenter. She illustrated that she was emotionally affected by the carpenter’s revelations. With the rain and the weather as a metaphor for her feelings; she tests her hidden emotions with the man.

There was also a symbolic revelation about her desire to be loved. The paperweight that the carpenter molded into the shape of a dove symbolizes intercourse because he flies. The carpenter offered it to her, which shows that the carpenter was offering something to Miss Mijares. The fact that Miss Mijares laughs at it shows that she likes the offer. Thus, she confirms that Miss Mijares feels attracted to the carpenter as implied by her acceptance and affection for the flying object that symbolizes making love in the psychoanalytic approach.

Miss Mijares’s entire life was dedicated to fulfilling her responsibilities, such as finishing college, sending her niece to school, and taking care of her mother. That was her duty as a woman, to nurture her family unconditionally. This role dictated by society and perhaps by her own family shaped her to be a woman to others and not a woman to herself. Society dictates that women must protect their virginity that is equal to the dignity of her that Miss Mijares respectfully accepted. Miss Mijares was portrayed not only as a woman who wanted to go beyond her roles, but also as a woman who wanted to build her own life.

In addition, Tuvera shows the internal struggle of a woman in the story. Ms. Mijares’s struggle to adhere to societal expectations of a woman and hide her own self from her was exposed and reiterated. Her struggle was shown symbolically by her encounter with unknown places and the fun of the jeepney. She symbolizes her own loss because she can’t be herself and has to be the woman that society tells her to be.

In society, women are responsible for taking care of family members. This was the case with Miss Mijares, when she was the only one left to care for her sick and elderly mother. She took all the responsibility that she forgot about her own life. Miss Mijares in the story can be characterized as the spinster. At the age of 34, she has yet to touch a man. The description of her in the story and her life really fit her as the archetype of the spinster who hasn’t been touched yet.

The three stages of the history of women, the female stage, the feminist stage and the female stage, can be identified with the life of Miss Mijares. The female stage according to Showalter’s theory is the stage that involves the imitation of the prevailing modes of the dominant tradition and the internalization of its standards. Indeed, Miss Mijares from the beginning of her has gone through this stage in which she allows the dictates of society to govern her life. She cared responsibly for her mother and had protected her virginity for a long time. However, as the story progresses, her character has gradually evolved and she is already approaching the feminist stage. The feminist stage can be described as a stage of protest against the rights of minorities.

Miss Mijares did not protest explicitly or politically but there is an internal protest in her. Her experiences of being lost and rainy days symbolize her inner protest that she has to go above and beyond what is expected of her. This symbolic protest actually created confusion within her, because she is torn between social dictates and herself. The last stage, which is the female stage, can be described as the phase of self-discovery, a search for identity. The last part of the story shows that Miss Mijares has gone through the feminine phase. The preceding lines actually imply that she was freed from the social roles dictated around her:

In her secret heart, the dreams of young Miss Mijares fluttered faintly to life, looking monstrous in the rain, near this man – monstrous apparently but also sweet and overwhelming. I must escape, she thought wildly, but he had moved and He brushed against her, and where his touch had fallen, her flesh jumped, and he remembered how his hands had looked that first day, lying tenderly on the edge of his desk and around the wooden bird (which looked like a bright, shiny dove). in motion) and she turned to him: with damp and withered ruffles, in the dark she turned to him.”

The last paragraph proves that in her heart she has passed through the protest stage and is now able to express herself, her own feelings and her own desires. She shows that she is now capable of going beyond her social roles by revealing that she is ready to give up her virginity. Her virginity is indeed a symbol of dignity; however, it is part of a woman’s purpose to have a man who can consume that long-preserved virginity.

Conclusion:

The story describes the success of women in overcoming the stereotyped world of men. The main character was able to defy the dictates of society and she was able to establish herself in the pursuit of being a woman.