Published in 1947, Nick Joaquin’s short story “May Day Eve” is an integral piece of writing in Filipino literature. The narrative is set in the latter half of the nineteenth century, with events spanning over decades. It revolves around the lives of Dona Agueda and Badoy Montiya who encounter each other on a May Day’s Eve, painting a tale of love splattered by colours of myths, revenge, resentment, age, and nostalgia.
May Day Eve | Summary
The story commences in 1847 with the final hours of a ball hosted in honour of a group of young men returning from Europe. After an evening of merriment, the girls who reside in the tower where the ball is organised engage themselves in amorous glances at the men wandering outside. Since it is the eve of May Day, the night is fancied to be young and sensuous.
Neither men nor women wish to sleep because it is the night when lovers meet, according to popular myths. However, an old woman named Anastasia attempts to discipline the young girls who are confined to their rooms as opposed to the free men who are drinking and enjoying the night. Anastasia recounts the myth of Eve concerning the knowledge of one’s lover. If a man or a woman wishes to know about his/her future spouse, they need to look into a mirror and recite an incantation as follows:
“Mirror, mirror,
show me
him(her) whose woman(lover)
I will be.”
While most of the girls dismiss the idea, Agueda comes forward as a bold woman to try it out. She presents herself as a rational woman and denies the existence of witches and devils in the contemporary era. Anastasia prevents her from leaving the room, anticipating ill consequences, but fails to persuade her. Agueda ventures to the hall, which was filled with people, music, and lights a few hours ago, dispensing a contrast to the now dark, silent, and empty space. She closes her eyes and chants the message, and suddenly the narrative shifts to a few years later, with her daughter in her lap, asking her mother to tell her about the story of the devil. Agueda spills the details of her meeting with the devil to her daughter in partial aspects to prevent her daughter from learning her father’s identity as the devil.
The story shifts back to Agueda’s meeting with Badoy Montiya on the eve of May Day. Montiya’s wooing tactics fail to charm Agueda, and she bites his hand in order to free herself. Though Montiya swears to avenge his insult and her violent demeanour, he also falls for her passionately. The story again shifts its time to the present, where Badoy Montiya is an old man in his sixties who encounters his grandson in front of the same mirror where he first met Agueda. The child transports Montiya to his youth days momentarily. Agueda is dead, and their marriage lost its charm in its early years. The couple’s fading love leads to a dying relationship. The dichotomy between past and present highlights his regret at not being a better husband to Agueda when she was alive, and to save the lost years of their marriage.
May Day Eve | Analysis
Nick Joaquin attempts to weave a story that possesses an air of mystery and supernaturalism in its conception, but later transports it to the mundane and quotidian. At its onset, the evening gala on the eve of May Day’s eve, with men and women engaging in flirtatious exchanges and amorous dances, attends to the hope of a romantic story. However, the myth associated with the eve adds a spooky element to the tale. Since the narrative is set post 1840s, the paranormal activity of looking at a mirror and reciting an incantation to learn about the identity of one’s lover while subsequently meeting a person in real life reflects the advent of Realism and the departure of the Gothic Romantic age.
Joaquin adopts the elements of Magical Realism to construct his plot, which includes a real-world setting with unforeseen time lapse, awareness of mystery through chants, spells, and possible presence of witches and devils, and authorial reticence by not delving into the details of the troublesome marriage between Dona Agueda and Badoy Montoya. Ahead of his time, the author manages to hook his readers till the end.
The shifting timeline provides insight into the thoughts of each character in their different ages, drawing a contrast to their youthful expectations. For instance, Agueda answers her daughter’s question concerning the image in the mirror as witnessing a devil, indicating her husband, who is no lover to her. Similarly, when Badoy Montiya is interrogated by his grandson regarding the image in the mirror, he swears to have seen a witch, which evinces the bitterness his marriage bears instead of the once passionate love. The author also chooses not to disclose events surrounding the couple’s marriage, which embarks on a journey of doom from the day they meet each other. By awarding an enigma to the relationship between the protagonists Dona Agueda and Badoy Montiya, readers are awarded with a pleasurable experience.
A powerful message implicating troubles in marriage and its inherent universality can also be observed while reading the text. While love is regarded as the basis of any marriage contemporarily, the era in which the story is set had strict laws pertaining to marriage and women, especially. A man is expected to marry a woman fit for his class and society’s moral code of conduct. Love is rarely seen as a driving force for a union. Here, the male protagonist Badoy Montiya falls in love with Agueda purely as a chance happening. His intention to avenge his unrequited advances is shadowed by Agueda’s
“… bare shoulders: gold in the candlelight and delicately furred…mobile insolence of her neck, and her taught breasts steady in the fluid gown.”
As a man completely charmed by her, he resolves to own her as well as punish her for the attack. Such passion drives him to marry Agueda. But the passionate love reduces to regret when Badoy Montiya contemplates his married life after Agueda’s death. Assuming his revengeful tactics are straining the love he once harboured, the universality of marital relationships comes to the fore. The vehicle of marriage is fuelled by love, care, compromise, adjustments, and respect. Love is not a single day’s affair. It is a feeling that witnessed its own ups and downs, but it never ends. The climactic regret expressed by Montiya surfaces repressed and lost love for his now dead wife.
On the same note, Agueda’s mournful cries after answering her daughter symbolise her unhappiness due to the possible forced arrangement of her marriage. Her rebuttal of Montoya’s advances is stated clearly in the narrative through phrases like “let me pass”, “I am not your serrana”, “I detest you”, “you weary me” and “I despise the pack of you.” It is fair to assume that she didn’t love her husband before her marriage. But to expect love before marriage is radical to the setting of the story. Women of this period are expected to be dutiful wives to their husbands and ‘learn’ to love them in their course of marriage. Having said that, it can be argued that Montiya might have not provided her a chance to develop feelings of love for him as remarked in the following lines:
“But Alas, the heart forgets; the hear is distracted; and Maytime passes’ summer ends’ the storms break over the rot-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…”
Thus, through a descriptive writing about the intimate feelings of both characters, the author directs a focus on the inner being and cluster of emotions one finds himself/herself trapped in. Additionally, the title thrusts on personal sentiments one associates with a mystical phenomenon as the eve of May Day while also suggesting passing on of myths to successive generations as a traditional practice rooted in the culture of the Philippines.
May Day Eve | Characters
Dona Agueda – A young woman who follows the myth of May Day’s eve to learn about her lover and later finds herself in a troubled marriage.
Badoy Montiya- A man who has returned from Europe and falls in love with Agueda, but has an unhappy marriage.
Anastasia- An old woman who acts as a guardian to Agueda and other young girls.
Daughter- Agueda’s little girl, who asks her about the devil
Grandson- Badoy Monitya’s grandchild, who reminds him of his youthful passions and the lost love for Agueda.
May Day Eve | Themes
Love and Marriage
Young girls and boys fantasize about marriages based on love, and the quest for that true love brings women like Agueda to the doors of mythology. As a popular belief, if a woman looks at a mirror on the eve of May Day, she will bear witness to her lover’s image. Agueda, eager to try the magical spell, moves ahead and meets Badoy Montiya, who eyes her with lust and ironically falls in love with her. However, the love that sparks their relationship dies an early death as both attribute each other the status of “devil” and “witch” respectively in the later years of their marriage. Love is not a one-day affair. It needs nurturance and attention to grow. But the couple fails to understand this basic principle of love, and Don Badoy later lives on to regret the lost years after Agueda dies.
Mythology
Myths serve as a link to one’s culture and enable him/her to be rooted in it. The magical story revolving around May Day’s eve has been passed down through generations, and people do believe in the power of the incantation concerning it. Mythology, in popular belief, provides answers to many questions that one otherwise struggles to find. They also materialise into historical evidence to guide researchers. However, in the story, the myth of learning the identity of one’s lover through a view into a mirror results in an ambiguous answer for Agueda. She is not particularly fond of Badoy Montiya, but it is also him she marries later. Though the myth is not in support of Agueda, the eerie atmosphere guarding the mythical practice foreshadows her troubled marriage.
Romance and Nature
There is a great emphasis on the description of nature and its elements to communicate the relationship between romance and nature. Since the narrative is preoccupied with love, nature is the best element to represent it. Interestingly, love finds no positive representation in the story. On the other hand, the dark side of Agueda and Badoy Montiya’s marriage is significant in the elucidation of the night of their meeting as cloudy with “wild sky”, “evil moon”, “murderous winds”, and “summer orchards” whose smell is unbearable. The ominous mood leaves no space for a mutual and passionate love to bloom, as one can perceive in the couple’s bitter marriage.
May Day Eve | Literary Devices
Irony
The first instance is observed when Agueda displays a bold character after asserting her disbelief in the existence of devils as “But what nonsense…This is the year 1847. There are no devils anymore.” But as she utters these words, she turns pale, reflecting her subconscious agreement with the possibility of
devils’ presence.
Another instance is humorous in nature. Badoy Montiya confesses his love for Agueda a few moments after planning a revenge on her. He revisits his meeting with Agueda and falls for her charm that overshadows his vindictive thoughts.
Repetition
The story is cyclical as the description of nature and activities mirror each other in the years 1847 and 1890. The former describes the atmosphere the young men find themselves in after attending the ball, whereas the latter is a view through the window that Badoy Montiya experiences after his self-contemplation over his lost love. The description is as follows:
“… a couple of street-lamps flickered and a last carriage was rattling away upon the cobbles, while the blind black houses muttered hush-hush, their tiled roofs looming like sinister chessboards against a wild sky murky with clouds, save where an evil old moon prowled about in the corner or where a murderous wind whirled, whistling and whining, smelling now of the sea and now of the summer orchards and wafting unbearable Maytime memories…while up the street came the clackety-clack of the watchman’s boots on the cobbles, and the clang-clang of his lantern against his knee, and the mighty roll of his great voice booming through the night: ‘Guardia sereno-o-o! A las doce han dado-o-o!’”
Also, Agueda’s blunt denial of the existence of devils is similar to her grandson’s denial of the existence of witches.
Simile
To intensify the dark and supernatural atmosphere surrounding the eve, the tiled roofs of the black houses are compared to chessboards against the clouded sky, drawing a binary between black and white.
A second example of simile lies in Don Badoy’s contemplation when he imagines Agueda’s eyes like live coals; her face like ashes, remarking her decaying and aging body at the time of her death.
Metaphor
The men arriving from Europe after acquiring their education and training are called young bucks to exhibit their fiery passions, strong will, and thirst for action.
Personification
The moon is personified to be prowling in a corner, and the beauty of the night strikes Don Badoy like a blow. Elements of nature are brought to life to highlight the activity of the night associated with May Day’s eve.
Imagery
Agueda’s reflection in the mirror as a white ghost with a dark body, her face as a “bright mask with two holes gaping in it, blown forward by the white cloud of her gown,” is a betrayal of her otherwise beautiful body. Such a startling image conveys the aura of mysticism and horror surrounding the myth of May Day’s eve.
Contrast
To foreground a difference between the degree of freedom exercised by men and women, the author presents the young men bawling below to reflect their carefree status in opposition to the girls who feel awful, locked up in their rooms.
In another instance, Agueda, before entering the room, imagines it to be full of people, music, and lights, but in reality, she finds it to be dark, dull, and empty.
Also, the narrative shows her to be a beautiful young woman before she views herself in the mirror on the eve, but as she opens her eyes, the plot shifts to her middle-aged appearance with grey hair and an old face, marking a time lapse in the story.
