FEMINIST APPROACH: The Virgin

 

THE VIRGIN 

by Kerima Polotan Tuvera

ANALYSIS: 

         From the title itself  "The Virgin", the story talks about those who are chaste, untouched and unstained. When we talk about virginity society wise this is very crucial and important. Am i right? When you hear about this through your elders, automatically they would probably say that " You must give that to the one who your gonna marry."

     Like the main character in the story Ms. Mijares who have kept her virginity until the very end, keeping dignity and  achieving respect would mean everything all through out. The story depicts how Ms. Mijares, a woman who struggled to find her identity as person and as woman in the midst of what we call " Social Dictate". Ms. Mijares in very good example of an obedient and caring child. Driven to be a woman not for herself but for her family, she spents her life aiming to finish college in order for her to send her niece in school and take good care of her parents. It was not her choice but she had nothing to do with it. 

As society dictates woman to be prim and proper, Ms. Mijares was not free to express who she really is. So she stick to live out of what the society expects her to be, hiding the character that she possess. Meaning her life was about abiding the guidelines that society has set.  The society expects woman to be the one who will take care of their elders and look after them, which is totally crossing the right of an individual especially women to choose what she wants to do. This case exactly what the main character Ms. Mijares is going through. She was left to take care of them and look after to those who was left, leaving the character with no choice at all. 

Many years have gone by as she looks after them, she longs for love not just from her family but from others especially a man. The story conveys that even at an old age she haven't touched a man at all, which she dreams of. The romantic feelings of Ms. Mijares towards the carpenter are depict when she showed anguish towards the man when she found out that it has already a son and she thought he lied. But upon knowing the truth about the man, the anguish she felt diminished.

Elaine Showalter said that literary subcultures all go through three major phases of development. For literature by, or about women, she labeled these stages the Feminine, the Feminist and the Female. These three stages are found in Miss Mijares' life in the story.

       

The Feminine involves "imitation" of the prevailing modes of dominant traditon and internalization of it's standards. Ms. Mijares has gone through this phase in which she sacrificed almost all her younger years to give service to her love ones . She let the guideline set by the society to rule over her life. As the story progresses the character evolved from being feminine to feminist.

The Feminist stage involves protest against the standards and values and advocacy of minority rights.  Though she didn't voiced it out that she don't want to follow such, her inner self is protesting to do so.

The last stage which is the Female stage is a phase of self-discovery, a turning inwards freed from some of the dependency of opposition, a search for identity.  It is evident in the last paragraph how Ms. Mijares overcome the struggles and succeeded to be a female and chose to follow her own instinct.