Dead Stars by Paz Marquez Benitez (An Analysis)

Summary:

“So all these years–since when?–he had been seeing the light of dead stars, long extinguished, yet
seemingly still in their appointed places in the heavens.”-- Alfredo Salazar

            Dead stars is a short story by Paz Marquez Benitez, written in 1925. The story is basically a
compilation of the complicated circumstances that every man has to go through in life.

Alfredo was torn between doing what is right and what is in his heart.  Alfredo Salazar is a lawyer and
the main character in the story. He is the love of the life of Esperanza. They have been together for four
years and meant to get married in May.

Their relationship in the beginning was full of enthusiasm, full of love and happiness. But like other long
term relationships, their feelings for each other changes as time goes by. Esperanza was beautiful,
elegant, reserved, and distinctly not average type of a woman. She loves her Alfredo so much and
trusted him with her whole heart.

After their four years of engagement, Alfredo thought of finding his real wants. When Alfredo tried to
do some neighboring with his dad Don Julian, he met Julia Salas, their neighbor's sister-in-law. She was
just a visitor in town and been there for only six weeks. They found good company between themselves
and as they knew it, it became a weekly habit for Alfredo to visit her after every Sundays mass. Julia is
the average type, not so beautiful but still it interests Alfredo so much. As they grew their new
friendship, Alfredo found new happiness and starts to fall for her.

             One day, his family invited Julia's family in their coconut plantation near their beach. It's a chance
for them to have some quality time together, but this is also the time to say goodbye. Julia is planning to
leave the town and go back home. It breaks the heart of Alfredo and made him more confused than
ever. He is thinking of choosing Julia over his fiancée Esperanza, but what people will say is what he
thinks matter most. He married Esperanza after Julia left the town, he was not unhappy and realizes that
everything have fallen back into place. After eight years of marriage, Alfredo still can't get over Julia's
memories.

His thought of Julia is hunting him, and those what-ifs dilemma. Alfredo goes for a business trip
to the town where Julia lived. While he is there, Alfredo runs across Julia. He has never forgotten about
his feelings for her, but over time, he has come to accept his marriage to Esperanza. Alfredo finds that
the feelings he had for Julia are gone. He is content with his life, and the perceived love he had felt for
Julia all those years was like the "light of dead stars, long extinguished, yet seemingly still in their
appointed places in the heavens."

Literary Criticisms:

Historicism is a mode of thinking that assigns a central and basic significance to a specific context, such
as historical period, geographical place and local culture.

            “Dead Stars” is the 1925 short story that gave birth to modern Philippine writing in
English. English was still a young language in the Philippines, and many of the writers using the language
were still struggling with it.
            Paz Marquez-Benitez, in her masterpiece Dead Stars, did not only write about a love story. Most
importantly, her writing reflects the time in which the literary work was written along with the language,
the norms and the way people think. It serves as a literary time machine for readers as it enables them
to understand how courtship, marriage and fidelity were viewed through the early 1900 standards. It
renders a sound comparison between the past and the present, the existing modern culture and the
fading, almost obsolete tradition.

New Criticism, emphasizes explication, or "close reading," of "the work itself."

            “Dead stars” was a narrative story and it was written in third person point of view. The author
tells the story in third person (using pronouns they, she, he, it, etc.).

 Characters:

Alfredo Salazar - son of Don Julian, a more than 30 year’s old man and a bachelor. He is engaged to
Esperanza but he is in love with Julia Salas.

Esperanza - wife of Alfredo Salazar. She is a homely woman, literal minded and intensely acquisitive. She
is one of those fortunate women who have the gift of uniformly beauty.

Julia Salas - sister-in-law of Judge Del Valle. She is the other girl of Alfredo Salazar thatremains single in
her entire life.

Don Julian - an old man, a father of Alfredo Salazar and Carmen.Carmen - sister of Alfredo Salas.

Judge Del Valle - brother-in-law of Julia Salas.

Donna Adella -- sister of Julia Salas. She is small and plump, a pretty woman with acomplexion of a baby
with an expression of a likeable cow.

Calixta - note-carrier of Alfredo Salazar and Esperanza.

Dionisio - husband of Donna Adella.

Vicente - husband of Carmen.

Brigida Samuy - She is the illusive woman who Alfredo is looking for.

Setting:

Don Julian’s house

Judge Del Valle’s house

Don Julian’s house in Tanda

Calle Real

Sta. Cruz

Plot
Exposition: At Don Julian’s house Carmen was asking Don Julian about Alfredo and Esperanza. Alfredo
reminiscence how he met Julia Salas.

Rising action: He had gone neighboring with Don Julian to Judge Del Valle’s house. He met Julia Salas. All
the time he was calling her Mrs. Del Valle which led him to embarrassment. Coming to the judge’s house
became often. Then he realized he was in love with Julia in spite his engagement with Esperanza.

Climax: After the procession for The Lady of Sorrows Alfredo caught up with Julia. It was when Julia
found out about Alfredo’s wedding so he 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?

Falling Action: Julia didn’t want Alfredo not to honor his understanding with Esperanza. She said
goodbye. He went home to Esperanza. And there, the last word has been said.

Denouement: Alfredo and Esperanza got married. After eight years, he was searching for a lady named
Brigida Samuy-a lady important for his defense in the court-in Sta. Cruz, Julia’s hometown. He went to
Julia’s house and he found her there. Still unmarried. And he realized that his love for Julia was like a
Dead Star. It was nonexistent.

Conflicts: Man vs. Circumstances, Man vs. Society, Man vs. Himself.

Man vs. Circumstances

In the story, Alfredo struggles against his fate and the circumstances of life and love facing him. He
needs to face problems in choosing between difficult choices of his life. The story is basically a
compilation of the complicated circumstances that every man has to go through in life.

Man vs. Society

In the story, Alfredo struggles against the society because he was afraid to the reaction of the people
around him especially during the time of the story. People oftentimes give high regard to the society in
which they belong. They try to adhere to the norms, traditions and culture of their society, though
sometimes the conformity would require them to sacrifice a part of themselves – an opinion, an
emotion or a decision.

Man vs. Himself

In the story, Alfredo was uncertain and confused by his decisions. He was torn between doing what is
right and what is in his heart.

Symbolism:

Dead stars symbolize things that are present but are left unspoken of. The love between Alfredo and
Julia seemed to be real but, as time goes by the love they had lost and fades like a dead star so
disillusionment, reminiscent of the past that doesn't exist anymore. No, not because of lost youth, he
finds her to be different from that person he perceived her to be all these years. And he is disenchanted.
The illusion he harbored all these years are nothing but dead stars, long dead but emits light that seems
real for the distance it has to travel, light being seen even if the source has lost its own brightness or
died.

Esperanza's devotion to Alfredo also resembles love, but since she believes in the "regenerative virtue of
institution" more than true love, it is safe to say that she is in the relationship, because of moral
obligation.

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. The underlying theme is responsibility, as shown by the story that Alfredo is engaged
to be married to Esperanza and the people expect him to get married with her.

Feminist literary criticism, arising in conjunction with sociopolitical feminism, critiques patriarchal
language and literature by exposing how these reflect masculine ideology. It examines gender politics in
works and traces the subtle construction of masculinity and femininity, and their relative status,
positioning’s, and marginalization’s within works.

            In this story Women represents as meek and considers men to be superior. They are faithful and
easy to fall in love while men are rational and uncertain. The story broke the notion of patriarchal
system as the society sees men as rational type or in line with logic while women are the emotional kind.

Reader-response criticism is a school of literary theory that focuses on the reader (or "audience") and
their experience of a literary work, in contrast to other schools and theories that focus attention
primarily on the author or the content and form of the work.

            In the story dead stars, men are easy to fell out love and easy to fall in love. The protagonist,
Alfredo is uncertain by his decisions in his life. He was engaged to Esperanza, his fiancée of four years.
But for some reasons, apparently on Alfredo’s part, a change of heart has taken place. He has fallen for
Julia Salas, the sister-in-law of the judge whom his father had a meeting with. His confusion, weakness
and unreasonableness are innate flaws of humans. Alfredo sees something different to Julia Salas that
Esperanza don’t have and I find it very egotistical for him that he differentiate the two women. He sees
women as second choice of his dreams when it is fade.

An analysis of the short story "Dead Stars," a story of "what if" as a married man
again meets the woman he fell in love with many years earlier while engaged to his wife.
The story is basically a compilation of the complicated circumstances that every man has to
go through in life.

Alfredo was once in love with Esperanza, no doubt, but there comes a time when
love fades, and the only thing holding you together is the vow you gave your fiancée, that
which you cannot take back. Why can't you take it back? Its because you are afraid of what
will be the reaction of the people around you, specially during the time of the story. What's
visibly wrong about this is that most often than not, men refuse to listen to their own
yearnings and simply submit to further dehumanization.

Love here, though perhaps genuine to a point, for Alfredo, is seemingly weak and
purposive. Weak, because it is eventually overcome by propriety, and purposive because it
was merely a tool to justify his desire to go against society; that for once he will not be a
puppet, but the master of his own fate. In the story, Alfredo falls drastically in love with
Julia even as he is engaged to Esperanza, but in the end forgoes the idea. He kept on
holding on to that glimmer of "what could have been" through out the years of his marriage
to Esperanza, but upon meeting Julia again, he realizes that what he thought was there,
had now gone for more than one reason.

First, it is possible to say that after what society has done to him (dehumanized
him), he found at peace in his place, and sought no more that illusive dream of yesterday.
He understood, after meeting her again, that it was nostalgia that was taking hold of his
heart, and not the "love" that he once felt for her. It is said in the story that he is not
unhappy with his marriage, but a part of him always slips away from the world in order to
dream of another life that could have blossomed, had he chose Julia over Esperanza. On the
other hand, it is possible that there was no real love to speak of, but a desire for something
else. He desired youth. Although relatively young, he desired the qualities that the youthful
possessed: vigor, passion, vitality. These are a few things that he lacked as a person and to
find these in Julia gave him a sense of completeness. It was a welcomed changed in his life,
and he wanted to hold on to it for as long as he could, since even if he couldn't be like Julia,
he is comforted by the thought that he was able to meet someone who is different from
everybody else, and that she could have been his wife. He is noted to be of a cool and calm
demeanor, which is why it seems out of character if he suddenly bursts with energy.

Dead stars symbolize things that are present but are left unspoken of. The love
between Alfredo and Julia seemed real, but look closer and one can state that it was hardly
mutual, and that it was impossible to last. Esperanza's devotion to Alfredo also resembles
love, but since she believes in the "regenerative virtue of institution" more than true love, it
is safe to say that she is in the relationship, because of moral obligation. So what one
thought as real (or present) is now nothing but an illusion.