Sagcal, Caselyn M.

May 18, 2019

GML-11 Dr. Johnny O. Cabanias

BREAKING THE SHACKLES IN ESTRELLA ALFON’S MAGNIFICENCE

(A SHORT STORY ANALYSIS USING FEMENISM APPROACH)

Even before the 21st century arises, Filipino women are stereotyped with

having a gentle and submissive characteristic- someone who is always under the

man’s superiority. However, Estrella Alfon boldly deconstructs the typical labels

of women. In her short story, Magnificence, Alfon exposes how the mother shows

various surprising characteristics as the story progresses. On the other hand, it

illustrates how Vicente depicts queerness and cowardice, something that

contradicts the typical personality of a man. Thus using the feminist approach in

literature, this paper aims to uncover the other side of women that are

customarily concealed in our society.

Lewis (2017) defined feminism approach as a movement that empowers

the way of thinking among women to castoff the patriarchal language which

widely governs the literature. For all we know, women are often marginalized in

all aspects mainly because they are characterized of being feeble, soft and

compliant.
 In the story Magnificence, the mother is described using the words tall

woman, gloating and eyes that held pride. Analyzing this gives us an impression

that a woman is characterized here as someone who has the authority, a voice to

raise opinion and has something to show off. In contrast, Vicente, the man, is

labeled in the beginning of the story as dark little man with soft voice and manner

slow, so gentle and so kind. These descriptions suggest that the man’s character

here is fearful, fragile and demeaned - someone who cannot express clearly his

emotions. Further descriptions depict the power of the woman over the man. The

mother raised her hand and her voice heavily with an awful timbre as she noticed

Vicente doing strange thing with her seven-year old daughter during their tutorial

session. The mother then showed no fear as she threw Vicente out of the house.

It signifies that the mother here does not represent the usual label of a woman

who will just sit in the corner and will do nothing to fight against violence. Here,

the mother protected her child from a man whom she thought at first to be

harmless. Alfon uplifted the woman’s role even more using the line, “He (Vicente)

made no resistance, offered no defense. Before the silence and the grimness of

her attack he cowered, retreating, until out of his mouth issued something like a

whimper.” This suggests timidity on the part of Vicente for he was not able to

defend himself or even fight back. The shifting of the term ‘mother’ to ‘woman’ in

the line “When her mother reached her, the woman, held her hand out to the

child” implies a person who knows well and will stand firm for her and her
beloved’s rights. Thus, the woman here is freed from the common notion of being

abused and enslaved.

However, in the latter part of the story, the mother’s personality is shifted

from being dominant and aggressive to being tender and compassionate, the

characteristics that are mostly associated with any other mother. Alfon’s line,

“Her mother presided over the bath the little girl took, scrubbed her, and soaped

her, and then wiped her gently all over and changed her into new clothes that

smelt of the clean fresh smell of clothes that had hung in the light of the sun,”

indicates that women, specifically mothers, are very loving in nature. A woman

who will be sturdy amidst the trials and who will choose to move forward in life for

the sake of her loved ones- this is the kind of woman that the mother

demonstrates in that specific scene. It does away from the concept of a woman

crying buckets of tears when crisis arises.

The story, Magnificence only proves that even women can stand firmly and

fearlessly for their family’s sake. They do not let someone to take advantage of

their beloved. A woman here breaks the shared view of the society about her

being weak, dependent and confined. Alfon empowered the women’s way of

thinking by demonstrating the other sides of them which are commonly unseen

and unacknowledged by the surrounding dominated by corrupted and limited

perspective about women.

References:

Lewis, J.(2017).What Is the feminist approach to literary criticism? Pen & the
Pad. Retrieved from https://penandthepad.com/feminist-approach-literary-
criticism-5819656.html

Alfon, E. Magnificence. Retrieved from

http://www.oocities.org/phil_stories/alfon_magnificence.html