The document describes characters and events in Nick Joaquin's short story "May Day Eve". It introduces the main characters Agueda and Badoy Montiya when they were young and later as old people. It summarizes that Agueda saw Badoy in a mirror on May Day Eve and was forced to marry him, which resulted in a bitter marriage. The document also analyzes how the story portrayed gender inequality and women's lack of autonomy in marriage in Philippine society at that time.

2. CHARACTERS

3. AGUEDA
• A BEAUTIFUL YOUNG WOMAN WITH LONG DARK HAIR.
SHE IS BOLD, LIBERATED AND A NON-CONFORMIST.

4. AGUEDA
• AS AN OLD WOMAN, SHE HAD A HARD, BITTER,
VENGEFUL FACE WITH GRAYING HAIR.

5. DON BADOY MONTIYA
• A YOUNG MAN WITH CURLY HAIR, A MUSTACHE AND A SCAR
ON HIS CHEEK. HE IS VAIN, PROMISCUOUS, A
STEREOTYPICAL MAN, WHO INTENDS TO PROVES HIS
MACHISMO.

6. DON BADOY MONTIYA
• AS AN OLD MAN, HE HAD TURNED VERY PALE.

7. ANASTASIA
• A MISCHIEVOUS OLD WOMAN, WHO WAS CALLED A
MAGA.

8. IMPORTANT EVENTS
•AGUEDA LOOKS IN THE MIRROR DURING
MAY DAY EVE AND SEES HER FUTURE
HUSBAND, BADOY.

9. IMPORTANT EVENTS
•AGUEDA MARRIES BADOY

10. •In Nick Joaquin’s May Day Eve, Agueda and Badoy’s
bitter marriage all began on a May night.
•Agueda and Badoy are two, completely diverse people.

11. •Agueda is a girl ahead of her time. She is boldand
liberated unlike most girls her age. She stands out from
the broad spectrum of conformists of her era.
•Badoy, who at first comes off as a stereotypical, forceful
man intent on proving his machismo, is more of a
promiscuous fellow who is used to getting his way. This is
shown in how he initially treats agueda.

12. •Badoy was a strong-willed young man, who just came from
Europe when he met Agueda. It was the defining incident that
clearly portrayed the inner anguish of Doña Agueda in her
marriage to a man she never loved. Men like Badoy had a
seemingly irresistible power over the society especially to
women like Agueda, enabling him to have her in the end.
Agueda was a beautiful and brave young girl who despised men
like Badoy. In this light, Badoy in the story was depicted as a
representative of men abusive of their superior status.

13. •The short story, May Day Eve, by Nick Joaquin carefully and
brilliantly depicted the status Filipino women had during in the
past. In this still seemingly patriarchal world, we
are somehow forced to believe that men are superior and that
women are just subordinate to men. This ideology was even
more highlighted in the past, where women were totally
deprived of the necessary rights that men had always enjoyed.
In the story, the vital issue of marriage, wherein women are
forced to marry men, was particularly portrayed.

14. •Women had lost the capacity to decide and fulfill
their own desires, making their lives almost
meaningless. Agueda in the story had died miserably
because her life was molded into something she
didn't wish. She was forced to marry don badoy
montiya because the latter had a tremendous desire
for her. Her whole life was spent grieving for the
situation she can't escape.

15. IMPORTANT EVENTS
•RESULTED TO A BITTER MARRIAGE

16. •THE TRAGEDY IS NOT THAT. THE TRAGEDY IS WHEN
BADOY·S HEART FORGETS HOW MUCH HE FELT FOR
AGUEDA. THETRAGEDY IS HOW BOTH WERE NOT
CAREFUL ENOUGH TO MEND THEIR DRIFTING
MARRIAGE.

17. •An irony surfaced in the latter part of the story: Doña
Agueda was telling her daughter about a devil she
saw in the mirror on a may day eve, while deep
inside she means the DEVIL to be her husband.
•As with Badoy, he illustrated his WITCH to his
grandson with features that were of his wife’s. This
just goes to show how each of them saw their
marriage.

18. •Both Badoy and Agueda perceived their marriage to
be a taste of hell. Instead of admitting that they saw
their spouses in the mirror, they claimed that it was
the witch/devil they saw for that was probably how
each of them was to each other during their life
together.

19. •Perhaps this was because the premise of their love
was based only on raging passion and nothing more.
Passion, after all, is evanescent and transitory. Love
cannot be based on passion alone. Their contrasting
attributes perhaps were what brought them together.
But it could also have been the root of the bitterness
that concluded their time together.

20. SOCIAL ISSUES
• GENDER INEQUALITY

21. SOCIAL ISSUES
• FILIPINO SUPERSTITIONS

22. SOCIAL ISSUES
• MARRIAGE WITHOUT LOVE