"May Day Eve" is a short story written by Filipino National Artist Nick Joaquin. Written after World War II, it became one of Joaquin's “signature stories” that became a classic in Philippine literature in English. Together with Joaquin's other stories like The Mass of St. Sylvester, Doña Jeronima and Candido’s Apocalypse, May Day Eve utilized the theme of "magic realism" long before the genre was made a trend in Latin American novels. Published in 1947, it is a story originally intended for adult readers, but has later become a required and important reading material for Filipino students.

1. MAY DAY EVE
(NICK JOAQUIN)
DAVID, ARIZA KAILA
DE SILVA, KIM BRIAN

3. NICK
JOAQUIN• Born: Paco, Manila (May 04,
1917)
• Died: April 29, 2004
• Filipino writer, historian and
journalist, best known for his
short stories and novels in the
English language
• Conferred the rank and title of
National Artist of the Philippines
for Literature
• Genre: Literature and Fiction,
History, Short Stories

4. CHARACTERS
■ Anastasia – old woman, who is so
obedient to her mistress, accused
for being a witch and believes in
superstitious beliefs
■ Agueda – pretty, young woman
who is so curious, hardheaded,
brave and very much willing to
know her future husband
■ Badoy Monitiya – a vain good-
looking man who will do everything
to get what he wants and
revengeful
■ Dona Agueda – old lady who has
gray hair, full of sentiments,
emotional and resentful
■ Dona Agueda’s daughter – a vain
curious girl, who is persistent to
know about the past of her mother
■ Don Badoy Monitiya – a great lover,
emotional and full of sentiment old
man, repents for what he has done
to Agueda
■ Voltaire – Believe in superstitious
belief and was like his grandma
who at an early age want to know
who will he marry

5. SETTINGS
• This famous short story was
set in Intramuros, Manila.
•Nick Joaquin wrote May Day Eve
after WWII.

6. (SUMMARY)

7. SUMMARY
■ In older days, the old people commanded that the dancing should stop at ten
o’clock. The girls guided upstairs to the bedrooms, while men gathering around
and wish to have a good night. They are quietly drunk, and they want to have some
waltz and polka-ed, they don’t want to sleep yet, it was a May Eve. Some people
serenade their neighbors. An old woman named Anastasia, still pigtail and chases
them off to bed.
■ Anastasia scared some girls, she told to them that if they are not afraid, go lean to
the mirror. Agueda was the one who want to try. The old woman tell her the
instruction, she told her that she must take a candle, then go to the dark room with
a mirror, and close her eyes. She will saw her future man that she will marry, a
man will go to his left shoulder, and if hat, all things does not go right and devil
may appear.

8. SUMMARY
■ It was really danger, but Agueda still want to try. When she closed her eyes, and it
was a terror experience for her, she felt that she cannot opened her eyes and
cannot go away in that place, and she instantly opened her eyes. Her child asked
her, she said that he saw an old face, and she said that he saw a devil. He had a
curly hair and a scar, but the scar was alike to her child’s father’s scar. As well as
the mustaches and he bowed to her with graying head.
■ The man talked to Agueda, he said that he really liked her. He said that he want to
her to dance the polka with her. It was Badoy Montiya, he was very drunk it that
May Eve. Badoy was really mad at Agueda, she treat his friends like an enemies.
He really want a revenge, he is not done yet to her.

9. SUMMARY
■ Don Badoy also try stand in the mirror, he was already sixty years old. He believe in
that when he light a candle in front of the mirror he will saw his wife, but there was
a consequence. Wicked boys who play this will make their life in danger and can
see horror. At first, Badoy didn’t believed it, but when his Grandpa revealed that he
saw witches, he believed on it.
■ Now, nothing save a name on a stone; save a stone in a graveyard, nothing was left
of the young girl who had flamed so vividly in a mirror one wild May Day midnight,
long, long ago.

10. PLOT OF THE STORY
■ Exposition
Anastasia told the girls about the story that they would be able to know their future
husband by reciting an incantation in front of the mirror but if it gone wrong, they
would see a devil.
■ Complication
Agueda tried the incantation in front of the mirror, then she saw Don Badoy. They had
some confrontation and she ended up biting Don Badoy’s hand because he wouldn’t
let her go. At that moment, he fell in love with her, but he would still make her pay for
what she did.
■ Climax
Don Badoy told his grandson, Voltaire, that he once saw a witch in front of a mirror
when he caught him doing the incantation in front of the mirror. Amazed by what he
said, Voltaire told him that his grandma once saw the devil in that mirror.

11. PLOT OF THE STORY
■ Denouement/Falling Action
Don Badoy realized that he ponders on love that had been wasted. They had shared a
bitter and loveless marriage. His forgot his love to Agueda since that May day eve.
■ Resolution
Don Badoy reminisced the time when he saw Agueda in front of the mirror and when
he fell madly inlove with her. That old love had been blinded by hatred, but it has now
resurfaced but it’s too late because Agueda is dead.

12. SYMBOLISM
Mirror
A reflection of Badoy's and Agueda's
bitterness they harboured for each
other during their wedding.
Shadow cast by a candle light
The candle was supposed to give the
light for the marriage and make them
bring out the best in each other,
however, it also enables them to see
the worst.

13. THEME:
“MAGIC
REALISM”
• Sometimes known as “Magical
Realism”
• A genre of fiction that occurs
when elements of the magical
world start to blend or mix with
the real world. In a story that
incorporates magic realism, the
magical elements are usually
described or explained as real
occurrences and are presented in
a very straightforward way, almost
as if their occurrence is entirely
normal.

14. CONFLICT:
MAN VS. MAN
• The protagonist, Don Badoy Montoya,
hears from his grandson that his wife,
Doña Agueda, describes him as a devil.
Badoy is devastated at this news and in
return tells the boy that his wife is nothing
but a witch.
• Agueda and Badoy, after having a bad
married life with each other, used to regret
the past that they’ve been together and it
is revealed with their hatred for each other
and how Agueda used to describe the devil
to her granddaughter as if it was Badoy
and same way as Badoy describing the
witch in the mirror to his grandson as if it
was Agueda.

15. POINT OF VIEW:
Third person point of view, as the pronouns “he” or “she”
were used throughout the whole story.

16. REFLECTIONS
■ 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.
■ 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.
■ 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.

17. REFLECTIONS
■ 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.
■ 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.

19. [REFERENCES]
■ https://www.slideshare.net/nielrich013/may-day-39963943?from_action=save
■ https://prezi.com/qxcogkycve9-/may-day-eve/
■ https://www.slideshare.net/nielrich013/may-day-39963943

21. QUIZ

22. [QUIZ]
1. The old woman in the story; accused for being a witch and believes
in superstitious beliefs.
a. Agueda
b. Voltaire
c. Anastasia
d. Badoy Monitiya

23. [QUIZ]
2. What is the theme of the story?

24. [QUIZ]
3. Nick Joaquin wrote May Day Eve after ________.

25. [QUIZ]
4. What is the conflict of the story (that was mentioned in the
Powerpoint)?
a. Man vs. Self
b. Man vs. Society
c. Man vs. Nature
d. Man vs. Man

26. [QUIZ]
5. Two symbols from the story? (Symbolism)
a. husband and wife
b. bulb and glass
c. mirror and candle light
d. love and hate