Summer Solstice by Nick Joaquin Critic Paper

Summer Solstice

By Nick Joaquin

This is the classic short story done by the late Philippine National Artist for Literature, Nicomedes Joaquin set in the 1850's, shows the conflict between raw instincts and refined culture. Its main character, Doña Lupeng primarily rejects ancient beliefs of their culture, but under the spell of the moon, the spirit of the Tadtarin cult possesses her. "The Summer Solstice" is one of the most popular short stories authored by Nick Joaquin. Summer solstice literally means during the summer, the Sun is also above the horizon longer than it is during the winter. The summer solstice is the longest day of the year. It is suitable to the story because of its setting.

Nick Joaquin, a Philippine novelist, poet, playwright, and essayist writing in English, the National Artist for Literature. He has written largely about the Spanish colonial period and the diverse heritage of the Filipino people. Often he deals with the coexistence of 'primitive' and 'civilized' dimensions inside the human psyche. In his short story 'The Summer Solstice,' set in the 1850s, Joaquin portrayed the collision between instincts and refined culture. He was born in Paco on Calle Herran, as the the son of a lawyer and a colonel of the Philippine Revolution, Leocadio Y. Joaquin, and Salome Marquez, a schoolteacher. After three years of secondary education at the Mapa High School, Joaquin dropped out of school to work on Manila's waterfront and in odd jobs. On his spare time he read widely at the National Library and on his father's library. English had became the official medium of instruction in 1898 after the Spanish-American war. Especially through the work of short story writers English became the most developed literary genre and virtually all-Spanish literature ceased.

I chose this because of the author's portrayal on the tensions between human nature and decorum, passion and discipline, as experienced by a woman. And as a woman myself, I become more responsive on how we are treated and seen in this society. And also in this story, I gained insight on the perspective of the author with women empowerment during that era. This popular controversial tale was one of the Author's favorite and considered as his masterpiece aside from the fact that it had conflicting interpretations. Although from his background I would say that he always prefer unusual, dramatic, and extraordinary in terms of his writings. Instead of being a paradox, he used his ability of being realist and romanticist. Being his known realist ways, which inspired him to create this tale favoring on women's empowerment. This short story was also adapted into play entitled "Tatarin: A Witches' Sabbath in Three Acts, on which a film adaptation has also been based. The cast included notable Filipino actors Edu Manzano (as Paeng Moreta,) Dina Bonnevie (Lupe Moreta), and Rica Peralejo (Amada).

The Summer Solstice is about a Doña Lupeng's gradual discovery of women's power over men. At first, she finds out that her cook, Amada, is in a deranged state. So, she interrogates their family driver entoy about his beatings to her. This is quite telling of men's superiority over women in those times. Lupeng seems to find the idea of a husband's battering of his wife as a pretty normal event. She then learns of Amada's attendance at the Tadtarin fertility rites that has made her so powerful. Entoy, who is known as a wife-batterer, has even turned into a docile husband. And this has made Dona Lupeng consider the possibility of women's control over the men.

The next instance in the story that strengthens Dona Lupeng's idea on women's potential superiority is her meeting with cousin, Guido. The young man, who studies in Europe, has witnessed the Tadtarin and tells her about the women in a wild frenzy. After this Dona Lupeng has insisted in going to the Tadtarin in spite of Paeng's disagreement.

In the Tadtarin, Dona Lupeng has lost all her inhibitions. She joins the horde of women, dancing in wild fervor. Don Paeng, who has agreed at the end to accompany his wife, tails behind to stop her. But Dona Lupeng is unstoppable. She even rejoices at the sight of her husband being attacked by the mob of women for intruding an all-women rite. And when she arrives at their house, she is changed. She even challenges Paeng when he tells her that she is supposed to be whipped. She is no longer the meek type of wife. She becomes over-demanding that, when Paeng has become helpless at the sudden change of his wife, she has asked him to kiss her feet. And she has felt extremely good at her husband's submission. The story has the following elements, which are symbolisms, suspense, and surprise ending.

It has symbolism due to the representation of Tadtarin ritual wherein this ritual is a love-seeking ritual for those couples who are somehow loosing their love for each other. Then we have the suspense as one of the elements. Because, it has the sort of action on the climax that wherein Don Paeng search Donya Lupeng because Donya Lupeng is inside the crowd doing the ritual of Tadtarin while Don Paeng had many scratches and bruises that the women made because he tried to mess up the ritual. Surprise ending was also a part because we are shocked at the last scene that Don Paeng kissed the feet of Donya Lupeng to just show his love to her.

The predominant element in this story is the plot and the theme. The plot because it revolves around the festive of St. John and the story starts on Amada that her body was reunited with St. John and until the end of the story that Donya Lupeng has with her the spirit of Tadtarin. The theme was also predominant because it definitely calls attention to the empowerment of the woman over the man and also the dominance of the women on that period. In the story, it really engages in. Internal conflict confronts the leading character. It is internal character in a way that Don Paeng is so insensitive to the feelings of Donya Lupeng that he doesn't comply with the love and care that Donya Lupeng gives to him. He has this insensitive side that in fact came to a point that he disgust Donya Lupeng when she did the Tadtarin. Although It was resolved when Donya Lupeng joined in the Tadtarin wherein, he realizes that Donya Lupeng did the ritual because Donya Lupeng wants Don Paeng to comply with her love and to adore her forever. Don Paeng's realization made him love Donya Lupeng again.

The Summer Solstice shows the unequal treatment between man and woman. Man is superior than woman, as what the middle of the story tried to emphasize. As a woman, it