"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, Doa Jeronima and Candidos 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.
Character Description
The major characters in May Day Eve are Badoy, Agueda, Anastasia,Agueda's
daughter, and Badoy's Grandson.Agueda and Badoy have different personalities.
Agueda was described to be a bold, liberated, and a non-conformist young woman who
was ahead of her time. While Badoy was characterized in the beginning as a
promiscuous young man who wanted to prove his machismo, he realized that he was
deliriously in love with Agueda.
IMPLICATIONS:
The story implies that we should not believe in superstitions. In marriage, we should
always consider love because love is the foundation of all.
We shouldn't force another person to love us in return. Instead, do something special in
order for you to be loved back.
THEME:
The theme centers on intense remorse caused by wrong decisions. Like believing in
superstitions.
INNER CONFLICT:
He could not accept what he had done to Dona Agueda, a miserable life. He could not
accept that he takes advantage of the superstitions.

REALIZATIONS:
He could not undo what he had done.

MESSAGE:
You are willing to make sacrifices for the one you love.
Interpretation
There is more to the mirror in Nick Joaquins May Day Eve than meets the eye. It may
be a literal image in which the lives of the estranged couple Agueda and Badoy are
inextricably linked, but by figurative extension, the mirror resembles, suggests and
associates something more and something else.
For one, the mirror symbolizes the illusory love between Agueda and Badoy. When they
first met, the mutual physical attraction was strong as may be confirmed in the
recollection made by both. On the part of Agueda, her physical attraction was evident in
seeing the young Badoys very black and elegant mustaches, his fine clothes, his
flashing eyes, his curly hair as they were reflected in the mirror. On the part of Badoy,
his physical attraction was evident in seeing the young Aguedas charms, tremendous
beauty, the eyes she had, bare shoulders gold in the candlelight and delicately
furred, the mobile insolence of her neck, her taut breast, her enchanting fire and
grace,her hair that was like black waters as they were reflected in the same mirror.
However, their attraction being founded on something so superficial as physical
appearance, their loves roots are not anchored deeply so their feelings for each other
did not endure. Just a few years after their chance meeting by the mirror on a May Day
Eve, with the product of their marital union still a very young girl, Agueda is already
referring to her husband as the devil and attaches negative descriptions to him like
having a scar of sin, mustachesdirty and greying and smelling horribly of tobacco,
and horns and tails. Badoy has the similar antagonistic attitude against his wife, whom
he refers to as ahorrible, dark, fatal creature of a witch who tortured him and ate
[his] heart and drank [his] blood. This reversal of Agueda and Badoys initial passionate

pronouncements toward each other implies that like a mirror reflecting analmost-similar
yet actually false image, the skin-deep love they had already disillusioned them.
Whereas before, the coyness Agueda had shown in the guise of feistiness hid her true
interest over Badoy and the anger Badoy had felt toward the spunky lady intensified into
a realization of love, there was now noreason for them to veil thinly their
disenchantment toward each other after their shallow love had dissipated. The mirror in
which the husband and wife had seen each others image reflected illusions of realities
that when they took seriously, deceived them into a married life of bitterness and
estrangement. The deceptively superficial beauties they had marveled at in the mirror
did not reveal the essential selves which in the course of their marital union were
suggested to be not as attractive as their physical masks.
Also, the mirror symbolizes the illusion of feminist strength in young Agueda when she
dealt with young Badoy fiercely during their encounter at the sala. The recently-arrived
lad from Europe was so intoxicated that he made to feel the country lass as stupid for
admiring herself in front of the mirror at midnight. She was, in truth, experimenting on
some imported superstition but would not want to be caught doing a more stupid thing
so she brazenly asked to be permitted to pass. The lad felt so encouraged to deal with
such a tigress of a beauty that he acted more obnoxious, reducing her to tears. When
his attempt to pacify her earned him her bite on the knuckles, it seems that the woman
had the upper hand on the matter. Her eventual marriage to him and the unhappy life
that followed suit proved that what seems may not be what is, for the patriarchy had yet
again won for making Agueda pay a high price for her spunk. Much like the mirror that
showed an almost-but-not-quite-real reflection, Aguedas ferociousness may appear to
dismantle Badoys macho ideology single-handedly, but her decline into an unhappy,
resentful wife manifested the containment of her strength by the actually more powerful
patriarchy of her society.
Another symbol of the mirror is the variant of realism called magic realism. The events
chronicled in the story may very well have happened in real life except that they are so
hyperreal and so mundane that they cannot be mistaken for anything else but magic
realism. In this kind of realism, the ordinary is interspersed with the fantastic, i.e. the

enchanted element of the mirror, the tensed encounter between Agueda and Badoy,
such that the effect makes the miraculous seem like an everyday thing. Ultimately, this
effect creates a reflection-like impression of reality whereas in fact, the mirror is far from
being magical and the lovers quarrel, far from being too cinematic.
The aforementioned symbolic representations of the mirror in May Day Eve prove that
some things are meant to be viewed beyond the deluding faade because these,
ironically, are not what they seem.

Values
The story is about youthful impulse and wanting what you can't have. at the beginning
of the story the "educated" boys were making fun of the "old fashioned" Filipinas. They
do so because they knew that these Filipinas would not want to be with them. the
Filipinas on the other hand thought all the "educated" young men were pompous and
out of line.
If you take note of the stories Agueda told her daughter and Don Badoy Montilla told his
grandson they pictured each other as the worst experience they ever had. They had
each other and yet they hated each other.
May Day Eve is a story about proper young women and frivolous young men. The
women were moral in that they behaved to the rules of conduct in Manila, Philippines,
while the young men did not.
Badoy and Agueda
The story revolves mostly around Badoy and Agueda and the horrible marriage they
had together. Badoy was once madly in love with Agueda, mostly due to her looks from
the description in the book. He did not know much about her when they were younger
and Agueda refused him at first. Later on Agueda is seen using a magic mirror asking
who she should wed. The mirror replied to her that it should be Badoy, the man she had
first refused.

The Moral
At first, it was Badoy who wanted something that he could not have. Later it was
Agueda who decided to want something that she could not have. So, one could say the
moral is in part that you cannot have what you desire. Instead, you have to settle for
what there is and try to make the best of it. Eventually, the two were highly unsatisfied
never to have a good marriage. It is also a moral about how the men and women
behaved when they were young. In their youth they felt that anything was possible,
though the women in the tale behaved and the men were more carefree. In the end the
story showed that these youthful times are forgotten in the face of reality.
The moral could also be that reality comes no matter what, and one just has to live with
that reality whether it is good or bad. It also shows that youthful love will change and not
always remain.
THEME:
Life is always full of regret, for we always realize what we have when it is gone.
Love was blinded and it turned into hatred
Love cannot be based on passion alone.
CONFLICT:
External conflict, Man vs. Man.
We can see that Agueda and Badoy after having a bad married life with each other,
used to regret the past that theyve 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
LITERARY MOVEMENT:
GOTHIC FICTION with REALISM

The story happened in the year of 1847 and it has a little blend of horror and fiction
because of the superstitious belief of fortune telling as well as the devil and witch that
will come out in the mirror if everything in the ritual will go wrong.
ANALYSIS:
Agueda and Badoys bitter marriage all began on that May night. Agueda and Badoy are
two, completely different people. Agueda is a girl ahead of her time. She is bold and
liberated unlike most girls her age. She stands out from the broad range of followers of
her era. The tragedy is when Badoys heart forgets how much he felt for Agueda. The
tragedy is how both were not careful enough to mend their drifting 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.
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. Badoy harked
back to the time of the girl who had flamed so vividly in a mirror one wild May Day
midnight, long, long ago and refreshed his memory of how she had bitten his hand and
fled which surprised his heart in the instant of falling in love with Agueda. But it has
been a while and time has healed the wounds of their relationship. The old love that
was blinded by hatred which brought pain has now resurfaced. The tragedy is that it is
too late. It is good that Badoy can live in the sweet past he and Agueda had but it is sad
that Agueda never found out how much she really meant to Badoy all this time. She
died not knowing that what she and Badoy had was real. The love didnt go away. It was
just covered up in the dust of time.

GENERALIZATION:
Life is always full of regret, for we always realize what we have when it is gone. For
Badoy and Agueda Montiya, they both lived and loved with hate, resentment, regret, but
as the story ends, Badoy realized how he wasted his time with Agueda, how he could
have loved her, so much more than he did. He realized that he became the devil in

Aguedas life, as she became the witch in his life as well. In the end, they both blamed
the superstition of May Day Eve.
We must not put our lives in the conviction of fortune tellers and superstitious beliefs
because I believe that half of our fate depends on how we do things and how we value
them. Because some beliefs are not been proven and it may lead our lives into
something that we are not supposed to be in.
Fate is defined in the dictionary as an inevitable and often adverse outcome, condition,
or end. The story is set under the assumption that the main characters in the story both
believe in superstition, as well as fate. They believed that for they saw each other in the
mirror that fated night, which they are bound to be with each other.
They chose to see the worst, but in the end, it can be seen that they were in love. The
worst in each other only came out when they chose to see it that way, because we all
know that happiness comes out whenever we choose to be happy.

Life is always full of regret, for we always realize what we have when it is gone. For
Badoy and Agueda Montiya, they both lived and loved with hate, resentment, regret. As
the story ends, Badoy realized how he wasted his time with Agueda, how he could have
loved her, so much more than he did. He realized that he became the devil in Agueda's
life, as she became the witch in his. In the end, they both blamed the superstition of
May Day Eve.
For a moment he had forgotten that she was dead, that she had perished---the poor
Agueda; that they were at peace at last, the two of them, her tired body at rest; her
broken body set free at last from the brutal pranks of the earth---from the trap of a May
night; from the snare of summer; from the terrible silver nets of the moon.
Fate is defined in the dictionary as an inevitable and often adverse outcome, condition,
or end. The story is set under the assumption that Badoy and Agueda both believe in
superstition, as well as fate. They believed that for they saw each other in the mirror that
fated night that they are bound to be with each other.

What they failed to realize is that fate is dictated by the people involved. It is not
anything inevitable, since love cannot be forced, only given or received. Badoy and
Agueda fell into the trap of the May Day Eve, wherein they saw it as fate, only to be
duped in the end by the circumstance of their relationship. However, they failed to see
that it was how they saw their relationship to begin with, that caused them to be the
devil/witch in their mirror that night.
Love is a splendid thing: it just happens, as most romantics say. That is how it had
happened for Badoy and Agueda. But as the honeymoon stage ended, they both felt
what was missing, and in turn grew to hate each other. What they never realized is that
love is constantly worked on. Love is earned, and given willingly like it is free to the one
we love.
Badoy and Agueda both saw the worst in each other whenever they told their children
the story of that fateful night. They chose to see the worst, but in the end, it can be seen
that they were in love. The worst in each other only came out when they chose to see it
that way. Happiness comes out whenever we choose to be happy.

And remembering how she had sobbed so piteously; remembering how she had bitten
his hand and fled and how he had sung aloud in the dark room and surprised his heart
in the instant of falling in love: such a grief tore up his throat and eyes that he felt
ashamed before the boy; pushed the boy away; stood up and looked out----looked out
upon the medieval shadows of the foul street where a couple of street-lamps flickered
and a last carriage was rattling away upon the cobbles, while the blind black houses
muttered hush-hush, their tiled roofs looming like sinister chessboards against a wild
sky murky with clouds, save where an evil old moon prowled about in a corner or where
a murderous wind whirled, whistling and whining, smelling now of the sea and now of
the summer orchards and wafting unbearable the window; the bowed old man sobbing
so bitterly at the window; the tears streaming down his cheeks and the wind in his hair
and one hand pressed to his mouth...

Regret comes to Badoy in the end, when he realized what he had lost. However, in the
way he chose to see Agueda, he loved her in the end. The realization may have come
too late. It is a pity that he had to regret the life he had with Agueda, as she did with him.
Yet the May Day Eve can be seen as a blessing for the both of them. For they both
loved each other, even though they failed to realize it.