Group 1 – Feminism

Soledad
by Angela Manalang-Gloria
It was a sacrilege, the neighbors cried,
The way she shattered every mullioned pane
To let a firebrand in. They tried in vain
To understand how one so carved from pride
And glassed in dream could have so flung aside
Her graven days, or why she dared profane
The bread and wine of life for some insane
Moment with him. The scandal never died.

But no one guessed that loveliness would claim

Her soul's cathedral burned by his desires
Or that he left her aureoled in flame…
And seeing nothing but her blackened spires,
The town condemned this girl who loved too well
and found her heaven in the depths of hell.

Soledad: A Literary Analysis using the Feminism Approach

1. Context

A re-emerging consciousness ensued during the US colonization of the Philippines

when education for Filipinas was encouraged. It was in 1900s that the awareness of the
feminist movements awakened Filipina writers to a realization that the mainstream
consciousness prevailing in the Philippine society kept the Filipina at a disadvantage.
Exploitation, subordination, discrimination, and oppression conditioned the Filipina to be
docile, passive, subservient, and self-sacrificing; and that the forms of oppression,
themselves, had become archetypes for Filipina writers.

2. Author

Angela Manalang-Gloria was born on August 24, 1907 in Guagua, Pampanga to

parents Felipe Dizon Manalang and Tomasa Legaspi. Angela was among the first
generation female students at the University of the Philippines. She initially enrolled in
law, as suggested by her father. However, with the advice of her professor C.V. Wickers,
who also became her mentor, she eventually transferred to literature. Angela
graduated summa cum laude with a degree in English from the University of the
Philippines.
 Angela Manalang-Gloria is a first generation Filipina writer who writes poetry in
English. Most of her poems demand women's freedom from being objectified. Her
writings expose the social, economic, and sexual ignominy of Filipina women. The
foregrounding of such impulses can be seen in her book of poetry called Poems,
published in 1940. Moreover, early Philippine literature in English has been an important
vehicle for constructing and reinforcing cultural female stereotypes that are
unmistakably grounded on the presumed and assumed inferiority of women to men.

3. Background

One of the basic tenets of the feminist position is the debunking of the degree to
which patriarchal orientation has altered the Philippine society – family, society, religion,
education, politics, and the economy. According to multiple research studies which
present analysis on feministic faces of literature, due to this prevailing ideology as
supported by tenets, it reinforce notions that “wives should be submissive to their
husbands as though to the Lord; because the husband is the head of the wife just as
Christ is the head of the church... wives should fear their husbands.”

Post-colonial Filipina writers in English are actively defining their own experiences
by concerning themselves with motifs that make up recurring patterns such as: concern
with women's problems that revolve around love, sex, marriage, family, and work; the
centering of female protagonists as the narrative and thematic focus; stress on the
women's urban, high educational and professional status; liberation of sexual taboos;
insistence upon women's economic autonomy.

4. Analysis: Feminism Approach

There are two distinct modes of feminist criticism: one that is concerned with the
feminist as reader; the other, with woman as writer.

In “Soledad” (1935), the reader may find himself/herself once more in the
turbulent world of ‘forbidden love’ – the theme of the poem itself. The persona in the
poem appears to be scandalized by the affair, at first. She introduces the townspeople
as a powerful sanctioning force on the lovers, emphasizing the terrible ostracism and
alienation that such women will suffer as a price for their defiance of social mores.

During that time, the Philippine society is mainly inclined to religion and
conservatism. Filipina writers from 1928 to 1933 have included either their personal
experiences or of someone’s within the realm of patriarchal domination to the women
of the Philippine society.

But what does this has to do with the writer Angela Manalang-Gloria? And who
exactly is Soledad? Is she the writer herself? Well, according to an article published by
Nemenzo (2008) entitled “The Enigmatic Poetess”, which was extracted from “Slant,
Filipinas’ Magazine” (2008):

Mrs. Gloria later identified her as Soledad “Choleng” Lacson, her best friend in UP
(and the older sister of legendary Manila mayor Arsenio Lacson). Choleng had a
 big crush on their Spanish professor, the poet Manuel Bernabe. “She adored
Bernabe – just something intellectual, nothing more,” Mrs. Gloria confided. But
Soledad’s mother was sufficiently alarmed at the infatuation that she pulled the
young girl out of school and brought her home to the province. (Nemenzo, 2008)

It is suggested that in the poem, Soledad worshipped and revered her lover as a
saint, or that she herself acquired the halo of sainthood — the halo awarded to those
who love passionately despite tremendous suffering. The suffering in this case refers to
the views of townspeople which morally attacked Soledad as a woman. The town
views her affair as a sacrilege. However, Soledad considered it a sacred one – a
mystical union with the god of love, which elevates herself and her lover to the status of
"sainthood" — in a pagan religion. Also, the scandal mentioned must have been
associated with Soledad having pre-marital sex with her lover – something that would
easily arouse the society’s conservative views in relation to religion.

In conclusion, the poem ‘Soledad’ encompasses the state of the Philippines as

being religious and conservative, with moral connotations. It can be espied that
Soledad herself carried the burden as the town condemns her rather than giving her
sympathy and clemency – for the Philippine society that time views women as different
and far lower to men. For Soledad, objectification distorts her true nature and negates
her true value as a woman.

References:
http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/gemma/the-enigmatic-poetess

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Manalang-Gloria