Short Stories Dead Stars Summary, Characters, Theme & Analysis by Paz Marquez Benitez
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Characters
Main Characters
Alfredo Salazar
He is a lawyer and a man who is afflicted with the love of two women, his wife Esperanza and another woman Julia Salas. His father Don Julian is a wealthy man and takes him with himself on his visits to Judge Del Valle.
It is here that Alfredo meets Julia. He decides to go ahead with the marriage to Esperanza under the duress of social and public humiliation. However, he holds on to the notion of unfulfilled destiny with Julia which hampers her marital bond with his wife.
Esperanza
She a woman of exquisite beauty, charm and wit. She takes care of her house and family. However, she suffers from the lust for material wealth and reputation. She is married to Alfredo after he woos her aggressively.
She marries him even after learning about his dalliance with Julia. She is a person who knows how to take care of herself and exudes an air of self-service. Even though they live amicably, their marriage never resounds of the love that Alfredo showed during the early part of their courtship.
She is a person of unimpeachable integrity and moral stance and disposes of her marital obligations and duties meticulously. However, she does not believe in true love or romantic valorization of such emotion.
Julia Salas
She is the other woman in the life of Alfredo Salazar. She is a thoughtful, beautiful and winsome woman who is good at conversing on different and profound issues. She is energetic, enigmatic and vital, a complete opposite of Alfredo. This may be one of the reasons he gravitates toward her.
She meets Alfredo when he visits her brother-in-law (a Judge), as she stays in his place. She never truly loves Alfredo and that is apparent by her dispassion toward him when he visits her toward the end of the story. Yet, she never marries and remains a spinster.
Secondary Characters
Alfredo's family
It consists of his old father, Don Julian. He is a man of wisdom and advises Alfredo about the dangers of prolonging courtship and engagement without a proper marriage. Alfredo has a sister, Carmen, a caring and compassionate woman and her husband, Vicente.
Julia's family
Julia stays with her brother-in-law, Judge Del Valle and happens to be the Salazar's neighbour. She has a sister, Donna Adella who is a beautiful woman with chubby features. Her husband is Dionisio.
Other Characters
Calixta
She is a friend of Esperanza. She lives with her lover even without marriage and becomes the reason for the exposition of Alfredo's deceit and hypocrisy.
Brigida Samuy
The woman Alfredo is sent to learn about as part of his professional work. She lives near the hometown of Julia and becomes the means for a reunion with what he thought was his lost opportunity at love and happiness.
Theme
Love and Infatuation
Love is the dominant theme of the story. Alfredo loved Esperanza and she believed in his love to marry him. Alfredo thought he and Julia loved each other but had to sacrifice their taboo affair.
Alfredo still retained the flame for Julia only to learn that all this time he never understood his desire for Julia, It was more a desire for something different and unachievable that made him fall for Julia.
The entire story depicts how people misconstrue their desire and lust for love and commit ill-advised mistakes in rash pursuit of such confused perceptions.
Regret
Another thematic expression of the story is of regret and pain. Alfredo regretted never telling Julia about his engagement before he learned on her own. He even regretted not being honest to Esperanza regarding his affection for Julia.
Succumbing to social conventions and scrutiny he marries Esperanza and ends up ruining eight years of his and his wife's marriage.
Esperanza and Julia both were caused by embarrassment and pain by Alfredo's pretense and that in the end Alfredo is left devastated by his own recklessness and imbecility. He is further agonized by impersonal and even cold response of Julia when he visits her near the end, something he never hoped or expected.
Transience & Mutability of Circumstance
The story highlights the futility of chasing momentary gratification over true and gradual emotions. The craving for something forbidden over something moral and legitimate can lead to disastrous results.
It also touches on the theme of using patience as a tool before committing harebrained and frivolous pleasure-seeking.
Morality & Fidelity
It foregrounds the need, to be honest, and earnest in one's actions and words. Every relationship must be built on truth and sincerity for it to succeed which Alfredo understands at the very end of the story.
Morality is addressed as time and age-appropriate quality as it keeps being defined by the time period the actions are committed. This is reflected in the thoughts about infidelity, courtship and marriage at that time (the 1900s) which are a lot different than the modern age of amorphous morality.
Social norms define what can be coined as subjective morality which varies according to circumstance and context. Of course, such moral standards are different from religious tenets which are considered ahistorical, objective and timeless.
Masculine Domination & Feminine Subservience
Alfredo is painted as a normal man who can afford to be experimental and selective with his affairs of the heart. He can have a dalliance with Julia and still end up marrying Esperanza even after keeping both women in dark.
On the other hand the female characters, Esperanza and Julia are both react softly to his transgressions. Julia never marries and Esperanza remains loyal to Alfredo in a genial but loveless marriage.
This highlights the patriarchic notion that men are considered and lauded for being the superior form of human existence and women end up being whatever "men" are not.
Women always get defined in response to men and are often portrayed as alternatives and even subservient to the male protagonist.
Hence, Men are entitled to mistakes and second chances whereas women like Esperanza and Julia are not accorded such leniency while being judged and scrutinized.
The avarice and indecision of male characters are symbolized through Alfredo who keeps chasing the ghost of his own alluring desire and infatuation. In the end, it only turns out to be dying sparks of the inert star, a mirage of empty pleasure and leaves him full of contrition and heartache.
Analysis
Dead Stars Symbolism
The "Dead Stars" represent a presence that is unrecognized. It speaks of emotions and relationships that may exist but are not realized and lose their real meaning and significance.
In the story, the attraction between Alfredo and Julia is a forbidden and taboo phenomenon. They both felt is to be real but never accepted their mutual attraction nor confessed it. They wilted to the social expectations and did the morally ordained thing.
Their emotions became a transient and fleeting occurrence, much like the stars that are left as relics of their old glory and shine. These stars are dormant and the fire within them is vanquished but they remain as obtrusive reminders of their tangible existence.
They are an illusion of something that might have been lively and thriving previously, evidence of their vital past. But now they are a mere illusion of something that cannot be revived.
Even the moral fortitude of Esperanza is symbolized in her devotion to her husband even after learning about his dalliance with Julia. She has a strong belief in the institution of marriage and loyalty and fulfils her commitment for the same even though she might not ever truly love Alfredo.
Dead Stars Setting
The story uses the third-person voice and is set in the early 1900s. The story is set in Don Julian's and Judge Del Valle's houses located in the Philippines. It foreshadows the social make-up and dominant views of the place at that time.
The society is male-dominated and represent the features of such a social setup. As the author is a female writer placed in a male-dominated age and World, the story became a precursor to the growth of Filipino English literature.
In a patriarchal society, man is the ultimate authority in defining norms, moral or otherwise. Women are secondary and precluded group when it comes to deciding the dominant idea and pervasive issues. But the woman is not just anti-man or inadequate-man; she is also what man can never be.
This necessitates the balance between the two and if this equilibrium is challenged by revolutionary or reformist zeal than it is often stifled and silenced. They both cannot exist unilaterally or autonomously and need mutual reaffirmation by each other.
Hence, women often become an afterthought in such male-dominated and chauvinistic times even though the subtle and inextricable inter-dependence of the male and female forms is always a function of a cohesive social system.
Dead Stars Moral Lesson
The story is infused with moral and intellectual approaches highlighting the values and morals in place in that age, culture and place. Historicism and the historical context of the story give it salience in terms of understanding the thoughts and subsequent actions of the characters like Alfredo, Julia, Esperanza etc.
It depicts a plethora of battles that a human being is involved depending on the circumstances and interactions with other human beings. Characters like Alfredo, Julia etc. are fighting not just against the odds fate has put before them but also their circumstances, public and moral obligations.
To make matter worse they are also embroiled in a battle against their own emotions and understanding, a battle within themselves. They lack the certainty of thought, sentiments for each other and thus their actions (Lies, ridicule, insults etc.) reflect their ambiguity and desperation.
Paz Marquez's penmanship mirrors the dominant social views and established conventions of literature as well society. It expounds various human emotions (like affection, compassion, jealousy, concupiscence etc.) and relationships involvement (like betrothal, courtship, friendship, professional obligations etc.).
Thus, it creates a veritable knowledge base to contrast and compares the society of her age and place with the contemporary or any other age. It provides a lens to make meaning about the extant culture, customs, traditions etc.
Consequently, it reflects the malleability of such social mores, practices and customs with a corresponding change in time and even landscape. Both the leading women conform to the masculine dominant and their ideology. They remain loyal to the man in their lives, Alfredo.
Hence, they both never criticize or lament Alfredo's lies and deceit but acquiesce to his manly exceptionalism. Alfredo. On the other hand, is portrayed as weak-willed, easily seducible, contorted with his changing emotions and vulnerable to irrational actions.
Eventually, he surrenders to the social expectations and does the moral good even though he ends up building a loveless home with Esperanza, his first love.
Summary
Alfredo Salazar – a man of love
The short story revolves around one man, Alfredo Salazar and the affairs of his heart. He is a man who believes in true love and hopes to find bliss in its wake. The first woman he falls in love with is Esperanza.
Their families are acquainted with each other and they thus they begin a passionate relationship. But soon it fades away when Alfredo comes across another woman, Julia, who becomes the object of his desire.
His Love for Julia Salas
So when he comes across Julia Salas, sister-in-law of the Judge who is a friend of Alfredo's father. He is strongly attracted to her. Julia is an enthusiastic and optimistic person. A woman of hope, dreams and desires.
On his visit with his father, he starts engaging in profound chats with Julia and starts getting attracted to her charm, wit and passion. In his impassioned state, he does not even disclose the truth about his engagement to Esperanza.
In order to avoid the scrutiny of his fiancé, he starts keeping secrets from Esperanza too. One day he learns about Julia's return to her hometown. His eyes are doomed with the fear of losing her and he decides to confess his guilt and true feelings to Julia.
His Lies are Exposed
After the Church's function, he goes to meet her even though his fiancé is waiting for him to come to her. However, reaching to Julia, he realizes that she has already learned about his lies. She even wishes him best on his marriage to Esperanza and leaves him.
He gets a double blow when he returns home to Esperanza. She is talking to a friend about loyalty and faithfulness. Alfredo feels an urge to speak. He defends the cause of desire and choice over immorality.
This gets under the skin of Esperanza who declares that she knew about him and Julia. She encourages him to commit such immoral infidelity and cancel the wedding, all in pursuit of his heart's content and lust. However, Alfredo surrenders to reason and sanity and the wedding goes ahead as planned.
He Meets Julia Again
As fate would have it, he is sent on some work duty to a place near Julia's hometown. He cannot help resist the feeling of nostalgia and old lust for Julia. He finds an excuse and way to her place where he met her.
She is still single and he is forced to dream about a life with her instead of Esperanza. But soon he comes to know that something is not the same after all. Julia has changed and rather lost something now.
Maybe it is her beauty, wit, charm or even her passion, but she is a different woman. She is cold and aloof and does not extend the same warmth and affection to him anymore.
He is heartbroken and pensive and questions whether he ever loved her truly. Was it all a futile infatuation or mere affair? Was the romance they shared, just a figment of his imagination? Whatever it was, he is no more alive. He accepts the hard reality that anything that there may have been was there no more.
