María Clara de Tolitol is a fictional character in
Jose Rizal
Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ''Yose'', which is etymologically linked to ''Yosef'' or Joseph.
Given name Mishnaic and Talmudic periods
* Jose ben Abin
* Jose ben Akabya
*Jose the Galilean
* Jose ben Halaft ...
's novel ''
Noli Me Tángere'' (1887). The beautiful María Clara is the
childhood sweetheart and
fiancée of the protagonist,
Crisóstomo Ibarra, who returns to his Filipino hometown of San Diego to marry her. After Ibarra is implicated in a fake revolution and is thought to be dead, María Clara opts to become a
nun
A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service and contemplation, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 5 ...
rather than marry another man. She remains unhappy for the rest of her life and her death is later mentioned in the sequel, ''
El filibusterismo'' (1891).
Description
In the novel, María Clara is regarded as the most beautiful and celebrated lady in the town of San Diego. A devout Roman Catholic, she became the epitome of virtue; "demure and self-effacing" and endowed with beauty, grace and charm, she was promoted by Rizal as the "ideal image"
[ of a Filipino woman who deserves to be placed on the "pedestal of male honour". In Chapter 5, María Clara and her traits were further described by Rizal as an "Oriental decoration" with "downcast" eyes and a "pure soul".]
Characterization
Physical appearance
Because of her parentage, María Clara had Eurasian features, described by Rizal thus:"María Clara did not have the small eyes of her father: like her mother she had them large and black, beneath long lashes; she was beautiful and smiling when she played, sad and soulful and pensive when she was not laughing. Since childhood her hair had an almost golden hue; her nose, of a correct profile, was neither sharp nor flat; her mouth reminded one of her mother's, small and perfect, with two beautiful dimples on her cheeks. Her skin had the fine texture of an onion layer, the whiteness of cotton, according to her enthusiastic relatives. They saw traces of Capitan Tiago's paternity in the small and well-rounded ears of María Clara."
Biography and personality
The beautiful María Clara is the childhood sweetheart and fiancée of the protagonist, Crisóstomo Ibarra, who returns to his Filipino hometown of San Diego to marry her. After Ibarra is implicated in a fake revolution and is thought to be dead, María Clara opts to become a nun
A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service and contemplation, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 5 ...
rather than marry another man. She remains unhappy for the rest of her life and her death is later mentioned in the sequel, '' El filibusterismo'' (1891).
María Clara is the only daughter of the wealthy Kapitán Tiago and Doña Pia Alba. However, it is later revealed that her biological father is Father Dámaso, a priest who is one of the novel's antagonists, who became her godfather. Interpretations vary on whether Dámaso seduced or/and raped Pia Alba.
María Clara had been described in her childhood as everybody's idol, growing up among smiles and loves. Although ''Noli'' only touches upon her briefly in chapters, she is depicted as playful, exchanging wit and bantering with Ibarra, as well as expressing jealous possession when talking about him to her friends.
She is also very kind and considerate, and notices people whom others do not; she was the only person who noticed Elías during the fishing excursion and offered him biscuits. During the eve of the feast of San Diego, she also approached and offered her locket to a leper, despite her friends' warnings and shows of disgust.
During the latter half of the novel, she was often sickly and subdued. Having been separated from Ibarra, and hearing the news of his excommunication, she took ill, and eventually was blackmailed by Padre Salvi into distancing herself from Ibarra. She was also coerced into giving up Ibarra's love letters, which were ultimately used to implicate him.
In spite of her broken engagement with Ibarra, and subsequent engagement to Linares, she remained fiercely devoted to Ibarra. Upon hearing the news of his death, she told Padre Dámaso:"While he was alive, I was thinking on keeping on: I was hoping, I was trusting! I wanted to live to be able to hear about him... but now that they have killed him, there is no longer a reason for me to live and suffer... While he was alive, I could get married... I thought of flight afterwards... my father does not want anything but the connections! Now that he is dead nobody else shall claim me as his wife... When he was alive, I could degrade myself, there was left the comfort of knowing he lived and perhaps would think of me. Now that he is dead... the convent for me or the grave!"
This ultimatum caused Padre Dámaso to relent and permit his daughter's entry into the Royal Monastery of Saint Clare (that until 1945 stood in Intramuros
Intramuros () is the historic walled area within the city of Manila, the capital of the Philippines. It is administered by the Intramuros Administration with the help of the city government of Manila.
Intramuros comprises a centuries-old hist ...
).
Basis and legacy
Rizal based the fictional character of María Clara on his girlfriend and second cousin, Leonor Rivera
Leonor Rivera-Kipping (née Rivera y Bauzon; 11 April 1867 – 28 August 1893)Martinez-Clemente, Jo (June 20, 2011Keeping up with legacy of Rizal’s ‘true love’''Inquirer Central Luzon'' at inquirer.net. Accessed 2011-12-03. was the childho ...
. Although praised and idolized, María Clara's chaste
Chaste refers to practicing chastity.
Chaste may also refer to:
* Aymar Chaste (1514–1603), Catholic French admiral
* Chaste (Marvel Comics), a fictional Marvel Comics martial arts enclave
* Chaste (canton) - see List of townships in Quebec, Ca ...
, " masochistic" and "easily fainting" character has also been denounced as the "greatest misfortune that has befallen the Filipina in the last one hundred years".[Vartti, Riitta (editor)]
Preface to the Finnish anthology Tulikärpänen - filippiiniläisiä novelleja (Firefly - Filipino Short Stories), Kääntöpiiri
Helsinki, Finland 2001/2007
an article from Firefly – Filipino Short Stories (Tulikärpänen – filippiiniläisiä novelleja), 2001 / 2007, retrieved on: April 2, 2010
In the 1920s, María Clara became what Nick Joaquin
Nicomedes "Nick" Marquez Joaquin (; May 4, 1917 – April 29, 2004) was a Filipino writer and journalist best known for his short story, short stories and novels in the English language. He also wrote using the pen name Quijano de Manila. Joaq ...
described as a saccharine ideal, a sentimentalized stock character
A stock character, also known as a character archetype, is a type of character in a narrative (e.g. a novel, play, television show, or film) whom audiences recognize across many narratives or as part of a storytelling tradition or convention. Th ...
. Catholicism
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
during Spanish colonial rule influenced a new ideal for Filipino women and led to taboos surrounding the discussion and expression of female sexuality. María Clara embodied the ideals and the impossible standard of purity, chastity and sacrifice. While many scholars have attacked the idealized María Clara, writers such as Joaquin disagree that Rizal wrote the character as an example for Filipino women to imitate. The ideal of María Clara continues into the 21st century and is used by brands. This depiction has reinforced the cultural expectation brought by Spanish colonialism that Filipinas should be modest, conservative and submissive towards men.
Writers such as Joaquin, Ante Radaic, and Wenceslao Retana, saw María Clara as a symbol of the Philippines, especially in the sad fate which befalls her. Quintin C. Terrenal thought it likely that Rizal's contemporaries also saw the symbolism, and Ibarra himself said that she was "the poetic incarnation of my country".
In Filipino fashion, María Clara's name has become the eponym
An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''.
Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...
for a multi-piece ensemble known as the María Clara gown, emulating the character's traits of being delicate, feminine, self-assured, and with a sense of identity.[Moreno, Jose "Pitoy"]
Costume at the Fin de Siecle – Maria Clara
Philippine Costume, koleksyon.com In law, the María Clara doctrine
The María Clara doctrine, also known as the Woman's Honor doctrine, is a legal doctrine applied by Philippine courts regarding cases that concern abuse against women. The doctrine is a presumption "that women, especially Filipinas, would not ad ...
originated in a 1960 case concerning a rape accusation. It states that "women, especially Filipinos, would not admit that they have been abused unless that abuse had actually happened. This is due to their natural instinct to protect their honor."
In popular culture
Maria Clara has been portrayed in several films and television series:
* Edita Vidal in the film '' Noli Me Tángere'' (1961)
* Maria Jose Arnaldo in the ABC television series ''Noli Me Tángere'' (1992)
* Monique Wilson in the film ''José Rizal
José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda (, ; June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896) was a Filipino nationalist, writer and polymath active at the end of the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. He is popularly considered a na ...
'' (1998), and various Musical Plays
* Julie Anne San Jose in the GMA television series '' Maria Clara at Ibarra'' (2022-2023)
* Angel Galang in the television series Drag Race Philippines (Season 3) during the Snatch Game episode (2024)
See also
* Cult of domesticity
* English rose (epithet)
*Girl next door
The girl next door is a young female stock character who is often used in Romance novel, romantic stories. She is named so because she often lives next door to the protagonist or is a childhood friend. They start out with a friendship that late ...
* Ideal womanhood
References
Bibliography
*
External links
*Description o
María Clara
at en.wikibooks.org
Full text in Tagalog ("Ang Awit ni Maria Clara")
Full text in Spanish ("Canto de Maria")
Full text in English ("The Song of Maria Clara")
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maria Clara
Fictional Filipino people
Noli Me Tangere (novel) characters
Literary characters introduced in 1887