Hello everyone! :) I'm taking a Philosophy 101 class, as well, and we just finished learning about Socrates. (Although I really wouldn't like to call it "learning" because, no offense--although it would still be taken offensively--this professor does not do Socrates justice. Or any other topic, as a matter of fact. But this is beside the point...) In English class with Mr. Aronson, we have been discussing several poems on a woman/concept named Maria Clara. I would like to take some time to jot down some similarities between these two people.
To those who do not know, Maria Clara is a character created by Jose Rizal, in a novel called Noli Me Tangere. She was a Filipina who was known as the "ideal woman" in the Philippines. She was portrayed as chaste, the epitome of virtue, a faithful sweetheart, a good friend, and an obedient daughter. Maria Clara was highly appraised and everyone idolized her. But her "masochistic", and "easily fainting" character was also criticized as the "greatest misfortune that has befallen the Filipina in the last one hundred years". This is because this whole concept was forcing Filipino women into molding into a Maria Clara.
As a young girl, she would practice religion. When she grew up, she convinced a man named Padro Damaso (who so happened to be her biological father as well) to send her to a nunnery. I think of this nunnery as a prison, for although she chose it, she was alone and trapped. Padre Salvi, the convent's spiritual director, ended up raping her. Unfortunately, through the years of pain, she died in the convent.
So no thanks to my Phil professor, I will inform you on what I kinda-sorta read about Socrates. He was a Greek Athenian Philosopher, credited as one of the founders of Western Philosophy. Socrates has become renowned for his contribution to the field of ethics. His students, especially the ones who stuck with him throughout everything: Plato and Xenophon, adored Socrates. They really enjoyed his teachings--slightly talking about religion also, and he was looked up to. But plenty of people thought of him as corrupting the youth--one of the many charges ghat put him to trial.
He was guilty and put into prison, and willingly chose the hemlock for his punishment. Socrates drank the hemlock, a highly poisonous plant, and was instructed to walk around until his legs felt numb. Then after a short while, he quietly died.
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This picture depicts Socrates (in white) taking his hemlock to drink. |
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An animated portrayal of Maria Clara at the nunnery. She is wearing--a now popular amongst Filipinas"--Maria Clara" dress that symbolizes the virtues and nobility of a Filipino woman. |
The similarities I see:
- Her virtue vs. His ethics
- Idolized
- But had negative influences
- Religious practice
- Maria Clara's nunnery vs. Socrates' prison room
- Died within these "prisons"
Agree? Disagree? It's all good! I'm not the Philosopher type. But thanks for reading, everyone! Ta-ta for now. :)
And all this time I thought it was just a dress. Thanks for enlightening me. All kidding aside, very interesting comparison.
ReplyDeleteHahaha, thank you!
ReplyDeleteWow...really nice images and explanation about it. Just keep going ^^
ReplyDeleteHello Jennica. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the primer on Socrates and Maria Clara. We can't really talk about Filipino/Filipina gender issues without mentioning her, so your work will help get the rest of us on board.
I commend you for trying to make your different classes "talk" to each other. By "talk to each other," I mean applying lessons from on class to another. That is an important strategy that I didn't really consider till much later in my college career. Too bad I didn't question how one class topic was related to another.
In this case, you compared two figures lives. I'm interested in the "died in prison" notation. I'm wondering what we can make of that. Socrates took hemlock - he was an agent in his own death, choosing for himself when he would die. Is the same true for Maria Clara? Was she simply hiding in the convent? I can't remember - did she poison herself? Or did she waste away, almost passively dying. That's a big gender difference. Socrates and Maria Clara cannot live in society - there is not place for them. But Socrates actively takes himself out . . . Maria Clara more passively hides out? Hmmmm.
I'm curious, too, what Socrates-the-philosopher might have to say about Maria Clara? I know he's never heard of her, but how do his philosophical concepts illuminate Maria Clara?
As you go through your philosophy class, consider the concepts the philosophers address. Ask yourself how those concepts illustrate, explain, contradict, complicate, or otherwise "speak" to the topics we are addressing in our class. If something strikes you, as did with Socrates and Maria Clara, it'd be worth reading. Perhaps your own smart questions and comparisons will make the class more lively for you . . .
Considering I didn't read the book, I'm not quite sure about Maria Clara. Maybe it was the pressures of everyone thinking she was so perfect that she decided to hide away. Or maybe it was the fact that she was extremely religious that she just wanted to stay in a convent and give herself to God, for lack of better words. No, I don't believe she poisoned herself. In a sense she did "waste away". After being raped, she didn't do much. She just stayed in her convent, and kept to herself.
ReplyDeleteSocrates seemed to have a higher opinion on women. He probably would've as beautiful. Not because she was an "ideal woman" at her time, but because Socrates wasn't one to follow what others thought. At his time, what was beautiful was riches, what the Gods thought were beautiful, and looked like statues. People found Socrates ugly because he resembled a satyr. But he didn't care. He loved to learn from women--poetry and erotics. I don't think she would have been able to teach him that since she was chaste though.
Great! You and Edel have got me rethinking a blog I'm writing about the poetry we've read and the concept "marianismo." Very helpful!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad we could be of assistance!
ReplyDelete