Faith, Love, Time and Dr.

Lazaro
Author: Gregorio C. Brillantes
- Filipino award-winning writer from Tarlac
- Palanca Award Hall of Famer
- among the Philippines most popular English
writers
- early works were about Catholicism
- most works are about alienation from family,
society, and self
Plot Summary:
- Dr. Lazaro receives a an emergency call from a
distant location about a baby with tetanus
- He at first doesnt want to go, saying its too far
and that the babys situation is hopeless
- His wife convinces him to bring his son along on
the trip, with the son (Ben) driving
- On the long drive, father tries to make small talk,
but ends up talking about Bens future

- They arrive at the callers house, and Dr. Lazaro

fails to save the baby
- Dr. Lazaro doesnt think much about the incident,
but Ben baptizes the baby before they leave
- Upon arriving home, Dr. Lazaro contemplates on
the nights events before going to sleep
Thesis statement:
The setting, point of view, and symbolism in the story
lead to the theme of Dr. Lazaros alienation because of
his lack of faith, love, and time.
OUTLINE:
Thesis Statement:
I. Setting
II. Character/POV
III.Symbol, Irony, and Theme
I. Setting:
Throughout the story, the setting has light around
him to guide the little light in him. The street

lamps, theres only one, the flashlight, he relies on

that. His life is not completely shrouded in
darkness. There are flashes of light that still guide
him. He acknowledges that there exists the idea of
faith and love guiding people, but because of his
profession and his beliefs, he cant accept it for
himself.
- He hurried down the curving stairs,
under the votive lamps of the Sacred
Heart.
- The stations appeared as they coasted
down the incline of a low hill, its
fluorescent lights the only brightness on
the plain before them, on the road that
led farther into deeper darkness.
- gazed at the wide darkness around
them, the shapes of trees and bushes
hurling toward them and sliding away and
he saw the stars (light and dark imagery,
showing the stars as guiding lights in
contrast to the darkness of night)

- A late moon had risen, edging over the

tops of the trees, and in the faint wash of
its light (moon= it is during night time
when it is dark but it provides light)
Quiet province
Lazaro is a provincial doctor
Empty plaza during a festive season
Quietness fits the atmosphere and Dr.
Lazaros detachment
Dr. Lazaros silent epiphany
Religious community
Wife sews vestments for the church, goes to
mass with Ben in the mornings
Religion and their grandchild certainly
kept her busy
the plaster saints she[Mrs. Lazaro] kept in
the room, in their cases of glass
Ben baptizes the baby before it passes away
Old woman comforts babys mother by
saying, it is the will of God

II. POV and Character

- Third person limited (Dr. Lazaro)
- Sees everything in darkness
> slid the door open on the vault of
darkness
> gazed at the wide darkness around them,
the shapes of trees and bushes hurling toward them
and sliding away and he saw the stars (light and dark
imagery)
> its fluorescent lights the only brightness on
the plain before them, on the road that led farther into
deeper darkness
- Detached, indifferent
- beginning paragraph about being in a state of
an indifferent half-sleep: Dr. Lazaro
remembered nothing, his mind lay untouched
by any conscious thought, he was scarcely
aware of the April heat; the pattern of music
fell around him and dissolved swiftly,
uncomprehended

- There had been the man, today, in the

hospital: the cancer pain no longer helped by
the doses of morphine; the patients eyes
flickering their despair in the eroded face. Dr.
Lazaro brushed aside the stray vision as he
strode out of the whitewashed room; he was
back in his element, among syringes, steel
instruments, quick decisions made without
emotion, and it gave him a kind of blunt
energy. (The nature of his job as a doctor has
desensitized him)
- And in that moment, only the child existed
before him; only the child and his own mind
probing now like a hard gleaming instrument.
(The child as an object of an instrument to be
merely examined)
- Pessimistic
- He had no choice left now but action: it was
the only certitude he sometimes reminded
himself even if it would prove futile, before,
the descent into nothingness.

- He knows its a hopeless cause

- felt he was being dragged, helplessly, toward
some huge and complicated error, a
meaningless ceremony (p.5)
- Faith and love (what others use) cannot save
the baby, only cold rationality can
- He used to believe in God but not
anymore
- One can only cure, and know nothing
beyond ones work
- While everyone else felt miserable about the
childs death, he was unaffected knowing that
there was nothing more that he could do.
- He thought with a flick of anger: Soon the
child will be out of it, you ought to be
grateful.
III. Symbols, Irony, and Theme
Darkness:
- Associations with darkness/loss of light:

- Distance: ...as though darkness had added to

the distance between the house in the town
and the gas station beyond the summer
fields.
- Despair: the patients eyes flickering their
despair in the eroded face.
- Finality, futility: Dr. Lazaro gazed at the wide
darkness around them, the shapes of trees
and bushes hurling toward them and sliding
away and he saw the stars, hard glinting
points of light yards, black space, infinite
distances; in the unmeasured universe, mans
life flared briefly and was gone, traceless in
the void.
- Familiarity with darkness:
- Home: As he slid the door open on the vault
of darkness, the familiar depth of the house.
- The engine sputtered briefly and stopped.
Batterys weak, Dr. Lazaro said. Try it
without the lights.

- When he tries to save the infant, there is darker

imagery (Dr. Lazaro had a moments tremor of
fear as the boar slide out over the black water;
below prowled the deadly currents; to drown her
in the depths of the night)
- He has to remain apathetic and remove himself
from faith and love in order to save the patient
(otherwise it will be painful like his sons suicide)
- Darkness: void of light and all that the light stands
for
Light:
- First paragraph: In the scattered light from the
sala...
- The light for him is not clear or not full
- Associations with light:
- Family: Mrs. Lazaro had resumed the
knitting; in the circle of yellow light; In the
glow of the dashboard lights, the boys face
relaxed, smiled.

- Hope: ...his mind said as it considered the

spark that persisted within the rigid and
tortured body
- Faith and Joy: Dr. Lazaro found himself
wondering about the world of novenas and
candles, where bread and wine became the
flesh and blood of the Lord, and a woman
bathed in light appeared before children as
though he had been deprived of a certain
joy...
- While Dr. Lazaro is familiar with darkness,
other characters are familiar with light
- Light: faith, family, hope, joy
- Light amidst darkness but is overpowered by
darkness
- spark in the infants body persists but
disappears
- But the glimmer was lost instantly, buried in
the mist of indifference and sleep rising now in
his brain.

Name Symbolism
- Lazaro: from Lazarus
- Bible figure raised from the dead--raised out of
darkness
- Ironic: Lazaro seems to remain in the darkness
Irony
- Aside from the irony of his name, irony lies in his
job
- Hes a doctor: supposed to be the hope and light
of others but feels immersed in darkness himself
Theme
As he slid the door open on the vault of darkness, the
familiar depth of the house, it came to Dr. Lazaro
faintly in the late night that for certain things, like love
there was only so much time.
- Darkness is still familiar to him
- Realization: time is fleeting
- but he has not resolved to do anything to
make his time precious

- Comparison of time to love: love is also

fleeting
- Things like love and making time are things that he
cannot bring himself to prioritize, which is what
alienates him from everyone else
- Alienated because of his lack of faith, love, and
time
- Which is why he remains detached and in the
darkness
But the glimmer was lost instantly, buried in the mist
of indifference and sleep rising now in his brain.
- The brief moment and conversation he enjoyed
with his son is a rare one of bonding (He felt
closer to the boy than he had ever been in years.)
- But with the glimmer lost, he remains alienated
from the world
Points of Alienation
- Faith
- Love

- Time
FAITH
- Explicitly stated: Lazaro no longer has faith in God
(He used to believe in it, too. -- Since he studied
abroad)
- Only wife and son still go to Mass
- Questions churchs belief on divine consequences
(unbaptized babies not going to heaven)
- Lost his faith because of all the suffering hes
witnessed because of his profession (senseless
accidents of pain)
- The sparrow does not fall without the
Fathers leave he mused at the sky, but it falls
just the same. But to what end are the
sufferings of a child? after babys death
- also his own suffering in his own sons death
LOVE
- Alienated from his family
- his job takes up his time from his family

- Dr. Lazaro would ramble about miracle drugs,

politics, music, the common sense of his unbelief;
unrelated things strung together in a monologue;
he posed questions, supplied with his own
answers
- [wifes] silences had ceased to disturb him
- when Ben went off to college, they became more
distant
- few brief, almost formal letters to each other
- Lacks compassion in his work
- ...duty had taken the place of an exhausted
compassion
- brushing aside a cancer-suffering patient at the
hospital
- casual scribbled items in a clinical report - he
doesnt really care about the patients well-being;
hes just doing his job
TIME
- ...everyone had a claim on his time. He thought:
Why not the younger ones for a change? He had

spent a long day at the provincial hospital. His job

as a doctor kept him busy and his time is in
demand
- Time was moving toward them, was swirling
around and rushing away and it seemed Dr. Lazaro
could almost hear its hallow [sic] receding roar; and
discovering his sons profile against the flowing
darkness, he had a thirst to speak.
- Time with his family was slipping.
- ...for certain things, like love there was only so
much time.
- He was too late to save the baby because he
lacked time.
- His time as precious
- However, he also only goes through the motions
of day to day life