ABSTRACT Title : THE TRANSFORMATIONAL AMARANTHA: FEMINISM IN THE POEMS OF OPHELIA DIMALANTA : Roosevelt College, Graduate School, Cainta,

Rizal. : Noriel V. Agascon : Master of Arts in Education. Major in English Studies and Instruction : Dr. Perla A. Glori : March 22, 2011 Summary The purpose of this study was to reveal the feministic view in the selected poems of Ophelia Dimalanta through analyzing and interpreting her works. Specifically, questions: 1. What feminism is reflected by each poem in the following aspects? 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 2. How Image of woman; personal relationship; socio-cultural status; and self-esteem? are the following devices of poetry utilized to this study sought to answer the following

School Researcher Degree

Adviser Date of Defense

contribute to feminism in the selected poems?

2.1 2.2

imagery and symbolism; and figurative language.

3. What message does each poem bring? To answer these questions, poems such as Amarantha,

Montage, On a House About to Crumble, The Infernal Machination, On a Rite Oriental, Melancholia, I keep a Diary, Love in a Contemporary Key, Flowers in a Solemn Flow, and Epilogia were read the selections comprehensively and analyzed separately.

Their form, content and style by which they were written were subjected feminism. Upon the bases of exploring the feminism in the poems of Ophelia Dimalanta, the researcher used the descriptive method utilizing qualitative approach with the aid of context analysis as his means of conducting the study and gave way to the to analysis to find out the devices used to show

following conclusions: 1. 1. The ten poems presented women as a strong being that can bear any problems to them. for The their women family, play a love great ones, role and in the the

people

close

society, in the family, in a relationship and in a married life. They responsibly take the role of being a mother or a housewife, a typical lover and a modern woman. 1.2. Women are always willing to embrace the

responsibilities and obligations in their chosen role in the

society. Because of such attitude towards their role, people around them take advantage and selfishly do things for their own without knowing that they might hurt the feelings of women. Moreover, women in return, just accept all of those things

despite of the fact that it hurts them, it imprisons them and little by little break their heart into pieces. 1.3. In this society, being the subject of gossips are

inevitable and it is so true to women. People find women damn. Interesting for womens lives is similar to those characters of women in the series of drama in TV programs. They are

courageously surviving from the hell of being women. 1.4. Self-esteem has something to do with self-worth. The things that happen to a person affect it. Womens self-esteem level vary as she does things for the sake of her role in this world depending on how things beautifully work for her or on how badly things treat her. 2.1. In order to symbolize the different objects Dimalanta wants the reader to interpret uses various symbols. They can be well considered as perfect representation of objects or the

woman in the poem, herself, for it perfectly suits the objects they represent. However, there are words that are used as symbols that

cannot be found in the dictionary or in the computer. Thus, the author used her own set of vocabulary words in her masterpieces.

2.2.

The

use

of

figurative

language

well

provides

the

readers the acquaintance that the author is a literary slave. The figures of speech that can be dominantly seen in the poems are metonymy and metaphor. Such figures of speech make the poems definitely unique for the author is adept in the artistically utilization of the figurative language. 3. The message that each poem brings are as follows: 3.1. Amarantha: A woman never loses hope and she will she

never give up easily from those trials. Instead stands on her feet and faces the world. 3.2. Montage: Love for oneself 3.3. On a House about to Crumble: Amid difficulties troubles, one needs to find hope. 3.4. Infernal machination: Marry, and with luck

and

it

may

go well. But when a marraige fails, then those marry live at home in hell. 3.5. On a Rite Oriental: he greatest love of

who

all

is

loving ones self. 3.6. Melancholia: Truth shall set you free. 3.7. I Keep a Diary: Woman must not just be in one

place and sit there like a book which is being in the shelves for a long time and wait for open them. someone

kept to

3.8. Love in a Contemporary key: God created woman not to be stepped upon but He created her from mans in order to his equal and lover. 3.9. Flowers in a Solemn Flow: Love your neighbor as love yourself. 3.10. Epilogia: Hold fast to your dreams, for if may die, life is like a barren desert dreams you rib

filled with snow.

Based on the results of the study, the researcher came up with the following recommendations: 1. Other researchers may conduct a follow-up study on the other works of Ophelia Dimalanta. 2. A further study may be done on the use of language and styles by the author for the acquisition of techniques that will help the aspiring writers to develop their

talents. 3. English major students should be exposed to varied poems for literary analysis to enhance their critical thinking skills. 4. Literature teachers are encouraged to include literary texts written by male and female authors to compare and contrast text. 5. Female readers must be exposed in literature using their treatment of woman character in their

different kind of media (television, internet, etc.) to

help

them

evaluate

its

worth

and

effect

on

their

identity.