Is your life really free from all controversies and shackles, if your society bonds you in a small circle of norm and misogyny?
If it sets a series of moral standards appointing to femininity, how can you live your life both freely and comfortably?
Urbana at Felisa is a narrative story written by Father Modesto de Castro, who served as a priest in the Cathedral of Manila in the early nineteenth century. His initial goal was to educate the public regarding the good manners and proper conduct one should possess, which leads to a great emphasis on his literary piece of writing in that time, and these messages still influence us nowadays.Â
“Urbana at Felisa” was published literature during the Spanish Colonial period. The Spanish influenced literature's central focus was reflected in the society and culture related to the Catholic faith, wherein the context mostly tackled the laws and rules of good behavior settled by our ancestors in the past.
The story revolves around two sisters (Urbana at Felisa) , they communicate with each other by exchanging letters about the events happening in their lives, such as: setting standards and facing the reality, accepting that there were discrimination and degradation of status happened, and sharing pieces of advice to each other, giving an emphasis on the importance of the values and righteousness of an individual living in society. Urbana mentioned the words of wisdom to Felisa in how to act, speak, and the physical manner of being a devout and traditional woman, and how to enrich the spiritual realms of an individual by following the preaches in the Christians Bible. Urbana always guided her siblings on the path of obtaining righteousness and reprimanding them not to join evil vices and illegal malice.
Society’s standard towards femininity. In the story, the patriarch system of ruling appoints the profligacy and importance of purity of a woman in dealings with the opposite sex in society. The dialogue of Urbana highlighted that the women in the Spanish colonial period must stay conservative and avoid direct contact with males, in order to refine their sins and prove their purity. Females in that time have low social status in society, so they are the one who is disparaged by people, and bound by a series of norms and misogyny because they need to obey whatever society standards were being set for them, despite all controversies, they have to endure and tolerate.
Moral standards in society as the foundation of one's religious practices and way of living. There are moral standards set in a society that women should strictly follow, through their acts, words, and walks. People tend to manifest a negative thought and downgrade the status of women. So women were forced to observe the important values and proper moral conduct in terms of expressing themselves in society, and enhance the spiritual self of an individual by following the teachings in the Christian Bible in order to show their scope of valuing and respect to the church.
Series of ridicules that led to the creation of discrimination of females in recent days. It generates a relative circle of influential standards that contradict the social role of femininity in society. People give high regard to those who follow the obligations and conduct etiquette on the behavior of women, but it also creates a lasting impression that females have no rights and freedom to do what they like. As time goes by, modern society still adopts a series of discriminative standards and stereotyping beliefs towards women. Through the influence of the published book “Urbana at Felisa”, which appointed the main theme of the moral stance, conduct etiquette and proper behavior of femininity in society, that result in different perspectives and deeply practiced, developed and embedded in the mind of people nowadays.
