english

• Dead Stars is a short story by Paz Marquez Benitez, written in 1925
• The story is basically a compilation of the complicated circumstances that every man has to go through in life
• Alfredo Salazar


  A lawyer, the main character in the story, the love of the life of Esperanza
• Esperanza


  Alfredo's fiancée, beautiful, elegant, reserved, and distinctly not average type of a woman
• Julia Salas


  Alfredo's neighbor's sister-in-law, an average type, not so beautiful but interests Alfredo so much
• Alfredo fell for Julia

  But he married Esperanza after Julia left the town
• After eight years of marriage, Alfredo still can't get over Julia's memories
• Alfredo finds that the feelings he had for Julia are gone, he is content with his life, and the perceived love he had felt for Julia all those years was like the "light of dead stars, long extinguished, yet seemingly still in their appointed places in the heavens"
• Characters


  • Alfredo Salazar
  • Esperanza
  • Julia Salas
  • Don Julian
  • Carmen
  • Judge Del Valle
  • Donna Adella
  • Calixta
  • Dionisio
  • Vicente
  • Brigida Samuy
• Settings


  • Don Julian's house
  • Judge Del Valle's house
  • Don Julian's house in Tanda
  • Calle Real
  • Sta. Cruz
• Conflicts


  • Man vs. Circumstances
  • Man vs. Society
  • Man vs. Himself
• The metaphor of dead stars is used to refer to Alfredo's love for Julia
• Alfredo Salazar- son of Don Julian, a more than 30 year’s old man and a bachelor. He is engaged to Esperanza but he is in love with Julia Salas.
• Esperanza - wife of Alfredo Salazar. She is a homely woman, literal minded and intensely acquisitive. She is one those fortunate women who have the gift of uniformly beauty.
• Julia Salas - sister-in-law of Judge Del Valle. She is the other girl of Alfredo Salazar that remains single in her entire life.
• Don Julian - an old man, a father of Alfredo Salazar and Carmen.
• Carmen - sister of Alfredo Salazar.
• Judge Del Valle - brother-in-law of Julia Salas.
• Donna Adella - sister of Julia Salas. She is small and plump, a pretty woman with a complexion of a baby with an expression of a likeable cow.
• Calixta - note-carrier of Alfredo Salazar and Esperanza.
• Dionisio - husband of Donna Adella.
• Vicente - husband of Carmen.
• Brigida Samuy - She is the illusive woman whose Alfredo is looking for