Elvie Venus M.

Eslabon November 22, 2010

III-9 AB/BSE Literature O.P. No. 1

A Classical Theory approach

on the Literary Criticism of the play Sepang Loca

by Amelia Lopeña Bonifacio

According to Plato in Book X in The Republic, he regards poets as dangerous because

they pretend to know everything, but they really know nothing at all. It is widely considered that

they have knowledge of all that they write about, but, in fact, they do not. The things they deal

with cannot be known for they are only images, far removed from what is most real. He regarded

poets as “an imitator, and therefore, like all other imitators, he is thrice removed from the king

and from the truth”. A poet should only show what is true, what is good and what is beautiful or

ideally what the Creator or God has in his mind. For Plato, poetic mimesis does capture the

appearance of things but these appearances may render persons and actions attractive and

acceptable which are ethically repugnant. 

In the play Sepang Loca by Amelia Lopeña Bonifacio, it is safe to say that the play is

mimetic. The play portrays a story in the setting of a typical Filipino town. The Son, whom is the

speaker in the story, starts describing the town and telling what had happened “ten or nine years

ago” in their town. The scene begins like that of a typical family. The Son just got home from

work and Mother talks to him about his day and then the Father enters. But, the entire story

revolves around in the setting like that of an ordinary Filipino town; a commotion had happened

and all the people are in the place where the uproar happened. The lines of the Father saying

“You are not there, everyone asks about you… you are there and nobody pays you mind…”
pretty much depict how a Filipino town can be when something unusual happens. Moreover, the

Father also said that “men are taking turns at the well while the women watch and keep the

coffee warm on the fire.” This is what we Filipinos call bayanihan wherein everyone has his or

her part in helping. With these scenes, it is safe to say that the play is mimetic.

In learning that the play is mimetic, how do we then classify the play? Is it a good or a

bad mimesis? The most appealing part of the play is that Elena heard a baby crying in Sepa’s

hut. Upon hearing that, Elena decided to give milk to the baby but failed to fin Sepa and the baby

in the hut. Elena remembers “how Sepa goes straight to the well after her child is born. She

bathes herself clean and the baby too. Sepa is then found “slumped over the mouth of the stone

well, her arms dangling down the slimy inside of the stone wall” and the baby is nowhere to be

found. With these scenes, we may conclude that Sepang Loca is a bad mimesis. Why? The play

is a bad mimesis because it tells a story of a mad woman who has no husband giving birth to a

child. What worsens the situation is that Sepa is found dead with the assumption that she threw

the baby inside the well having said that her arms were dangling down the inside of the well.

These situations are far from what Plato believes in showing a good imitation of life --- which

should only be the true, the good and the beautiful. We may also state that the play is more of a

realist having said the events that had happened.

In Classical theory, Horace stated that Literature has two functions --- dulce and utile.

Dulce, from Latin word which means “sweet” because the work serves as “objects of beauty”

and “sources of pleasure”. Utile, which means “useful” and therefore, a literary work, serves as

“conveyors of messages and information.” How do we then classify whether a literary work

serves as a source of pleasure or it serves as a conveyor of information? This brings us back to

Plato’s idealism that a work must show a good imitation or the idea of the truth. We could then
classify a certain work as utile if it showed a moralistic or an idyllic ending. If not, the purpose

of a text is dulce that gives the readers or the audience pleasure, entertainment or amusement.

With this basis, we can say that the play Sepang Loca serves as dulce. We shall consider here our

first statement that the play represents a bad mimesis of life; removed from what is ideal. The

play, specifically, gives readers or audience entertainment in a way that they would feel awe and

pity with what had happened in the story. They will feel awe particularly in the part of Sepa’s

death and her giving birth to a child. Readers or audience will be puzzled whether who is the

father of Sepa’s child. These accounts support the idea that the play Sepang Loca serves as dulce.

The style of a literary work is categorized into four; the sublime, the low, the middle, the

high and the sublime. We cannot classify Sepang Loca as low for the choice of words of the play

did not contain any vulgarity or any explicit words. Neither can we classify it as high nor

sublime for the type of style of Sepang Loca best fits in the middle. There is subtlety and

sophistication on how Bonifacio chose the words. Sophistication can be seen in how the Mother

utters her lines, like for example, her using the words “Ay Santisima Madre!” and “Madre mia”.

These words are not vulgar for this is the most common and probably the most restraint term a

woman would use when shocked. There are funny lines are delivered when the three Woman

talk, but the choice of words were not vulgar --- just typical for women living in such town.

Plato views artists, particularly poets, in his The Republic as “too self involved,

concerned with and ruled by only their emotions and their imagination, without any real

knowledge or idea of the truth” because “he had an idealist view of how society should be, with

reason and rationality being necessities”, and to achieve this, art, which he stated thrice removed

from the idea of truth, and the influence of its creators were an obstacle to be overcome. Though

Plato has this negativity towards art, “he did not want to get rid of the arts completely; he just
wanted the power to choose which pieces were available to the public. His view in The

Republic is that only images of good must be portrayed.” This is what we call censorship. If a

literary piece portrayed a poor imitation or a bad mimesis of the idea of truth, it shall be

censored. Previously, we had stated that Sepang Loca is a bad mimesis, therefore in accordance

with Plato’s belief, Sepang Loca should be censored. Sepa bore a child with the father unknown

to all the people in their town and it was not mentioned that he had a husband; in that case, it is

safe to say that Sepa was raped. Why raped and why not assume that he had a relationship with

someone? Because in the story, as what her second name Loca suggests and like what have been

said in the text that there is “one of them in every town – a toddling idiot… a town’s clown.”

Sepa is mentally ill from the very start of the story. A person who is mentally ill cannot have and

will never have an ordinary relationship with anyone and those who are mentally ill are the ones

who are prone to be taken advantage of; given their condition.

Finally, we now arrive in the last criterion of Classical Theory which is catharsis.

Catharsis is defined as the “the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions,

especially through certain kinds of art, as tragedy or music.” Catharsis creates fear and pity to the

audience or the readers. Do we then say that Sepang Loca is cathartic? Given the definition or

the explanation of catharsis, we could say that the play is cathartic. Why? Because the play

revolves around the mystery with what all happened to Sepa and it happens to end with the

Mother seeing her Son “whose back is turned to her” --- which intensifies the And that “suddenly

everything is clear to her, she bites the back of her hand to keep from crying out”. In the first

place, her Son did not want to come with them in going to place where Sepa died. This gives us a

sense of mystery that maybe he is avoiding Sepa because of the indifference the he showed

earlier. Finally, the turning of the back of his Son when the baby is found must have confirmed
that he is the father of the child. Any ordinary person will not just suddenly panic because of

knowing the gender of the child. Everybody knew the gender when they found the baby but the

Mother’s reaction is exaggerated. She kept from crying because of disbelief about the revelation

that she found out. We stated that the play is cathartic because there was is “purgation” and fear

and pity is found throughout in the action of the play. With the mother trying to keep from

sobbing heightened the fell of pity and fear on the audience. For a literary work to be cathartic,

the play should “arouses emotions of pity and fear in the spectator and then purifies them

(reduces them to beneficent order and proportion) or purges them (expels them from his/her

emotional system).” The pity, the fear and all other emotions the readers or the audience is

entirely felt from the very start of the play.

References:

Sepang Loca by Amelia Lopeña Bonifacio

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Plato's Republic, by Plato. Retrieved November 19, 2010,

from http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/150/pg150.html

Tragedy: The Basics. Retrieved November 20, 2010, from

http://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/Tragedy.htm

Understanding Literature on Dulce et Utile. Retrieved from November 20, 2010, from

http://mockingbird.creighton.edu/english/fajardo/teaching/Miscellan/understand.htm

Censorship of the Arts in Plato's The Republic (Western Philosophy and the Restriction of

Poetry), Retrieved from November 21, 2010, from

http://www.suite101.com/content/censorship-of-the-arts-in-platos-the-republic-

a120161#ixzz15x4tm1tT

Mimesis and Katharsis/Catharsis by Trevor Patema, Retrieved from November 20, 2010 from

http://www.selectedworks.co.uk/mimesiskatharsis.html