Santos 1 Reynan M. Santos Mrs. Loida L. Garcia ENGL-221 (Literary Criticism) 5 December 2017 Magnificence in Mother’s Decree: Through the Lens of Gender Criticism The short story Magnificence (1939), written by Estrella Alfon, talks about the bravery displayed by a mother against child molestation. This story shows the love of a mother for her children that she will fight for them in times of catastrophe. “No language can express the power, and beauty, and heroism, and majesty of a mother’s love. It shrinks not where man cowers, and grows stronger where man faints, and over wastes of worldly fortunes sends the radiance of its quenchless fidelity like a star” (Chapin). Alfon took her part to create a feminist agenda in the story. Thus, being a mother is not just being a mother who is typically a housewife, but also being a strong woman who can protect anyone they love from male abuse or any abuse of the society. Gender criticism suggests that power is not just top down or patriarchal—a man dominating a woman; it suggests that power is multifaceted and never just in one direction (Cordell and Pennington). The short story will be analyzed using the three core components of gender criticism. The first one is perspective, the second is power and the third one is gender relations. Once the analysis has been done, it will be formulated to a synthesized conclusion providing ideologies of gender stereotyping and gender roles and how these ideologies affect the society. In the beginning of the story, Alfon already provided gender juxtaposition by describing Vicente as “… so gentle, so kind” (1; par. 1) and “ … his voice soft, his manner slow” (1; par. 1), yet if we take another look, we know that these delineations are for women. Conversely, the mother in the story was described as “… with eyes that held pride, and then to partly gloss over the maternal gloating she exhibited” (2; par. 2) which when we examine, is a gender stereotype for men. Another reversed gender illustration is when Alfon described the mother as a tall woman as evident in this line, “and the mother knelt down, for she was a tall woman” (8; par.