Faith, Love, Time, and Dr.

Lazaro
Gregorio C. Brillantes
A Literary Criticism

Character
1. Who is the main character? Why is this character, rather than some other character, at the
center of the story?
Answer:
The main character of the story is, Dr. Lazaro, a father, husband, and a country doctor.
The entire story focuses on the effects of his profession to his life, to his faith in God, and
his love and time was long gone. For Dr. Lazaro, what kind of God would allow pain? Is
there really a God?

2. What is the dominant impression created by the character? What factors contribute to this
impression?
Answer:
His dominant impression is one who sees everything in darkness. Darkness illustrates that
he is a damaged man, injured by his profession and the loss of his eldest son. Lazaro is a
reservoir of darkness surrounded by light which is associated with the things he no longer
believed in faith, love, hope, empathy and purpose. As human we always be apt to
blame God on the things that happen in our lives especially the negative one. In his case,
certain critical events in his life led the loss of his faith to God. He thinks that he is as a
doctor that could not do anything in order to save the lives of his patients, and even more
when his son committed suicide and he even done anything in order to save the life of his
son. For him, what kind of God would kill a baby? What kind of God would take away a
son?
3. Who are the secondary characters in the story? How do they relate to the main character?
Answer:
The secondary characters are:
Dr. Lazaros wife who has a distant relationship with her husband being
so focused with work she became more immersed in religion than her
family.
Ben Lazaro, Dr. Lazaros who he wanted to be a doctor like him but is a
firm believer of God, engaged to a religious vocation and wanted to be a
priest to serve God.
Pedro Esteban the father of a week-old child who needs assistance because
his child had a high fever, a bluish skin and its mouth would not open to
suckletetanus of the newborn. He and his family are strong believers of
God.
 4. Is the character involved with an exterior or an interior conflict? Are other characters
involved in the conflict?
Answer:
Dr. Lazaro is conflicted against himself also against the circumstances he is in. Because
of the circumstances around him he disbelieve in faith to God and he keeps on asking if
there is really God? If there is one, why would he let the death of his son and his patient
happen.
5. Which of the characters do you like the most or least? Why?
Answer:
Ben Lazaro made my heart warm, he tries to articulate all the light his father has lost, of
faith and hope. He wants to help his father to regain all the faith and love he had lost.
Even though he got lack of love from his father, he didnt showed that he doesnt love his
father. Instead he still give his father the respect that a child should give to his father
despite of the coldness of Dr. Lazaro to him and her mother. Ben also showed love on
Estebans child, he baptized the baby because he wants the baby to see God. He wants the
baby to have an eternal life.
6. Which do you come to know best? How?
Answer:
Being my favorite character in the story, I focused on Ben and on how will he contribute
to the development of the story and his help on resolving the conflicts.
Setting
1. How is the setting different from your own time and place?
Answer:
San Miguel. The story suggest a dull, lifeless and depressing ambiance. Throughout the
story it was set constantly in darkness. The story happened late at night, the roads were
dark, and the way to Pedro Estebans house was also dark. In all those dark places there
is a little light that helps him to help things to focus even a little. Deep in him he
acknowledges the existence of faith and love guiding people, but because of his
profession and his beliefs, he cant accept it for himself.
2. How convincing is the setting?
Answer:
The setting is really powerful and it played its role really well as it described the
ambiance and the atmosphere as detailed as possible. It also provides deep meanings for
the readers to deepen the understanding and the imagery of the story. It also help to know
the main character even more.
 3. Did the setting affect the plot and characters? How?
Answer:
Yes. The setting really affect the plot and the characters. The setting being soaked with
darkness with a little amount of light described the wholeness of the main character, Ben
being his little light that would help him regain his belief on the faith, love, hope and
empathy he lost.
Plot
1. What information is presented in the exposition?
Answer:
From the upstairs veranda, Dr. Lazaro had a view of stars, the country darkness, and the
lights on the distant highway at the edge of the town. His wife came to tell him he was
wanted on the phone. Dr. Lazaro reached for the phone. The man was calling from a
service station outside the town. He was Pedro Esteban, the brother of the doctors tenant
in Namblan.
2. What incident begins the movement of the plot?
Answer:
When his wife told Lazaro that he was wanted in the phone and there is a man calling that
needed his assistance for his sick child.
3. What incidents make up the rising action of the story?
Answer:
The mans week-old child had a fever, a bluish skin; its mouth would not open to suckle.
They could not take the baby to the poblacion, they would not dare to move it; its body
turned rigid when touched. Ben, Dr. Lazaros son, drove for him. While on the way, they
had conversation about Bens plan on what career to pursue. Dr. Lazaro wanted his son to
be a doctor too.
4. What is the climax of the story? How does this turning point change the course of events?
Answer:
Dr. Lazaro and Ben reached the gas station, where the Dr. agreed to meet Esteban. They
went to Estebans house and saw the sick child bundled with blankets. Dr. Lazaro made
cursory check- skin dry, turning cold, breathing shallow, heartbeat fast and irregular. He
removed the blanket and injected a whole ampule to check the tonic spasms, tried to draw
air into the faltering lungs, pressing and releasing the chest; but even as he worked to
rescue the child the bluish color of the face began to turn gray.
 5. How is the conflict resolved in the end of the story?
Answer:
Dr. Lazaro shook his head as a sign of theres nothing more he can do to save the
child. Ben knelt beside the child and baptized it because he wants the baby to see God
and to have an eternal life. Estebans wife began to cry. When Dr. Lazaro and Ben are on
their way home, Dr. Lazaro realized everything around him- the town, the people, his
family, his faith, love and time that it was long gone.

Point of View
1. Who is telling the story?
Answer:
The narrator or a third person.
2. Which of the three points of view is used to narrate the story? Cite evidence(s) that is
being told from this particular point of view.
Answer:
Omniscient third-person. The narrator cross the threshold of the mind and feeling of Dr.
Lazaro. The perspective of narration allows the reader to know the way in which Dr. Lazaro
thinks and feels. (e.g. Dr. Lazaro found himself wondering about the world of novenas and
candles, where bread and wine became the flesh and blood of the Lord, and a woman bathed
in light appeared before children as though he had been deprived of a certain joy...)
3. How does the point of view affect the way you understand the story?
Answer:
As to the point of view used in the story, as a reader it helped me to imagine more the
details of the story, the characters as how it is perceived by a third persons view. Being
the story in the omniscient point of view gives more of like I am also in the setting, that I
am watching also what is happening.
4. How would the story be changed if told from another point of view?
Answer:
If the story were told on another point of view, for example, the view of Dr. Lazaro I
might as well want to feel what he is feeling. Being in his view it might provide an
authentic feel for the story as we generally will trust what people say they have done
themselves more than second-hand reports that have perhaps been exaggerated or
underplayed in some way.