Physical appearance Because of her parentage, María Clara had
Eurasian features, described by Rizal thus:"María Clara did not have the small eyes of her father: like her mother she had them large and black, beneath long lashes; she was beautiful and smiling when she played, sad and soulful and pensive when she was not laughing. Since childhood her hair had an almost golden hue; her nose, of a correct profile, was neither sharp nor flat; her mouth reminded one of her mother's, small and perfect, with two beautiful dimples on her cheeks. Her skin had the fine texture of an onion layer, the whiteness of cotton, according to her enthusiastic relatives. They saw traces of Capitan Tiago's paternity in the small and well-rounded ears of María Clara."
Biography and personality The beautiful María Clara is the
childhood sweetheart and
fiancée of the protagonist,
Crisóstomo Ibarra, who returns to his Filipino hometown of San Diego to marry her. After Ibarra is implicated in a fake revolution and is thought to be dead, María Clara opts to become a
nun rather than marry another man. She remains unhappy for the rest of her life and her death is later mentioned in the sequel,
El filibusterismo (1891). María Clara is the only daughter of the wealthy Kapitán Tiago and Doña Pia Alba. However, it is later revealed that her biological father is
Father Dámaso, a priest who is one of the novel's antagonists, who became her godfather. Interpretations vary on whether Dámaso seduced or/and raped Pia Alba. María Clara had been described in her childhood as everybody's idol, growing up among smiles and loves. She is also very kind and considerate, and notices people whom others do not; she was the only person who noticed Elías during the fishing excursion and offered him biscuits. During the eve of the feast of San Diego, she also approached and offered her locket to a leper, despite her friends' warnings and shows of disgust. During the latter half of the novel, she was often sickly and subdued. Having been separated from Ibarra, and hearing the news of his excommunication, she took ill, and eventually was blackmailed by Padre Salvi into distancing herself from Ibarra. She was also coerced into giving up Ibarra's love letters, which were ultimately used to implicate him. In spite of her broken engagement with Ibarra, and subsequent engagement to Linares, she remained fiercely devoted to Ibarra. Upon hearing the news of his death, she told Padre Dámaso:"While he was alive, I was thinking on keeping on: I was hoping, I was trusting! I wanted to live to be able to hear about him... but now that they have killed him, there is no longer a reason for me to live and suffer... While he was alive, I could get married... I thought of flight afterwards... my father does not want anything but the connections! Now that he is dead nobody else shall claim me as his wife... When he was alive, I could degrade myself, there was left the comfort of knowing he lived and perhaps would think of me. Now that he is dead... the convent for me or the grave!"This ultimatum caused Padre Dámaso to relent and permit his daughter's entry into the Royal Monastery of Saint Clare (that until 1945 stood in
Intramuros). ==Basis and legacy==