Dom Casmurro: complete analysis of the work of Machado de Assis
Dom Casmurro é um romance de Machado de Assis, published in 1899. Narrated na first pessoa, it tells the story of Santiago, or protagonist, who intends to "tie as duas pontas gives life", lembrando and reliving or passed away from him.
A narração começa na youth, when Santiago (Bentinho, at the time) discovers his love for Capitu, a childhood friend with whom he ends up getting married. O romance explores themes such as mistrust, ciume and traição.
Embora or narrator seems to be certain, for the reader there is a question that will not be asked: Capitu traiu ou não traiu Bentinho? Traçando um moral portrait of the epoch, The work is considered the highest of Machado de Assis, and one of the most important Brazilian literature.
Summary of entanglement
A narration comes when Bentinho, as he was a child at the time, discovers that he is muted by his vizinha and childhood friend, Capitu.
His mother, Dona Glória, very religious, has promised to be or filho nascesse com saúde, she would be the father. At the same time, fifteen years old, Bentinho is forced to leave for the seminary, despite knowing that he has no vocation and that he is out of order.
When I start to fall in love, Capitu thinks of several plans to get rid of Bentinho da promessa, with the help of José Dias, a friend who lives in the house of D. Glory. Nenhum deles works e o menino finishes indo.
During his absence, Capitu takes the opportunity to get closer to Dona Glória, becoming more and more indispensable for the wife. No seminary, or protagonist found a great friend and confidant, from which he becomes inseparable: Escobar. He confesses to a companion or love for Capitu and this or support, saying that he also wants to leave the seminar and run back from his paixão: or trade.
Years of seven years, Bentinho obtained a seminar and began to study directly, concluding or bacharelato years twenty and two. Nessa height, he married Capitu and his friend Escobar married Sancha, a childhood friend from Santiago. You are married together very much. The narrator was like a woman who burned him or Escobar's first name: Ezequiel.
Escobar, what tinha or swimming costume I do not see every day, I die suffocated. No watch, or barnacle protagonist, through the olhar de Capitu, who was battered by his friend's hair. From this day on, he stubbornly commented on an idea, repairing more and more semelhanças between Ezequiel and Escobar.
He plans to kill a woman or father, but decides to commit suicide when interrupted by Ezequiel. He says that he does not belong to him and confronts Capitu, who denies everything, even though he acknowledges the physical appearances between the minor and the deceased. So I decided to separate.
Part of Europe where the Capitu fica dwelling as filho, ending up dying in Suíça. Santiago leads a solitary life, which he is worth or not of "Dom Casmurro" na vizinhança. Ezequiel, now an adult, is going to visit Santiago and confirms his suspense: he is practically the same as Escobar. Tempos depois, Ezequiel Morre, as well as all the relatives and friends of Santiago, ele fica sozinho and decides to save or free.
Personagens principais
Bentinho / Santiago / Dom Casmurro
Or narrator-protagonist passes by different phases He gives his personality to him over the long term, symbolized by the way he is called other hairs. Na adolescência é Bentinho, an innocent garoto who finds himself haunted and divided between a vontade da mãe (or priesthood) and the desejos da namorada (or marriage).
Já depois gives saída do seminário and concluding your studies, he marries with Capitu and begins to be called from Santiago. Here, he já não é mais treated and faced as a boy: he is advocate. husband, dad. Totally dedicated to the family and oblivious to Capitu, he gradually began to show signs of mistrust and citizenship.
Finally, after separating the woman and the filho, he becomes a homem of "secluded and open habits", lonely, bitter, who happens to be named after Dom Casmurro pela vizinhança, with whom he does not relate.
Capitu
Friend of Santiago from infância, Capitu é described, long of all or romance, as uma smart and cheerful woman, muffled and determined. Logo not início do namoro, we can see how a menina fazia plans to try to free Bentinho do seminário, trying to provide lies and blackmail.
Capitu é, many times, faced like a mulher manipulative and perigious, accusation that arises the logo does not come from the plot, the voice of José Dias, who says that menina tem "olhos de cigana oblíqua and dissimulated. This expression is repeated several times by the narrator for a long time of the work, which we also describe as "olhos de ressaca", referring to the sea, as "a force that dragged inside."
Escobar
Ezequiel Escobar and Santiago met with no seminary and became friends and confidants. As happens with Capitu, no case of Escobar a suspeita also arises from the beginning: now he is described as um bom friend, or the narrator appoints that tinha "olhos clear, um few fugitives, like me, like you, like a fala, like you" and that "não fitava de rosto, não falava clear."
Married with Sancha, my friend of Capitu, and pai de uma menina, he stayed very close to Santiago, quase like um irmão. A link between the two is strong that the narrator battles or filho as a friend. Depois de morrer afogado, ainda jovem, Escobar becomes o Major inimigo The protagonist, a memory that amazes and ends up destroying his family.
Secondary Personagens
Dona Glória
Mãe do protagonista, uma viúva ainda jovem, bonita e de bom coração. During Bentinho's adolescence, she lived divided between a vontade de ter or filho because of the promise that he was pregnant during pregnancy. Beginning for being an obstacle not to romance two teenagers, Dona Glória ends up supporting a couple of two.
Jose Dias
Referred to by the narrator-protagonist as "or added", José Dias is a friend of the family who moved to Matacavalos' house no time since Dona Glória's husband was alive. He was the first person to catch a love among adolescents, before Bentinho himself, he realized that he loved Capitu. He is also the first to raise little questions about the character of men.
Initially, to please Viúva, it encourages Bentinho to enter non-seminary. However, from the moment that Garoto opens up and confesses that he does not want to be a father, a true friend is revealed, conspiring with him to find a way to or free the priesthood.
Uncle Cosme and Prima Justina
Together with Dona Glória, I formed "casa dos tres viúvos" in Matacavalos. Cosme, Irmão de Glória, is described as a home of great paixões that, as years, was becoming more and more tired and indifferent. Embora analyze the situations in your volta, keep a neutral posture, do not assume positions.
Justina, Glória and Cosme's cousin, is presented as a mulher "do contra". It is the first to ask Bentinho's going to the seminar, because of the fact that the boy does not have a vocation.
He is the only one who seems not to change his mind about the character of Capitu, clearly uncomfortable with his approach to him with Gloria and his presence every time more frequent in the family. She, too, is the only one in Matacavalos that doesn't like Escobar.
Ezequiel
Filho de Capitu e Santiago. It was up to the narrator-protagonist to deny parentage of the child, due to his physical semelhança with Escobar, they separated.
Analysis and interpretation of the work
Narration
Em Dom Casmurro, a narração é na first pessoa: Bento Santiago, or narrator-protagonist, escreve on or seu passedado de him. Assim, all the narration is dependent on your memory of him, if only a few seconds or a second point of view of him.
Due to this subjective and partial character da narração, or leitor does not manage to distinguish reality and imagination of Santiago, doubting his reliability as a narrator. This form, or romance, opens the possibility of the reader to interpret the facts and to position himself for or against the protagonist, face à possível traição.
Tempo
The romance started in 1857, when Bentinho was fifteen years old and Capitu fourteen, not at the time that José Dias exposed or possibly named Dona Glória between you.
Em Dom Casmurro, or tempo of narrative mixture present (when Santiago escapes to work) and past (to adolescência, or namoro with Capitu, or seminário, to amizade with Escobar, or marriage, to supposta betrayal and the conflicts that damage result).
Walking to memory of the narrator-protagonist, as ações são counted em flashback. Contudo, surgem indicações temporais that allow us to place chronologically some important events:
1858 - Departure for the seminary.
1865 - Casamento de Santiago e Capitu.
1871 - Morte de Escobar, Santigo's friend. Começam as suspeitas de traição.
1872-Santiago tells Ezequiel that he did not belong to him. Conflict between or casal, who decides to leave for Europe, for the protagonist not to cause scandal. The protagonist returns to Brazil sozinho and a family separates forever.
Space
Or entanglement place no Rio de Janeiro of piss / end of XIX century. Seat of the Empire since Independence in 1822, a city assisted the rise of the Rio de Janeiro bourgeoisie and petty-bourgeoisie.
Santiago and his family, belonging to a social class of posses, various habitats Historic streets and bairros do Rio de Janeiro, long year of the work: Matacavalos, Glória, Andaraí, Engenho Novo, among others.
Presentation of the narrator-protagonist of the work
We have two initial chapters, or the narrator-protagonist appears and talks about the work, explaining his motivations for escrevê-la. Começa for explaining or title, "Dom Casmurro", somebody that a rapacious do bairro lhe gives, to insult him, for being a "homem drilled and put with him".
About current life, just confessa o seu isolacion ("I live alone, as a servant.") And that home where he lives is a perfect replica of his childhood home. It is evident to his vontade to recover the past times and to return to meet them (on the present days, he confesses: "I lack the same, and this lake is terrible").
In this way, he writes to his story to be able to revive-it ("I will live or that I lived") and try to unite or past and present, or young that foi e or homem that it.
Adolescence and uncovered love
The narrator began to tell the story of his life, starting from a moment that he marked or followed forever: fifteen years old, he listens A conversation with José Dias comments with Dona Glória in the vicinity between Bentinho and Capitu, saying that a love may arise between he is.
In the words of José Dias echoing the head of an adolescent, provoking a revelation:
How do you love Capitu e Capitu a mi? Actually, he was stitched up to some extent, but nothing happened to me between us that was truly a secret.
The following chapters contain advances and resources of the day adolescent paixão, which turns out to be a first beijo (chapter XXXIII) and an oath of eternal love (chapter XLVIII: “let us swear that we have to marry um as another, do or what houver”).
Determined not to separate from the lover, Capitu generates several plans so that Bentinho does not go to the seminary, years when he submissively obeys him.
From this phase of the narrative, he apontado a perigoso character in personagem, are described the seus "olhos de ressaca", "of cigana oblíqua and dissimulada":
Capitu, fourteen years old, I have no daring ideas, much less than others I have seen depois.
Assim, since the beginning of the relationship, or the reader has been raised to suspend two atos of Capitu, same assisting in the narration of A love story in which she seems exhausted, beaten up, ready to go to ficar like homem that she loves and fazê-lo happy.
The seminary tempos
Bentinho finishes indo for the seminar, where Ezequiel de Sousa Escobar meets. Embora a certain dúvid seja implanted does not read quanto a personagem, because of two serious "olhos, in costume fugitives", amizade between you two "fez-be great and fertile."
Tornam-se Melhores friends and confidants, telling that he wanted to leave the religious studies: Bentinho wanted to marry with Capitu, Escobar wanted a career did not trade.
Or friend supports and encourages or romance. Numa visits home, Bentinho cam or companheiro to meet his family. Everyone is very sympathetic to him, except cousin Justina, who mistrusts her or her character;
Escobar was so much involved and had some old police officers to whom he did not escape anything.
Na ausência do filho, Dona Glória fica most vulnerable and lacking; Capitu seems to take advantage of this to get closer to her, becoming more and more friend and essential to her life, as she prepares the land for the marriage.
Adult life and conjugal life
José Dias ajuda or protagonist and sair do seminário; Bentinho continued his studies in Direct and became a bachelor at the age of 22, marrying depois as Capitu.
During the ceremony (chapter CI), we cannot fail to notice Machadian irony through the father's words:
As women sejam subject to their husbands ...
Na verdade, during married life, as I did not love, she was the quem ditava as regras; or husband, contudo, did not seem to care, always showing his adoration and admiration pela mulher.
His melhores friends (Sancha e Escobar) also got married. When referring to a marriage for the first time, she mentions a possible adulthood of Escobar, plus a mute logo of the subject: "At the time of my husband's adventure, (...) but it was true, no scandal".
Due to the close relationships that maintain each other, you get married, you become inseparable:
Thus our visits are becoming closer, and as our conversations are more intimate.
Capitu e Sancha continues to grow as the friendship between Santiago and Escobar continues to grow exponentially. When Escobar morre afogado I am not unruly, he abhors the conjugal peace structures of Santiago; it came to overthrow.
Ciume and traição
Wake up from the ciume
The first access of the narrator's cities happens ainda during or namoro; When José Dias or visits, he mentions Capitu's joy, adding: “Here I am not going to hit some peralta da vizinhança that marries with her…”.
As the words of my friend, nowadays it seems to awaken a kind of epiphany not the protagonist, this time raising-or to think that a beloved house would like another in his absence of him.
As mistrust begins this chapter (LXII), entitled "Uma ponta de Iago". Machado de Assis has a direct reference to Othello, Shakespeare tragedy on ciume and adultério. Na peça, Iago é or vilão that leads or protagonist to prove that his wife or brought.
Apaixado and possessive husband
Today, as we are awakened as a comment from the "added", the cities of Santiago become more and more evident.
Uncomfortable with the freedom of women in their married life ("it was like um passaro que saísse da gaiola"), he convinces himself that all of us leave their wife with no dance where she was with her arms. Enciumado, he convinces Capitu not to go to the next dance and begin to collect the arms.
Revealing, through his account of him, uma obsessão pela mulher ("Capitu was tudo e mais que tudo"), she confesses that her mistrust of her becomes irrational: "Cheguei a ter ciúmes de tudo e todos."
Santiago e Sancha
In spite of its behavior, many times it is controlling and of the nursery in Capitu's function, Santiago felt a sudden attraction for Sancha, which seems to be reciprocated: “A mão dela apertou muito a minha, e demorou-se mais que de costume ".
The same ficando shocked the moment that partilham (“we olhos that we barter”), or the narrator does not give in to Tentação por respeito à amizade com Escobar (“I rejeitei a figure da mulher de meu amigo, e chamei-me unfair").
Or episode seems to pass lost in the narrative, but it can be seen as an indication that the proximity between the two of you was conducive to an adult situation.
Escobar's death and epiphany
Even leaving some clues, a long year of work, of possible faults of a character not a friend and a wife, Submitting no wake of Escobar (chapter CXXIII) is that the narrator equates, or explains to the reader, or case between you do.
Observe, de longe, or Capitu behavior, that olha or corpse "tão fixa, tão apaixonamente fixa" and tries to hide the tears, flushing them "depressa, sniffing the furtive for people who were in the room".
A clear sadness gives the woman and her attempt to disguise her - she captures the attention of the protagonist, who returns to mention the seus "olhos de ressaca" (title of the chapter).
Moment houve em que os olhos de Capitu fitaram or defunto, quais gives you viúva, sem o pranto nem palavras These are bigger and more open, like a vaga do mar la fora, how you wanted to swallow too, or a swimmer. manhã.
As not dating from a cycle, it was revealed by fim or perigo inherent to personagem from the prophecy of José Dias, I do not commence free. He is gaining consciousness (or imagining) by virtue of the fact that he was a victim, enquanto lê or eulogy to a friend.
Nessa passagem, he compares himself to Príamo, king of Troia who beijou to mão Achilles, assassin of his filho: "he had just learned the virtues of homem that he received from the death of those olhos."
Or sentiment of betrayal and rancor gerados from this moment on or motor of the rest of the action gives work, defining or behavior of the protagonist and the escorts that he faces.
Confrontation and separation
Semelhanças between Ezequiel and Escobar
Since Ezequiel was little, several members of the family will notice that he has a mania to imitate others, mainly Sancha's husband:
Some two gestures já lhe iam ficando more repeated, like or give more and pés de Escobar; Lately I attached apanhara or way of turning from this head, when he falava, and or deixá-la cair, when he laughs.
You say that Capitu's barnacle or surprise does not watch out for my friend, Santiago cannot stop imagining or a love affair between them, and they seem physical do filho as or seu rival asombra or protagonist:
Escobar vinha assim emerged from the grave (…) to sit with me at the table, receive-me na escada, beijar-me no cabinet de manhã, or ask-me à noite a bênção do costume.
Paranoia and Desire of Vingança
One year after Escobar's death, Santiago continued to be married to Capitu, he was dubious about the betrayal of the grave, transforming himself into certainty. Sua raiva increases and gerava a seat of vingança that the narrator does not try to hide, as affirmations as “eu swears kill them both”.
I will see Othello, by Shakespeare, attracted by coincidence, and fantasy like a violent and tragic vingança, like a da peça: “Capitu devia morrer”. He compares beloved with Desdêmona, wife that Othello kills, blind of ciúmes, proving that she or had brought with Cássio, her most faithful homem of him.
Desperate, he chooses to end up with his own life drinking more poison and interrupted by Ezequiel. Sua vingança chega, then, through das words that direct to or menino: "Não, não, eu não sou teu pai".
Discussion between the home and the family breakdown
Ao confront Capitu as supposed adultério with Escobar, a reaction of the woman and of surpresa. She sublimates that, despite his possessive behavior, his husband has never suspended the relationship between you two: “Você that was tão cioso two minor gestures, never revealed the least shadow distrust ".
Assuming "a coincidence of semelhança" between Escobar and Ezequiel, she tries to dissuade the protagonist of the idea, attributing to her behavior possessive and distrustful:
Pois I left you dead! Nem os mortos escape seus ciúmes!
Despite the attempt at conciliation, or narrator dita or end of marriage: “A separação é coisa decided”. Also, the three of you leave for Europe, little depois and Santiago returns sozinho to Brazil.
Leaving a woman or filho in Europe, he travels not the following year, to keep up appearances, but does not visit them.
Solidão and isolation
As mortals two remaining relatives announced in the last chapters of the book, or narrator-protagonist is increasingly sozinho. Capitu and Ezequiel, distant, also fell before Santiago. Conhecido, nessa phase, as Dom Casmurro, avoid or social contact:
Tenho-me ugly skecer. Moro longe e saio pouco.
Fazendo um balance gives his life from a separation, he reveals that he passed out to me and saw the company of several women, but did not turn off. by nenhuma in the same way as Amava Capitu, "maybe because nenhuma tinha os olhos de ressaca, nem os de cigana oblíqua e disguised ”.
Ainda que no tenha provas nem saiba or what motivated or supposed adulterio, ends the work re-embracing the traição of both as "to add the sums, or the rest two remains" not in its course:
(...) to my first friend and my best friend, both extreme and dear too, I wanted or destiny that ended up getting together and cheating on me... A terra lhes seja slight!
Capitu traiu ou não traiu Bentinho?
Traição signs
Some characteristics that turn it into a compelling work for readers of all times and the research work to which it led. A narration of the point of view of the protagonist face with which several indications of traição passem scattered over the long run.
Like Santiago, depois do velório de Escobar, or leitor himself começa a join the peças, scattering of various sinais that I ignored até então:
Lembravam-me vague and remote episodes, words, encounters and incidents, you know that a minha cegueira não pôs malícia, and a meu velho ciume is missing. One time when I went to see you sozinhos and calados, a secret that made me laugh, a word of the dreaming, all those reminiscences I saw I came now, in such an outrage that I was tormented ...
Or episode of pounds sterling (chapter CVI)
In our tempos of conjugal harmony, not in the beginning of the marriage, Santiago narrates an episode that he will admire even more than his wife. Noticing that Capitu olhava or sea with a pensive countenance, he asked that he had eaten.
To his wife he revealed that she was a surprise: she poupou some money for despesas da casa e trocou for ten pounds sterling. Admired, he questions how fez a truck:
- Quem foi or corretor?
- Or his friend Escobar.
- How did you tell me anything?
- Foi hoje same.
- Ele esteve ca?
- Pouco before você chegar; eu não lhe disse so that you do not distrust.
Here, no moment, it seems an innocent conspiracy ("I laugh at the segredo of both"), can be faced as an evidence that Capitu and Escobar meet me sem or protagonist know.
Or episode of opera (chapter CXIII)
Outra semelhante situation is verified when Capitu said to be present in Santiago vai à sozinho opera. Having returned home during the interval, he crossed paths as a friend: "I found Escobar in the corridor."
Capitu no estava mais doente, "Estava melhor e ate boa", but his behavior seemed altered.
Not a happy falava, or that I fez mistrust that he was lying.
Or friend also agia with some stranger ("Escobar olhava for me, distrustful"), more or protagonist thought that atitude was related to the businesses that we were doing together.
When we reread passagem, however, we are impressed that Capitu and Escobar were surpreened during I found a secret.
Return of Ezekiel (chapter CXLV)
It is not about a hidden clue, one time this reencounter happens that is not the end of the narrative; not so much, it can be read when confirmation of mistrust do narrator.
As an adult, Ezequiel visits Santiago with prior notice. Ao revê-lo, and embora he tivesse certainty of traição, or physical protagonist abyssed with his physiognomy:
"It was either his own, or exato, or true Escobar"
Sublinhando, several times, that it was "or the same face" and that "the voice was the same", or the narrator turned to be astonished old hair companheiro: "my colleague from seminário ia resurfacing every time more do cemitério ".
Ezequiel seems not to see two reasons for the separation and treats Santiago as a country, with affection and showing saudade. Embora try to ignore the physical events, or the narrator does not achieve:
(...) date you olhos to not see gestures nem nothing, more or diabrete falava e ria, e o deceased falava e ria por ele.
Ajuda or rapacious who will lose me some time before (Capitu morreu na Europa), but finally fear certainty about his fatherhood and isso sad: “doeu-me that Ezequiel não fosse really meu filho ”.
Possível innocence of Capitu: outra interpretação
Embora the most frequent interpretation is the one that Capitu appoints as guilty of adultério, a work that originated other theories and readings. Some of the most popular, and it can be easily supported with text elements, it is because she was faithful to her husband. Assim, or adultério teria been fruit gives imagination of Santiago, consumed with ciume doentio hair.
Um sinal disso can thus be constant references to Othello, from Shakespeare, Já que na peça or protagonist kills his wife, enraived by a supposed adultério of which she was innocent. Contrary to Desdêmona, Capitu não é assassinada, but received another punishment: o exile in Europe.
The same physical semi-trades between Ezequiel and Escobar can be, in some way, questioned. It is certain that when he was a boy, he was only a rival, hardly an adult or narrator could confirm the appearance; We are, more once, dependent on him for his word.
It is worth mentioning that the thermo "casmurro" can have another meaning, além "dated" or "openwork": or from "stubborn" or "fearful". In this way, we can think that or adultério não passou de uma schism of the protagonist, who destroyed his family and rumo gives his life for his foundation.
Meaning of work
Em Dom Casmurro, Machado de Assis treats complex of human relationships, crossing true and imagination, traição and mistrust. As it happens many times in real life, this romance or possible adult arises wrapped in mysteries, raising many questões that ficam sem answers.
No final chapter of this book, Bento Santiago seems to call attention to those who prove to be the main theme: or is someone's character determined or can it be altered by tempo?
Or rest you know that Capitu da Praia da Glória was within Matacavalos, or has been moved to nachela due to some incident case. Jesus, filho de Sirach, was soubesse two meus first ciúmes, dir-me-ia, as not seu chap. IX, vers. 1: «We do not have any ciúmes of your mulher so that the não gets to deceive you - they tell you to learn from you.» But he believed that no, and you will agree with me; Bem da Capitu menina, you have to recognize that one was inside the other, like fruit inside the shell.
In her perspective of her, it has not been possible for her seirums to have been, nem nenhuma another external circumstance, to lead Capitu for the arms of Escobar; The unfair behavior is part of the, same during youth. Assim, the "olhos de ressaca" will be a symbol of its perigious nature that would attack sooner or later.
On the other hand, the reader could do the same exercise as the narrator-protagonist and affirm that no Bentinho da Juventude, who lived in Capitu function and was allowed to consume ciume hair, was still Dom Casmurro.
Style
Dom Casmurro (1899) is the last work of the chamada realistic trilogy of Machado de Assis, depois of Posthumous Memories of Brás Cubas (1881) e Quincas Borba (1891). Neste livro, as we did before, Machado de Assis produced seu tempo portraits of him, comforting social critics and three passing narratives.
Em Dom Casmurro ha uma representation of the carioca elite There are intrigues and betrayals that occurred in the mansions of the contemporary bourgeoisie.
With short chapters and a more informal careful linguagem, maybe how he conversed as a seu leitor, or narrator-protagonist goes by telling the story how he gradually grows out of it. There is no narrative linearity, or the reader navigates between the memories of Santiago and the same ambiguity.
Considered a forerunner of Modernism not Brazil, or romance and viewed by many readers and scholars as a work-first of the author.
Leia Dom Casmurro na whole
To work Dom Casmurro, by Machado de Assis, já é Public Domain and can be lida in PDF format.
Take the opportunity to see also:
- Livro Quincas Borba, by Machado de Assis
- The most famous works of Machado de Assis
- Machado de Assis: life, work and characteristics
- Livro Memórias Posthumas de Brás Cubas, by Machado de Assis
- Conto Missa de Galo, by Machado de Assis
- Livro Dom Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes
- Livro Grande Sertão: Paths of Guimarães Rosa
- Livro O Cortiço by Aluísio Azevedo
- Fundamental classics of world literature
