O book Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis in 1899 is considered a classic work that goes beyond its time and still marks great doubts in the minds of many readers, Capitu betrayed or not bentinho? The book is considered one of the writer's main works, portraying the critical and realistic reality of the current Brazilian society, a work that was written in the second novelist phase of Machado de Assis, who sought the psychological analysis of his characters, mainly in the weaving of jealousy and mistrust portrayed in Bento, causing great doubts and polemics about Capitu's character.
Dom Casmurro – Cover of the work (1899).
Let's check out a short summary of this brilliant work?
Index
The first parts of the work begin by reporting the reason for the name of the book “Dom Casmurro”, bento begins by analyzing his youthful life already in his mature age, recalling the the moment he received the expression that was invented by a Young Poet during a train journey, this had occurred, as he tried to read some of his verses to Bento and realized that he was sleeping and didn't pay any attention to what was being said, the boy disagreed and upset, decided to call him Dom Suckus.
The Narrator, as said, in his mature phase, begins by narrating his childhood trajectory together with his parents in a large mansion on Rua Matacavalos, the first fact narrated by him is due concern about the seminary, it all starts when your mother, already widowed by your father, will remember the promise made when her first son died, and promised that she would if a male child was born “Men”, he would become a priest and put him in a seminary, together with them lived Bentinho's sister, Justina, cousin Cosme, and let's say the family member, José Dias.
In this scenario, Bentinho's mother already knew of her great friendship and love for Capitu, who upon learning of her plans, devised several ideas for Bentinho's trip to the seminary. was interrupted, but nothing helped, Bentinho ended up going to the seminary, but before that he sealed the great love he felt for Capitu with a kiss, promising that he would return to marry Is it over there.
In the seminary, still in his teens, bento realizes that he had no vocation as a priest, besides this context, he had a great love for Capitu, a woman the one who fell madly in love, further increasing her desire to leave that place, while still in the seminary, Bentinho meets Ezequiel de Souza Escobar and they immediately become best friends, during this period Capitu starts to frequent Dona Gloria's house, she starts to see the girl with good things. eyes and then decides to resolve the promise in another way, promised another priest to God, putting in the son's place a slave who is sent to the seminar.
Some time later, bentinho graduated in law and married the great love of his life. Capitu's best friend, Sancha, also marries Escobar, that is, her happiness seemed to be complete, it just seemed, because at that moment, another fact begins. putting a flea behind Bentinho's ear, his son, Ezequiel, named in honor of his friend, who also had a beautiful girl named Capitolina, homage paid to Capitu, he begins to look a lot like his friend Escobar, but there was no time for questioning, Escobar went for a swim and ended up dying drowned.
During the wake, Capitu behaved in a very strange way, as if she were harboring a secret love for Escobar, from that moment on Bentinho began to suspect of adultery, in view of this fact, bento decides to commit suicide by drinking a cup of poisoned coffee, the son arrives at the office at the time of the act and stops him, the same Instantly decides to kill Ezequiel, but gives up, with that he decides to tell the boy that he is not his father, Capitu, listening to the whole situation, deeply regrets the jealousy of beautiful.
Faced with so many distrust and arguments, both decide to separate, the woman decides to travel to Europe to throw the whole situation out of the way, Bentinho returns to Brazil alone, becoming cold, hardened and bitter. Capitu unfortunately ends up dying in Europe, and Ezequiel tries several times to establish a closer relationship with his father, but without success, rejecting him. Ezekiel ends up on a not-so-happy path, dying of typhoid fever during an archaeological research in the city of Jerusalem.
With the context of his entire trajectory, the narrator decides to build a house identical to his childhood, the book portrays the incessant search by the meaning of the narrator's life, in the end he implies that he despises his work, creating another story: “The story of the suburbs".
The novel Dom Casmurro is divided into 148 chapters, chapters of different dimensions with great predominance of short films, a technique that can be found in the book Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Vats.
Action: The work is not so dynamic, it provides more the psychological character of the narrated characters. The narrative is interrupted all the time by escapes from linearity, this escape takes place to demonstrate the memories and thoughts of the narrator, Bentinho.
Narrative Focus: In the narrative weave, the work is always narrated by the first person, that is, by Bento Santiago, better known as Bentinho, in this novel he describes the story of his life. The novel works as a pseudo-biography of a man already mature and lonely, and for the absence of loneliness, seeks past memories that never really distanced itself, this happens because of the suffering of the same.
Time: The time in the work is chronological, the first reference being in the year 1857, when D. Gloria suggests to José Dias that Bentinho go to the seminary. In 1858, Bento was already in the seminary. In 1865, that is, 7 years later, Bentinho and Capitu got married. In 1872, that is, also 7 years later, Bentinho and Capitu separated. How can we notice each event, that is, each cycle lasts exactly 7 years, thus forming a complete cycle: ascension, fullness and death of the feeling of love.
Space: The entire narrative takes place in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The narrator describes his trajectory in the streets of RJ, from Engenho Novo, where he writes his work, to Rua Matacavalos, a place where he lived his entire childhood and knew love, Capitu. The plantation house was completely built to resemble Matacavalos' house, the narrator's objective, as described in the work itself, it is to tie the two ends of life, that is, in the link between the past and the gift.
Bentinho: Bentinho is a narrator-style character, that is, he narrates his entire story, reporting his main memories and events. At the time of his old age, Bentinho became a bitter, sad and lonely man, throughout his childhood and adolescence he was always very pampered by people around him, making him an insecure and dependent man, this insecurity turned into sick jealousy for Capitu, suspecting the adultery of the women.
Capitu: Capitu in Machado's work was painted as a frivolous, futile and ambitious character, despite her poor origins. Intelligent, practical character, personality with strong and striking features, and Bentinho's great love.
Escobar: Escobar, a great friend of Bentinho, whom he met at the seminary and who became one of the main torments for his mistrust of Capitu.
Mrs. Sancha: Capitu's friend and Escobar's wife is considered a secondary character in the story.
Dona Gloria: Great character and mother of Bentinho, a very religious woman who during the narrative dreams of her son's entry into the seminary due to a promise. During the narrative, dona gloria is an opponent and then an adjuvant.
José Dias: He is considered an added character in the narrative, he lived in favor in the house of dona gloria, considered a “doctor”, he had the habit of pleasing the owners of the house with superlatives. He protected Bentinho in a very paternal way.
Ezekiel: Capitu's son became a lost adult and always in search of a relationship with his father.
Uncle Cosimo: Brother of Dona Gloria, lawyer and widower
Cousin Justina: I didn't speak out, cousin of lady glory
Pedro de Albuquerque Santiago: Bentinho's father died when his son was still very young
Mr Padua and Mrs Fortunata: Capitu's parents saw in the marriage of Bentinho and Capitu the possibility of social ascension.
Dom Casmurro is present in the realist works of Machado de Assis, in the realism genre the characters are considered with more defects what qualities, the themes are totally different in view of romanticism, addressing issues such as adultery, betrayals, ambitions and vanities.
In terms of the novels, the love triangles were formed by the good guy, the girl and the bad guy, who fought against this union. In realism, more precisely in the work of Dom Casmurro, we have as a love triangle bentinho, his best friend, Escobar, who was considered neither a villain nor a good guy, and Capitu, who was not a villain, much less a girl.
Therefore, Dom Casmurro's work works as a possible female betrayal, breaking the paradigms of romanticism, where the woman is idealized. The work is narrated in well-defined chronological order, in addition, the novel is narrated in first person and works as a pseudo-biography of Bentinho, the plot of the work is not dynamic, as the factor predominates psychological.
The most striking factor of the work is that there is no proof of betrayal, the conclusion is up to the reader, who becomes increasingly confused, that is, in each reading, a fact or event arises. different that has not been analyzed, leading to thinking about whether or not bentinho is lying, it is a great work that creates an enigma in the readers' minds, turning Machado de Assis into a novelist innovative.
Faced with this fact of betrayal mentioned in the work, in 1960, an American teacher named Helen Cadwell proposed a rereading of the book, that is, in view of this analysis, the teacher points out Bentinho, and not his wife, as the central problem to be discovered in the facts narrated.
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