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Dom Casmurro

Quotes

The 39 passages that decide the work, each with who speaks, the linked themes and characters, and an explanation.

Chapters I to XII: The Accusation, the Opera, and the Promise

My evident purpose was to tie the two ends of life together, and to restore adolescence in old age.
Speaker
the narrator
Characters
Bentinho
Themes
Memory and the PastLanguage and Narration
Symbols
The Matacavalos House
Devices
Metaphor, Leitmotif

Explanation and analysis

In chapter II, Bento Santiago, now old, explains why he writes. He lives alone, with a servant, in a house he had built at Engenho Novo as a copy of the Matacavalos house where he was raised: the same parlor with medallions of Caesars, the same little garden. The sentence gives the reason for the house and, right after, for the book: to join old age to adolescence. Then he admits that he cannot, because he himself is missing from the copy.

The scene shows a lonely, bored man, who seeks in the past a remedy for monotony. What the narrator writes over it is the word "evident," said by one who already knows the project has failed and that the book, after case law and a history of the suburbs were set aside, is what remains. Two readings fit: that of an honest old man, who confesses how much the boy is missing to him, and that of a narrator who warns the reader that everything that follows is an attempt at restoration, made by someone who chooses how to restore it.

The sentence opens the book as both project and warning. The expression returns in chapter LXIV, when the narrator takes up "joining the two ends of life" to say that he did not reach them, and it reappears in chapter CXLIV, when the old house, visited after his mother's death, does not recognize him and ends up demolished. A reader who knows this sees that the restoration promised at the beginning is never fulfilled, and that telling the story is what remains when the house does not give back the boy.

Life is an opera, and a grand opera. The tenor and the baritone fight over the soprano, in the presence of the bass and the supporting cast [...]
Speaker
Marcolini, the tenor, as repeated by the narrator
Characters
Bentinho
Themes
ReligionLanguage and Narration
Devices
Metaphor

Explanation and analysis

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So then I loved Capitu, and Capitu me?
Speaker
the narrator
Characters
Bentinho, Capitu, José Dias
Themes
Memory and the PastLanguage and Narration

Explanation and analysis

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Chapters XIII to XXII: Capitu, the Wall, and the Plan

BENTOCAPITOLINA
Speaker
the narrator (transcribes what Capitu wrote on the wall)
Characters
Bentinho, Capitu
Themes
Language and Narration
Symbols
The Inscription on the Wall, The Matacavalos House

Explanation and analysis

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Childhood confessions, you would have been worth two or three pages, but I want to be spared.
Speaker
the narrator
Characters
Bentinho, Capitu
Themes
Memory and the PastLanguage and Narration
Symbols
The Inscription on the Wall
Devices
Apostrophe, Intrusive Narrator

Explanation and analysis

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Imagine a grand design carried out with small means.
Speaker
the narrator
Characters
Capitu, Bentinho
Themes
Appearance and RealityLanguage and Narration
Devices
Antithesis, Intrusive Narrator

Explanation and analysis

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Chapters XXIII to XXXIV: The Gypsy Eyes and the Eyes of Undertow

Capitu, in spite of those eyes the devil gave her... Have you noticed her eyes? They are like a gypsy's, oblique and dissembling.
Speaker
José Dias
Characters
José Dias, Capitu, Bentinho
Themes
Appearance and RealityLanguage and Narration
Symbols
Eyes of Undertow
Devices
Leitmotif, Rhetorical Question

Explanation and analysis

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Eyes of undertow? Well, undertow. That's the idea I get of that new expression. They carried some mysterious, forceful fluid, a force that pulled inward, like the wave that recedes from the beach on days of undertow.
Speaker
the narrator
Characters
Bentinho, Capitu
Themes
Appearance and RealityLanguage and Narration
Symbols
Eyes of Undertow
Devices
Metaphor, Simile, Leitmotif

Explanation and analysis

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concealing with words what I published through silence
Speaker
the narrator
Characters
Bentinho, Capitu
Themes
Appearance and RealityLanguage and Narration
Devices
Antithesis, Paradox

Explanation and analysis

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Chapters XXXV to XLI: The Apostolic Protonotary and the Secret Audience

She did not look me in the face, but furtively and fearfully, or, if you prefer the dependent's phrasing, obliquely and dissemblingly.
Speaker
the narrator
Characters
Bentinho, Capitu, José Dias
Themes
Appearance and RealityLanguage and Narration
Symbols
Eyes of Undertow
Devices
Leitmotif, Intrusive Narrator

Explanation and analysis

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She claimed fright, and gave her face a somewhat sheepish look; but I, who knew everything, saw it was a lie and was envious.
Speaker
the narrator
Characters
Bentinho, Capitu
Themes
Appearance and Reality

Explanation and analysis

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Chapters XLII to LIII: The Oath at the Well and the Departure

Capitu looked inward into herself, while I, in truth, stared at the floor
Speaker
the narrator
Characters
Capitu, Bentinho
Themes
Appearance and RealityLanguage and Narration
Devices
Antithesis

Explanation and analysis

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I promise you will baptize my first child
Speaker
Capitu
Characters
Capitu, Bentinho
Themes
Loyalty and BetrayalLanguage and Narration

Explanation and analysis

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let us swear that we shall marry each other, come what may
Speaker
Capitu
Characters
Capitu, Bentinho
Themes
Loyalty and BetrayalReligion
Devices
Leitmotif

Explanation and analysis

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Chapters LIV to LXV: The Seminary, Escobar, and a Touch of Iago

Not another idea, no [...] a cruel and unfamiliar feeling, pure jealousy, reader of my innermost being.
Speaker
the narrator
Characters
Bentinho, José Dias, Capitu
Themes
Jealousy
Devices
Intrusive Narrator

Explanation and analysis

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With Dona Glória and Dona Justina I show myself naturally cheerful, so that it does not seem that José Dias's accusation is true. If it seemed so, they would work harder to separate us, and perhaps end by not receiving me... For me, our oath that we shall marry each other is enough.
Speaker
Capitu
Characters
Capitu, Bentinho, José Dias, Dona Glória
Themes
Appearance and RealityLoyalty and Betrayal

Explanation and analysis

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His name was Ezequiel de Sousa Escobar. He was a slender young man, with light eyes, a little evasive, like his hands, his feet, his speech, like everything.
Speaker
the narrator
Characters
Escobar, Bentinho
Themes
Appearance and RealityMemory and the Past
Devices
Repetition, Simile

Explanation and analysis

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Chapters LXVI to LXXVII: The Visit of Escobar and the Horseman

It was then that Hope, to combat Terror, whispered to my heart, not these words, for it articulated nothing resembling words, but an idea that could be rendered by them: “Mamma is dead, the seminary is over.”
Speaker
the narrator
Characters
Bentinho, Dona Glória
Themes
ReligionLanguage and Narration
Devices
Personification

Explanation and analysis

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Escobar's eyes, light as I have said, were most sweet; so José Dias defined them after he left, and I keep this word, despite the forty years he carries upon himself.
Speaker
the narrator, repeating José Dias
Characters
Escobar, José Dias, Bentinho
Themes
Appearance and RealityMemory and the Past
Devices
Intrusive Narrator

Explanation and analysis

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at the first suspicion on my part, everything would be dissolved between us
Speaker
Capitu, in the Narrator's Voice
Characters
Capitu, Bentinho
Themes
JealousyLoyalty and Betrayal
Devices
Foreshadowing

Explanation and analysis

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Chapters LXXVIII to XCII: Secret for Secret and Manduca's Death

Secret for secret; [...] my wish is for business, but say nothing, absolutely nothing; it stays between us.
Speaker
Escobar
Characters
Escobar, Bentinho
Themes
Loyalty and Betrayal

Explanation and analysis

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In life there are such strange resemblances.
Speaker
Gurgel, Sancha's Father
Characters
Capitu, Bentinho
Themes
Appearance and RealityJealousy
Devices
Foreshadowing

Explanation and analysis

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I do not blame the man; for him, the most important thing at the moment was his son. But do not blame me either; for me, the most important thing was Capitu.
Speaker
the narrator
Characters
Bentinho, Capitu
Themes
Language and NarrationMemory and the Past
Devices
Parallelism, Intrusive Narrator

Explanation and analysis

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Chapters XCIII to C: The Substitute and the Bachelor

A friend thus stood in for a dead man
Speaker
the narrator
Characters
Escobar, Bentinho
Themes
Loyalty and Betrayal

Explanation and analysis

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Your mother made a promise to God to give Him a priest, is that not so? Very well, give Him a priest, but not you. She may very well take some orphan lad and have him ordained at her expense; there, a priest is given to the altar, without you...
Speaker
Escobar
Characters
Escobar, Bentinho, Dona Glória
Themes
ReligionLoyalty and Betrayal
Devices
Rhetorical Question, Repetition

Explanation and analysis

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"You Will Be Happy, Bentinho!"
Speaker
the voice Bentinho hears (the fairy, says the narrator)
Characters
Bentinho, José Dias, Capitu
Themes
Memory and the PastAppearance and Reality
Devices
Situational Irony

Explanation and analysis

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Chapters CI to CXII: The Marriage, the Sea, and the Son

A nobody who passes at the street corner makes us put Sirius inside Mars
Speaker
the narrator
Characters
Bentinho, Capitu
Themes
Jealousy
Devices
Hyperbole

Explanation and analysis

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where he was given the name Ezequiel; it was Escobar's, and I wished in this way to make up for the lack of godparenthood
Speaker
the narrator
Characters
Bentinho, Escobar, Ezequiel
Themes
Loyalty and BetrayalAppearance and Reality

Explanation and analysis

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I did not say so that you would not suspect
Speaker
Capitu
Characters
Capitu, Bentinho, Escobar
Themes
JealousyAppearance and Reality
Devices
Situational Irony

Explanation and analysis

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Chapters CXIII to CXXIV: The Hand of Sancha and the Drowning

Some of his gestures were already becoming more repeated, such as the hands and feet of Escobar; lately he had even caught the way of turning the head of this one when he spoke, and of letting it fall when he laughed
Speaker
the narrator
Characters
Ezequiel, Escobar, Capitu, Bentinho, José Dias
Themes
Appearance and RealityJealousy
Devices
Leitmotif, Foreshadowing

Explanation and analysis

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It was a moment of vertigo and of sin.
Speaker
the narrator
Characters
Bentinho, Escobar
Themes
Loyalty and Betrayal

Explanation and analysis

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Capitu's eyes fixed on the dead man, like the widow's, without the widow's weeping or words, but large and open; like the wave of the sea out there, as if it wanted to swallow the morning swimmer too
Speaker
the narrator
Characters
Capitu, Escobar, Bentinho
Themes
Appearance and RealityJealousy
Symbols
Eyes of Undertow
Devices
Simile, Leitmotif

Explanation and analysis

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Chapters CXXV to CXXXV: The Resemblance and Othello

Have you noticed that Ezequiel has a strange expression in his eyes? [...] I have seen only two people like that, a friend of Papa's and the late Escobar
Speaker
Capitu
Characters
Capitu, Ezequiel, Bentinho, Escobar
Themes
Appearance and RealityJealousy

Explanation and analysis

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Escobar thus kept rising from the grave, from the seminary and from Flamengo, to sit with me at the table, to receive me on the stairs, to kiss me in the study in the morning, or to ask me at night for the customary blessing
Speaker
the narrator
Characters
Bentinho, Ezequiel, Escobar, Capitu
Themes
JealousyAppearance and Reality
Devices
Metaphor

Explanation and analysis

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a handkerchief was enough to kindle Othello's jealousy and compose the most sublime tragedy in this world
Speaker
the narrator
Characters
Bentinho, Capitu
Themes
JealousyLanguage and Narration
Devices
Allusion

Explanation and analysis

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Chapters CXXXVI to CXLVIII: The Cup, the Separation, and the Rest

Even so, I found the courage to pour the substance into the cup
Speaker
the narrator
Characters
Bentinho, Escobar
Themes
Jealousy
Symbols
The Cup of Coffee
Devices
Euphemism

Explanation and analysis

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No, no, I am not your father!
Speaker
Bentinho
Characters
Bentinho, Ezequiel
Themes
JealousyLoyalty and Betrayal
Symbols
The Cup of Coffee
Devices
Repetition

Explanation and analysis

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Now I remembered everything that then seemed to me nothing.
Speaker
the narrator
Characters
Bentinho, Capitu, Escobar
Themes
Memory and the PastAppearance and Reality
Devices
Antithesis

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one was inside the other, like the fruit inside the peel
Speaker
the narrator
Characters
Bentinho, Capitu
Themes
Appearance and RealityMemory and the Past
Devices
Simile

Explanation and analysis

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