What It Is
The coffee cup in which Bentinho dissolves the poison, on the morning after the theater. First meant for him, it is then offered to Ezequiel, and it is in front of the boy that the father recoils. The symbol gathers the cup, what prepares it (the drug he bought, the play Othello, the book about Cato, the photograph of Escobar), and what comes out of it: the "No, I am not your father" and the solution of the separation.
Where It Appears
In Chapter CXI, when Ezequiel was born, Bentinho says he bought poison and prepared three meatballs to silence the dogs that barked at night, and that one of them, seeing him, came slowly wagging its tail and made him put the meatballs back in his pocket. The scene prepares the one with the cup: a man who prepares poison and is stopped by a creature that looks at him with trust.
eu cuido que ele não me quis atribuir perfídia ao gesto, e entregou-se-me, I think he did not mean to attribute treachery to the gesture, and surrendered to me
In Chapter CXXXIII, a certain idea that was blackening in him spreads its wings and begins to beat back and forth.
Certa ideia, que negrejava em mim, abriu as asas e entrou a batê-las de um lado para outro, como fazem as ideias que querem sair, A certain idea, which was blackening in me, spread its wings and began to beat them back and forth, as ideas do when they want to get out
In Chapter CXXXIV, he buys a substance he does not name, and having death in his pocket fills him with the joy of a lucky win.
Quando me achei com a morte no bolso senti tamanha alegria como se acabasse de tirar a sorte grande, When I found myself with death in my pocket I felt as much joy as if I had just won the grand prize in the lottery
In Chapter CXXXV, at night, he goes to the theater and sees Othello, which he had never seen or read. He is astonished that a handkerchief was enough, and as the last act ends he concludes that it is not he but Capitu who must die.
um lenço bastou a acender os ciúmes de Otelo e compor a mais sublime tragédia deste mundo, a handkerchief was enough to kindle Othello's jealousy and compose the most sublime tragedy in this world
O último ato mostrou-me que não eu, mas Capitu devia morrer, The last act showed me that not I, but Capitu, ought to die
In Chapter CXXXVI, the next morning, he waits for his coffee reading a volume of Plutarch on Cato, pours the drug into the cup with a trembling hand and, as he stirs the coffee, his mind is on the innocent Desdemona.
Ainda assim tive ânimo de despejar a substância na xícara, Even so, I found the courage to pour the substance into the cup
Escobar's photograph restores his nerve.
Mas a fotografia de Escobar deu-me o ânimo que me ia faltando, But Escobar's photograph gave me the courage that was failing me
At the end of Chapter CXXXVI, Ezequiel comes in shouting "Daddy, Daddy!", and Bentinho backs up to the bookcase. In Chapter CXXXVII, he asks whether the boy has had his coffee, insists that he drink another half cup, and holds out his own cup to him, trembling. Something makes him draw back.
o meu segundo impulso foi criminoso, my second impulse was criminal
Não, não, eu não sou teu pai!, No, no, I am not your father!
In Chapter CXXXIX, Bentinho and Capitu look at Escobar's photograph at the same moment, and he reads in her confusion a confession that she does not make in words.
Desta vez a confusão dela fez-se confissão pura., This time her confusion became pure confession.
In Chapter CXL, alone, he resolves not to drink the coffee: death was a solution, and he found another, one that leaves reparation open.
What It Means
The cup concentrates in one object Bentinho's passage from thoughts of his own death to accusation. It is prepared by a spectacle (Othello, whose last act teaches him that Capitu is the one who must die), by a book (the volume of Plutarch, to manufacture the courage of Cato), and by a photograph (Escobar), so that the tragic gesture arrives already dressed as reading. The scene shows a man who decides, postpones, and recoils. What the narrator writes over it is the label: he himself calls the second impulse criminal before recounting it, and does not explain the recoil.
The text leaves open whether what stopped him was love for the boy, his own doubt, or something else he does not name. The "No, I am not your father" is spoken in the middle of a kiss he cannot restrain, and the scene does not say what he rests on beyond the resemblance the narrator sees. Capitu, in the next chapter, asks him several times to tell her everything and hears that there are things that are not said.
The cup is the point at which jealousy stops having only the man himself as its recipient. Two readings fit: that of a man who, at the limit, recoils because he loves his son, and that of a narrator who shows himself capable of the worst in order to ask the reader to understand the sentence that follows, the separation, presented as a lesser solution with reparation still open. On both, the book does not affirm anyone's paternity.