What It Is
Capitu's eyes reach the reader through two images that were born in different mouths, on different days and for different reasons: that of the oblique and dissembling gypsy, which José Dias pronounces at the Passeio Público, and that of the undertow, which Bentinho finds as he writes, for what he felt at fifteen, days later, on looking at Capitu up close. Both appear dated within the book. At the end, the old Bento Santiago joins them as if they were a single attribute of hers, and the course of this joining is what the symbol brings together.
Where It Appears
In chapter XXV, José Dias warns Bentinho that it is no longer proper to go about with Pádua and adds, in a list of complaints against the neighboring family, a remark about Capitu. He speaks before knowing what the boy will ask of him, and in the next chapter he begins to help him, because the idea of studying abroad takes him back to the Europe he always wanted.
Capitu, apesar daqueles olhos que o diabo lhe deu... Você já reparou nos olhos dela? São assim de cigana oblíqua e dissimulada., Capitu, in spite of those eyes the devil gave her... Have you noticed her eyes? They are like those of an oblique and dissembling gypsy.
In chapter XXXII, a few days later, Bentinho goes to check the definition. Capitu is combing her hair in the parlor and lets herself be gazed at; he finds nothing extraordinary, for the color and the sweetness are familiar to him. What changes the eyes is his long, steady gaze: they grow, darken, and he calls them undertow.
Olhos de ressaca? Vá, de ressaca. É o que me dá ideia daquela feição nova. Traziam não sei que fluido misterioso e enérgico, uma força que arrastava para dentro, como a vaga que se retira da praia, nos dias de ressaca., Undertow eyes? Very well, undertow. That is what gives me an idea of that new look. They carried some mysterious and energetic fluid, a force that dragged you inward, like the wave that withdraws from the beach on days of heavy undertow.
In chapter XXXVI, after the kiss, Capitu sews without looking at him directly, and the narrator offers two ways of naming this look: furtive and fearful, or, in the hanger-on's phraseology, oblique and dissembling.
Não me olhou de rosto, mas a furto e a medo, ou, se preferes a fraseologia do agregado, oblíqua e dissimulada., She did not look me in the face, but furtively and fearfully, or, if you prefer the hanger-on's phraseology, obliquely and dissemblingly.
In chapter XLIII and in chapter XLIV, the narrator returns to the two images. Capitu's undertow eyes grow as she asks whether Bentinho is afraid, and the look with which she asks whether he would choose between her and his mother reminds him of the hanger-on's definition. In both scenes, what Capitu says is in the words; what the eyes mean to say belongs to the narrator.
In chapter L, when Capitu receives the miniature from Dona Glória, the narrator says that her eyes were neither oblique nor undertow, but straight, clear and lucid. The same voice that uses the images in one scene denies them in another.
In chapter CXXIII, at Escobar's wake, Sancha takes leave of her husband, Capitu supports her and tries to take her away from there, and Bentinho notices that she looks at the corpse fixedly, passionately, and that a few tears spring to her eyes, which she dries quickly, glancing furtively at the people in the room.
Capitu enxugou-as depressa, olhando a furto para a gente que estava na sala, Capitu dried them quickly, glancing furtively at the people in the room
os olhos de Capitu fitaram o defunto, quais os da viúva, sem o pranto nem palavras desta, mas grandes e abertos; como a vaga do mar lá fora, como se quisesse tragar também o nadador da manhã, Capitu's eyes gazed at the dead man, like the widow's, without her weeping or her words, but large and open; like the sea wave out there, as if she wished to swallow the morning's swimmer too
In chapter CXXXII, in recounting the couple's storms after Ezequiel's resemblance takes hold, the narrator apologizes for the sea metaphors, which smell of the tide that killed his friend and also of Capitu's undertow eyes.
In chapter CXLVIII, when he asks why none of his lovers made him forget his first beloved, Bentinho answers that perhaps none of them had the undertow eyes or those of an oblique and dissembling gypsy.
Talvez porque nenhuma tinha os olhos de ressaca, nem os de cigana oblíqua e dissimulada., Perhaps because none of them had undertow eyes, or those of an oblique and dissembling gypsy.
Other characters' eyes receive a different reading. In chapter LXXI, José Dias defines Escobar's eyes as sweetest, and the old Bentinho keeps the word.
Os olhos de Escobar, claros como já disse, eram dulcíssimos; assim os definiu José Dias, depois que ele saiu, e mantenho esta palavra, apesar dos quarenta anos que traz em cima de si., Escobar's eyes, clear as I have said, were sweetest; so José Dias defined them, after he left, and I keep this word, despite the forty years it carries upon it.
In chapter XCIII, Bentinho tells that Cousin Justina found his friend meddlesome, with policeman's eyes from which nothing escaped.
o meu amigo Escobar era um tanto metediço e tinha uns olhos policiais a que não escapava nada., my friend Escobar was somewhat meddlesome and had policeman's eyes from which nothing escaped.
In chapter CXXXI, it is Capitu who points out, at the table, the odd expression in Ezequiel's eyes, which she has seen only in a friend of her father's and in the late Escobar.
Você já reparou que Ezequiel tem nos olhos uma expressão esquisita? [...] Só vi duas pessoas assim, um amigo de papai e o defunto Escobar, Have you noticed that Ezequiel has an odd expression in his eyes? [...] I have seen only two people like that, a friend of Papa's and the late Escobar
What It Means
The course shows first that the two images have an origin. The gypsy one comes from a hanger-on who has an interest in separating the two households, uttered in the midst of complaints against Pádua, and the text neither confirms nor denies it. The undertow one comes from a boy who looked too long and describes the force that drags him: the scene shows the effect of Bentinho's gaze on Capitu's eyes, and the narrator's word attributes the force to her. Neither of the two says what Capitu thinks or wants.
It shows next what the old man does with them. He uses them when they count in favor of the scene (chapters XLIII and XLIV), denies them when the scene is one of tenderness (chapter L), turns the second inside out over the dead man (chapter CXXIII), where the text gives only the gesture of a friend who supports the widow and dries her weeping, and fuses them in the last chapter as a permanent trait. The undertow, which in chapter XXXII was fascination, becomes evidence in CXXIII without the text bringing there more than the gesture of a friend who supports the widow.
The final fusion can be read in two ways: as honest memory of an impression the man never lost, or as the last step of a dossier in which pieces without proof add up by repetition. The text supports both. What the book gives for free is the origin of each image and an asymmetry: Escobar's eyes, called sweetest and policeman's, do not receive the suspicion that Capitu's receive.
Relationships
- Work: Dom Casmurro.
- Standard themes: Appearance and Reality and Language and Narration.
- Characters: Capitu, whose eyes are described; Bentinho, who finds the image of the undertow; José Dias, who gives that of the gypsy; Escobar and Ezequiel, whose eyes the book also describes.
- See also: the inscription on the wall and Appearance and Reality.