The Theme in the Work
Nearly everything the reader knows about Capitu arrives through the language of Bento Santiago, and the novel makes this condition visible. Already in chapter I, he fixes the sense in which he wants to be read: casmurro is the silent man who keeps to himself, not the grumbler of the dictionaries. In chapter XIV, he warns that he cuts a scene that would be worth pages; in chapter LIX, he declares himself an omissive narrator, not a confused one, and hands the reader the task of filling in; in chapter LXVIII, he promises to confess whatever matters to his story; in chapter XCVII, seeing that the paper is running out, he starts to tell in summary and sacrifices the analysis of a whole age. Each of these declarations is honest, and each is a choice.
Language is also the factory of the two images of the eyes (see the eyes of undertow). In chapter XXXII, the narrator searches for the exact and poetic comparison and arrives at undertow; in chapter XXXVI, he lends a scene the phrasing of José Dias; in chapter CXLVIII, he fuses the two. The title of the chapters is another instrument: chapter LXII is called A Touch of Iago, the name of a play, and it is the old man who gives it to a scene the young man lived before seeing Othello, which he only sees in chapter CXXXV.
The narrator talks with the reader to direct the reading. In chapter XLV, he asks the reader to shake the head and put the book down, but swears that Capitu did say it just like that about the first son; in chapter LVII, he prepares the most chaste reader for a chapter that will be less raw than she expects; and in chapter CXIX and chapter CXXIX, he asks a reader and Dona Sancha not to close the book or not to read the rest. In chapter LXXII, Bentinho proposes that plays begin at the end, and the novel does what he proposes: the reader knows early, from the warnings, that there will be an ending, and reads each scene in its light. Chapter CXXIX, by treating what comes as indelible, grants in advance as certain what he has yet to tell.
This language has a double function. It can be read as the voice of a man who knows his limitations and confesses them, or as the technique of someone who prepares the reader's judgment before presenting the case. The text sustains both: the confessions of omission are true, and it is because they are true that they lend authority to the rest.
Where It Appears
- Chapter I: Old Bentinho tells that he earned the nickname Dom Casmurro from a young man on the train, and fixes the sense in which he wants to be read: that of the silent man who keeps to himself, not that of the dictionaries.
- Chapter XIV: In transcribing the two names fused on the wall, the narrator warns that the scene was worth two or three pages, but that he wants to be spared, and hands the reader only the gesture of the hands.
- Chapter XXXII: To say what Capitu's eyes were, the narrator looks for a comparison that does not break the dignity of his style, and arrives at the image of undertow, which drags inward.
- Chapter XXXVI: Bentinho offers two ways of naming Capitu's look after the kiss, furtively and fearfully or oblique and dissimulating, and lends the scene the phrasing of José Dias.
- Chapter XLV: The narrator asks the reader to shake the head and put down the book, but swears that Capitu did speak like that about the first child, as if it were the first doll.
- Chapter LVII: Bento promises the most chaste reader that the next chapter will be less raw than she expects, and uses the pause to soften the reading in advance.
- Chapter LIX: Bento declares that he prefers omissive books to confused ones, because in omissive ones one can put in anything, and hands the reader the task of filling in the gaps of what he tells.
- Chapter LXII: The old narrator gives the chapter of the first jealousy the title A Touch of Iago, and puts José Dias in the role of the one who whispers the suspicion, though the scene does not show that intention.
- Chapter LXVIII: Quoting Montaigne, Bentinho says that the only way to write one's own essence is to tell it all, good and bad, and promises to confess whatever matters to his story.
- Chapter LXXII: Bentinho proposes as a reform of the theater that plays begin at the end, with Othello dying in the first act, so that the spectator goes to sleep with an impression of tenderness and love.
- Chapter XCVII: Realizing that the book should be at the midpoint and is already near the end of the paper, the narrator starts telling in summary and sacrifices the analysis of what he felt at seventeen.
- Chapter CXIX: Addressing the reader who stands at the edge of an abyss, the narrator asks her not to close the book in haste and promises to change course.
- Chapter CXXIX: The narrator asks Dona Sancha not to read the rest of the book, it would be better to burn it, and announces that what now reaches her will be indelible, treating what is to come as fact.
- Chapter CXLVIII: The narrator fuses into one image the undertow he himself found and José Dias's gypsy of oblique and dissimulating eyes, and then formulates the question he calls the rest of the book.
Passages
The old man fixes the sense in which he wants to be read.
Casmurro não está aqui no sentido que eles lhe dão, mas no que lhe pôs o vulgo de homem calado e metido consigo., Casmurro is not here in the sense they give it, but in the one the common people gave it: a man who is silent and keeps to himself.
The narrator cuts the scene of the wall and says that he cuts it.
Confissão de crianças, tu valias bem duas ou três páginas, mas quero ser poupado., Confession of children, you were worth two or three pages, but I want to be spared.
The image of undertow, in the scene where it is born.
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 one inward, like the wave that withdraws from the beach on days of heavy surf.
The narrator lends Capitu's gaze the phrasing of the dependent.
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 dependent's phraseology, oblique and dissembling.
The narrator prepares the reading before the scene.
ao ler o que vais ler, é provável que o aches menos cru do que esperavas, on reading what you are about to read, you will probably find it less raw than you expected
The reading rule Bento gives himself.
Nada se emenda bem nos livros confusos, mas tudo se pode meter nos livros omissos., Nothing is mended well in confused books, but anything can be put into omissive ones.
Bento says how he intends to write his own essence.
há só um modo de escrever a própria essência, é contá-la toda, o bem e o mal, there is only one way to write one's own essence, which is to tell all of it, the good and the bad
Bentinho proposes that plays begin at the end.
eu proporia, como ensaio, que as peças começassem pelo fim, I would propose, as an experiment, that plays should begin at the end
The narrator gives up analysis to rush to the ending.
Agora não há mais que levá-la a grandes pernadas, capítulo sobre capítulo, pouca emenda, pouca reflexão, tudo em resumo., Now there is nothing left but to carry it on in great strides, chapter upon chapter, little correction, little reflection, everything in summary.
The warning to Dona Sancha treats what is to come as fact.
o que agora a alcançar, esse é indelével, what reaches her now is indelible
The two images, together, on the last page.
Talvez porque nenhuma tinha os olhos de ressaca, nem os de cigana oblíqua e dissimulada., Perhaps because none of them had undertow eyes, nor those of an oblique and dissembling gypsy.