The Theme in the Work
In Dom Casmurro, religion appears as an economy of debts and exchanges, and whoever uses it speaks in the language of credit. The origin is the vow of chapter XI: Dona Glória, after the first son was born dead, promises God to make the second a priest, if he is a boy; she hides the vow from her husband, seeks witnesses after she is widowed, and postpones the son's entry into the seminary. Chapter XLI shows the mother as a debtor: the vow was made as payment to God and cannot fail, and she does not accept asking to be released from it.
Bentinho treats heaven in the same way. In chapter XX, he promises a thousand Paternosters and a thousand Hail Marys if José Dias gets him out of the seminary, even though he still owes the prayers of earlier promises; in chapter LXVII, after the thought that with his mother dead the seminary ends, he promises two thousand Paternosters for her life; in chapter LXIX, he goes to Mass to be reconciled and concludes that Jehovah is a Rothschild, much more humane, who grants no moratoriums. In chapter XLIX, he plans the oratory and the Saturday candle partly out of piety, partly to make up for the cassock, and partly to win the protection of heaven.
The authorities who decide use the same currency. Father Cabral proposes, in chapter L, two years to test the vocation, because God wants promises fulfilled according to his will; José Dias proposes, in chapter XCV, asking the pope to release the mother; Escobar proposes, in chapter XCVI, the substitute, an orphan ordained at her expense; the exchange is valid, in chapter XCVII, after Cabral consults the bishop. The vow is not broken, it is settled by proxy. Bentinho's own vocation, meanwhile, is something else: in chapter LI, he says the vocation was Capitu.
The text sustains two readings of the faith of mother and son: true piety expressed in the language of accounts, or a calculation absolved in the name of a generous creditor. The difference between them lies in the outcome: both postpone, but she ends up paying with a substitute and he does not. What the scene shows is a God-fearing mother who does not give way and a son who negotiates; what the narrator adds, as an old man, is the smile with which he tells it.
Where It Appears
- Chapter XI: Her first son having been born dead, Dona Glória promises God to make the second a priest, if he is a boy, and postpones it by teaching him his first letters at home; Bentinho plays at Mass with Capitu.
- Chapter XX: Bentinho promises heaven a thousand Paternosters and a thousand Hail Marys if José Dias arranges for him not to go to the seminary, loaded with unfulfilled promises, and treats heaven as a creditor.
- Chapter XXXV: Father Cabral is named apostolic protonotary, an honorary title that everyone repeats, and Dona Glória tells José Dias that her son will be a priest.
- Chapter XXXIX: José Dias and Father Cabral debate what a vocation is, the dependent saying one can serve God outside the priesthood, the priest seeing a manifest vocation in Bentinho.
- Chapter XLI: Dona Glória replies that the vocation comes with habit, that she will fulfill the vow and does not ask God to release her, setting the entry for the first or second month of the year.
- Chapter XLIX: Bentinho promises his future wife a house with a rosewood oratory and a Saturday candle, out of religious feeling, to make up for the cassock, and in hopes of winning the protection of heaven.
- Chapter L: Father Cabral proposes two years to test the vocation and, if it does not appear, another career, because God wants promises fulfilled according to his will.
- Chapter LI: On the eve of departure, Bentinho and Capitu swear again that they will marry and seal the contract with a kiss, and the narrator says he entered the seminary pure and that the vocation was Capitu.
- Chapter LXIX: Bentinho goes to Mass alone to ask forgiveness for the sin, to give thanks for his mother's recovery, and to be freed from the promise of Paternosters, and he finds that Jehovah grants no moratoriums.
- Chapter LXXX: Dona Glória, fearful of God, postpones her son's entry into the seminary the way one renegotiates a note, and comes to hope, the narrator says, that the courtship will dissolve the contract.
- Chapter XCV: José Dias proposes that he and Bentinho go to Rome to ask the pope to release Dona Glória from the vow, with letters from the papal internuncio and the bishop.
- Chapter XCVI: Escobar proposes that the mother fulfill the vow by giving God a priest who is not the son, an orphan ordained at her expense, and Bentinho replies that he understands, that is exactly it.
- Chapter XCVII: Dona Glória gives way after Father Cabral, having consulted the bishop, says the exchange is valid, and Bentinho leaves the seminary at the end of the year.
- Chapter CXLII: Bentinho orders his mother's grave carved without a name, with only the words A Saint, and the parish priest gives way when reminded of the protonotary Cabral, a good partner at backgammon.
Passages
The narrator says why Dona Glória postponed the vow.
Prazos largos são fáceis de subscrever; a imaginação os faz infinitos., Long terms are easy to sign; imagination makes them infinite.
Bentinho sums up the cycle of his own promises.
O céu fazia-me o favor, eu adiava a paga., Heaven did me the favor, I postponed the payment.
Dona Glória is a debtor and cannot find another currency.
Quisera um modo de pagar a dívida contraída, outra moeda, que valesse tanto ou mais, e não achava nenhuma., I wished for a way to pay the debt I had contracted, another coin, worth as much or more, and I found none.
Bentinho imagines the married home with an oratory.
Havíamos de acender uma vela aos sábados..., We would light a candle on Saturdays...
The narrator says what Bentinho sought in the seminary.
Mas a vocação eras tu, a investidura eras tu., But the vocation was you, the investiture was you.
Bentinho treats God as a creditor.
Jeová, posto que divino, ou por isso mesmo, é um Rothschild muito mais humano, e não faz moratórias, Jehovah, though divine, or for that very reason, is a Rothschild far more human, and grants no moratoriums
The hope the narrator attributes to Dona Glória.
Era como se, tendo confiado a alguém a importância de uma dívida para levá-la ao credor, o portador guardasse o dinheiro consigo e não levasse nada., It was as if, having entrusted someone with the amount of a debt to take it to the creditor, the bearer kept the money for himself and took nothing.
The way out Escobar proposes.
Sua mãe fez promessa a Deus de lhe dar um sacerdote, não é? Pois bem, dê-lhe um sacerdote, que não seja você. Ela pode muito bem tomar a si algum mocinho órfão, fazê-lo ordenar à sua custa, está dado um padre ao altar, sem que você..., Your mother made a vow to God to give him a priest, did she not? Very well, give him a priest, but let it not be you. She can quite well take in some orphan boy, have him ordained at her expense, and there is a priest given to the altar, without you...
At the marriage, the lesson of Saint Peter.
As mulheres sejam sujeitas a seus maridos... Não seja o adorno delas o enfeite dos cabelos riçados ou as rendas de ouro, mas o homem que está escondido no coração... Do mesmo modo, vós, maridos, coabitai com elas, tratando-as com honra, como a vasos mais fracos, e herdeiras convosco da graça da vida..., Wives, be subject to your husbands... Let not your adorning be the braiding of the hair or the gold trimmings, but the hidden man of the heart... Likewise, husbands, dwell with them, treating them with honor, as the weaker vessels, and as heirs together with you of the grace of life...
José Dias praises the dead woman to the end.
Não a conheceram; se a conhecessem mandariam esculpir santíssima., They did not know her; had they known her, they would have had her sculpted most holy.