Dom Casmurro
The events in the order the book tells them.
The Old Man in Engenho Novo
- Chapters I to XII1
The Nickname
Bento Santiago, an old man, is called Dom Casmurro by a young man on the train, to whom he dozed off during some verses. He notes that casmurro, there, means a silent man who keeps to himself, and that the Dom came as irony.
- Chapters I to XII2
The Copied House
To tie the two ends of life, he had a copy of the Matacavalos house built in Engenho Novo. He admits right away that he failed to recompose either the past or the person he was, and decides to write this book.
The Denunciation and the Vow
- Chapters I to XII3
The Denunciation
In November 1857, Bentinho, fifteen, hears from behind the door as José Dias tells his mother that the boy is hanging around the corners with Capitu, the fourteen-year-old neighbor, daughter of Pádua.
- Chapters I to XII4
The Vow
Bentinho recounts the origin of his mother's plans: after a first son born dead, Dona Glória promised God that the second, if a boy, would be a priest. Now she wants to keep the promise.
- Chapters XIII to XXII5
The Inscription on the Wall
In the backyard, Bentinho reads two names carved with a nail on the wall, fused into a single word, before Capitu scrapes them off. No one speaks, and the old narrator cuts the scene: he confesses that he prefers to be spared.
- Chapters XIII to XXII6
Capitu's Plan
Angry at Dona Glória, Capitu reflects and devises a plan: to use José Dias, the same man who made the denunciation, because he likes praise and, serving the future master of the house, will speak with more warmth.
The Eyes of Capitu
- Chapters XXIII to XXXIV7
Eyes of a Gypsy
In the Passeio Público, José Dias speaks badly of Pádua and of Capitu's eyes, "of an oblique and dissimulating gypsy." On hearing Bentinho's plea for help, he changes position and proposes that he study in Europe.
- Chapters XXIII to XXXIV8
Eyes of Undertow
Some days later, Bentinho stares at Capitu as she combs her hair and finds nothing extraordinary in her eyes, until the long look: they grow, darken, and pull like the wave of the undertow. It is the name he gives them.
- Chapters XXIII to XXXIV9
The First Kiss
While Bentinho braids Capitu's hair, the two kiss for the first time. Dona Fortunata, her mother, arrives right after and smiles, distrustful, while Capitu explains the hairstyle as a game.
The Seminary
- Chapters XLII to LIII10
The Oath at the Well
In the backyard, Bentinho and Capitu first swear only to marry each other. She then proposes a better formula: they swear they will marry whatever happens, which obliges marriage and not merely waiting.
- Chapters LIV to LXV11
Escobar at the Seminary
At the seminary of S. José, Bentinho makes friends with Escobar, a classmate three years older and the son of a lawyer from Curitiba: slender, with clear and somewhat evasive eyes, like his hands and speech.
- Chapters LIV to LXV12
The First Jealousy
On a visit to the seminary, José Dias says Capitu is cheerful and that only some neighborhood dandy is missing. Bentinho feels the first jealousy, and the old narrator gives the chapter the title A Touch of Iago.
- Chapters LXVI to LXXVII13
A Sin
Summoned from the seminary because Dona Glória has fallen ill, Bentinho has on the way the thought that, with mamma dead, the seminary ends. Afterward he confesses it as a sin and promises Paternosters for her life.
- Chapters LXVI to LXXVII14
The Horseman
A horseman passes under Capitu's window and looks at her, and she looks back. Bentinho feels the second jealousy and runs to the parlor without asking anything.
Secret for Secret and the Marriage
- Chapters LXXVIII to XCII15
Secret for Secret
Bentinho confesses to Escobar that he cannot be a priest, and the friend, in exchange, confides that he too does not intend to go on in the seminary, since he wants business. Only afterward does Bentinho tell him, in outline, about the courtship.
- Chapters LXXVIII to XCII16
The Portrait of Gurgel
At the home of Gurgel, Sancha's father, Bentinho sees the portrait of his late wife and hears that Capitu resembles her in features and temper, although the book gives no kinship between the two.
- Chapters XCIII to C17
A Substitute
Escobar suggests the way out of the vow: Dona Glória would fulfill it by giving the Church an orphan, ordained at her expense, and the son would be free. Earlier, José Dias had proposed taking him to Rome.
- Chapters XCIII to C18
The Exit
Dona Glória gives way after Father Cabral, having consulted the bishop, declares the exchange valid. Bentinho leaves the seminary at seventeen, the vow settled by a substitute.
- Chapters CI to CXII19
The Marriage
A bachelor, Bentinho marries Capitu in March 1865 and spends the honeymoon at the top of Tijuca, in the chapter he titles In Heaven.
- Chapters CI to CXII20
A Son
After years without children, Ezequiel is born. Bentinho wanted Escobar as godfather, but Uncle Cosme gets there first, and he gives the boy his friend's name to make up for the lost godparenthood.
The Suspicion and the Separation
- Chapters CXIII to CXXIV21
Sancha's Hand
One night in Flamengo, Sancha presses Bentinho's hand and lingers, and he feels, in his own words, a moment of vertigo and sin. It was, he says, a moment that passed quickly on the clock of time.
- Chapters CXIII to CXXIV22
The Wake
The next morning, Escobar drowns in the rough sea. At the wake, Capitu stares at the dead man, weeps little, and wipes her tears while stealthily glancing at the room. Only when writing does Bentinho call this look undertow.
- Chapters CXXV to CXXXV23
The Resemblance
In 1872, at the table, Capitu asks whether Bentinho noticed that Ezequiel has an odd expression in his eyes, which she has seen only in a friend of her father's and in the late Escobar. From then on, he sees his friend in the boy.
- Chapters CXXV to CXXXV24
The Night of Othello
At night, at the theater, Bentinho watches Othello, which he had never seen or read, and leaves with the conclusion that it was Capitu who had to die. Earlier, on a Saturday, he had bought a substance the book does not name.
- Chapters CXXXVI to CXLVIII25
The Cup of Coffee
The next morning, with the poison dissolved in the coffee, Bentinho sees Ezequiel come running in. He even holds out the cup to him, but draws back and, kissing the boy's head, says he is not his father.
- Chapters CXXXVI to CXLVIII26
The Photograph
Capitu demands an explanation, and he repeats that the boy is not his son and alludes to Escobar's love affairs without saying the name. When the two look at the same moment at Escobar's photograph, Bentinho reads her confusion as confession, though she confesses nothing.
- Chapters CXXXVI to CXLVIII27
The Solution
The separation comes without scandal. Bentinho takes Capitu and Ezequiel to Europe and leaves them in Switzerland. On the trips that follow he does not seek her out, and he pretends a married life to deceive public opinion.
- Chapters CXXXVI to CXLVIII28
The Return
Capitu has already died and been buried in Switzerland when the adult Ezequiel appears at Engenho Novo. Bentinho sees in him the very, the exact, the true Escobar. Months later, on a study trip, the young man dies near Jerusalem.
- Chapters CXXXVI to CXLVIII29
And the Rest?
In the last chapter, Bentinho asks whether the Capitu of the Glória shore was already inside the one of Matacavalos, and answers that yes, like the fruit inside the peel. Then he turns to the History of the Suburbs.