Who She Is
Cousin of Sofia, a country girl who arrives with her mother at the Santa Teresa house and is introduced to city life. She learns French and piano, refuses to waltz, loves Carlos Maria in silence since the ball on Rua dos Arcos, and ends up married to him at the initiative of Dona Fernanda, who pries the confession out of her. She is the counterpoint to Sofia: she loves in silence where the other contemplates herself.
Trajectory
Sofia introduces her to Rubião together with her mother, D. Maria Augusta, who feigns crossness to delay her daughter's marriage (chapter LXIV). She agrees to study French and piano, and Cristiano Palha wins over the aunt with the promise of a good husband; she learns quickly but refuses to waltz (chapter LXVIII). At the ball, she times Sofia's waltz with Carlos Maria (chapter LXIX).
She wakes up annoyed, wanting to go back to the countryside (chapter LXXII), and tells Sofia she does not like waltzing and wants to go home; Sofia promises her a fiancé, who is Rubião, and she, hopeful, thinks of Carlos Maria (chapter LXXVII). Palha, in mourning for his aunt, her mother, praises her to Rubião (chapter LXXXIII).
Sofia tells Rubião that she is going to marry (chapter CXV), he congratulates her, and she blushes with contentment (chapter CXVI). The narrator says that, without the Alagoas epidemic, there might have been no marriage (chapter CXVII): she had loved Carlos Maria since the ball on Rua dos Arcos and kept the secret. With the commission, Dona Fernanda becomes her friend, decides to marry her to her cousin, and only afterward pries from her, at the country house, the nameless confession: she loves him as one loves God (chapter CXVIII).
Gosto dele, como gosto de Deus, que está no Céu, I love him as I love God, who is in Heaven
Teófilo, Dona Fernanda's husband, guesses that Maria Benedita likes Carlos Maria (chapter CXIX); on the wedding morning, at the window, facing the waves, she sees herself kneeling at her husband's feet and thinks he will make her happy (chapter CXXIII).
Oh! como ele me fará feliz!, Oh! how he will make me happy!
They marry and, three months later, leave for Europe (chapter CXXIV). The letter she writes, happy and a mother, leaves Sofia piqued (chapter CLVIII). She returns to Rio and says they are happy, because he adores her; her husband grows irritated (chapter CLXIX), and alone she asks what is wrong, receives a smile, and promises to be less effusive (chapter CLXX). She leaves the room annoyed when a delirious Rubião bursts into the veranda, and, seeing him afterward cross the garden gesticulating, cannot hold back a laugh (chapter CLXXI); the daughter is born in Tijuca (chapter CXC).
Themes Embodied
The standard themes that run through her are Desire and Appearance and reality.
The symmetry with her husband is exact: the fiancé and the fiancée see the same painting, he as homage to himself and she as surrender, and the narrator does not decide whether that is happiness.
Maria Benedita loves as one loves God, without expecting an answer, and the god she adores seems built by her alone. The cousin is the counterpoint to Sofia: where one loves in silence, the other contemplates herself. Maria Benedita's happiness, read by Sofia with spite, is what the book comes closest to a happy ending, and her husband does not know how to receive it.
Relationships
- Carlos Maria: the husband she adores and who is irritated by her happiness.
- Sofia: the cousin who introduces her to the city and promises her a fiancé who is not hers.
- Dona Fernanda: the friend who pries out the confession and arranges the marriage, and who rushes to Tijuca after the birth.
- Rubião: the man who congratulates her and watches her leave like someone watching a daughter.