What It Is
The constellation that Rubião asks Sofia to gaze at every night, at ten o'clock, so that the thoughts of the two may meet there, between God and men. Sofia refuses, and the request returns throughout the book always outside the scene in which it was made: in Sofia's complaint to her husband, in Rubião's memory at the window, and in the last sentence of the novel.
Where It Appears
In chapter XLI, in the garden of Santa Teresa, Sofia says they might notice each other's absence, and Rubião clings to the possessive. Holding her by the hand, he asks for two favors: that she not forget those ten minutes, and that every night at ten she gaze at the Southern Cross while he gazes at it too. The text says the invitation was poetic, but only the invitation, because neither his eyes nor his gesture had any poetry.
Rubião estremeceu diante deste possessivo: nossa ausência, Rubião shuddered at this possessive: our absence
In chapter L, in the parlor, Sofia tells her husband about the scene in the garden and cites, among the offenses, the request about the Southern Cross. Cristiano Palha takes it as the request of a candid soul, the kind of thing a fifteen-year-old girl, a fool, or a poet would ask. Later she says that gifts, jewels, and theater boxes are no reason for her to gaze at the Southern Cross with Rubião, and that is when Palha sighs that it was only that, and ends up confessing the debt.
Mas, meu amor, eu devo-lhe muito dinheiro, But, my dear, I owe you a great deal of money
In chapter XCVII, at the window, after seeing the seamstress leave with a man, Rubião looks at the sky and there is the Southern Cross. He thinks their lives would have been different if she had consented to gaze at it, and the constellation seems to confirm this, blazing. Then he remembers that the Southern Cross is also an honorary order, and finds it brilliant to make it a privileged national distinction.
In chapter CCI, at the close of the book, the narrator tells the reader to weep or laugh, which is the same thing, and adds that the Southern Cross, which the lovely Sofia did not want to gaze at as Rubião asked, is too high to discern the laughter and tears of men.
Se só tens riso ri-te! É a mesma coisa., If you have only laughter, laugh! It is all the same.
What It Means
The Southern Cross has one scene and three echoes, and each echo uses it for something else. For Sofia, in chapter L, it is the proof of what Rubião wanted. For Palha, it is what he minimizes before confessing the debt. For Rubião, in chapter XCVII, it is the life that never happened and, right after, a decoration. In chapter CCI it is the sky that the narrator places above the tears and laughter of men.
The book's last sentence carries weight only for those who remember Rubião's request in chapter XLI, which Sofia refused. The novel closes by telling us to look up, and it sets as the measure of what is up there the thing she would not do. From the garden to the close, the Southern Cross becomes the measure of the distance between what Rubião asked for and what the book gave him.
Relationships
- Standard themes: Desire, Ambition, Loyalty and betrayal.
- Characters: Rubião, Sofia, and Cristiano Palha, who hears the request secondhand.
- Neighboring symbols: the imperial crown, the other distinction Rubião ends up bestowing on himself.