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The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas · Chapters L to LXIII

Virgília Married and the "Let's Flee!"

AmbitionAppearance and RealityDesireLanguage and Narration

Chapter L: Virgília Married

Desire

Section summary

Luís Dutra tells Brás Cubas that his cousin Virgília has arrived from São Paulo, married to Lobo Neves, and that she spoke to him of the old marriage plan with Brás, which he attributes to his father's ideas. Brás meets her again, unrecognizable for how refined she has become, and they waltz at a ball, where Lobo Neves praises him for his political writings. At an intimate gathering at the couple's home, Virgília says he will waltz with her, and Brás finds the preference natural, since he is an accomplished waltzer; during the waltz he squeezes her hand hard, and she lets it stay.

Analysis

Brás tells the reunion as one who was carried along: Virgília's polish leaves him astonished, the waltz does the rest, and the blame goes to the dance. In explaining her preference by the fame he had as a waltzer, the defunct narrator covers with vanity what the scene shows as the desire of both.

Francesca da Rimini, in canto V of Dante's Inferno, is condemned with Paolo after they read the romance of Lancelot together, and it is the book she blames for their ruin.

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Chapter LI: She's Mine!

Section summary

Upon passing Virgília on to another gentleman, Brás Cubas repeats to himself that she is his, and repeats the same phrase when he finds a half gold coin at his front door. The next day his conscience asks him why the coin would be his, and he sends it to the chief of police so that it may reach its owner. Relieved, he discovers the law of the equivalence of windows: opening one window compensates for the one that was closed, so that morality may air the conscience. His conscience, he says, had waltzed so much the night before that it was left without air, and the restitution was the pure air.

Analysis

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Chapter LII: The Mysterious Package

Section summary

In Botafogo, Brás Cubas kicks a bundle on the beach, looks around, sees that no one is watching him, and takes it home, afraid of being the dupe of some young men. He opens it in his study: five contos de réis, perhaps ten milreis more. He spends the week convincing himself that finding money is not a crime, and three weeks later he takes the money to the Banco do Brasil, where he is praised for the business of the half gold coin, which the chief of police had already commented on at the house of Lobo Neves, in front of Virgília.

Analysis

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Chapter LIII: . . . . .

Section summary

The chapter opens by saying that Virgília no longer remembered the half gold coin, wholly absorbed in Brás Cubas. Brás compares the love of the two to a fast-growing plant, which sprouted with such impetus that it soon became the largest thing in the grove, and tells of the first kiss, given by her, trembling with fear, at the gate of the country house. The kiss is presented as the prologue to a life of delights and terrors, which the narrator summarizes before living it.

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Chapter LIV: The Pendulum Clock

The Meaning of Life

Section summary

After the kiss, Brás Cubas cannot sleep and listens to the hours. He recalls that, on nights of insomnia, the ticking of the pendulum clock did him harm, like an old devil between two sacks, that of life and that of death, passing coins from one to the other, "one less", and that he would wind the stopped clock to count the lost instants. That night he hears minutes gained, and his thought flies to the house of Virgília and finds hers at the window, to repeat the old dialogue of Adam and Eve.

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Chapter LV: The Old Dialogue of Adam and Eve

Language and Narration

Section summary

The chapter is only the alternation of the names BRÁS CUBAS and VIRGÍLIA, each followed by lines of dots, with a few question and exclamation marks in between. It fulfills what the previous chapter announced: the dialogue of the two thoughts, written without words.

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Chapter LVI: The Opportune Moment

Desire

Section summary

Brás Cubas asks himself why, when he treated the marriage to Virgília years before, he felt nothing but spite, and why now, after a few turns of the waltz, she drives him to delirium, and whether both are the same woman. He answers that it was the opportune moment. The explanation comes to him two years after the kiss, when Virgília complains of an importunate suitor and he realizes that he himself has gone from importunate to opportune.

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Chapter LVII: Destiny

Desire

Section summary

Brás Cubas says that now, when all social laws impede them, is when the two truly love each other, and compares them to yoked oxen, with a line of Dante to correct the image: they are less sluggish animals, craftier and more lascivious. The problem of where the dark roads lead them frightens him for a few weeks, and he hands the solution over to Destiny. Virgília, who confesses to moments of remorse and is told that remorse is a lack of love, embraces him and says that loving him is the will of Heaven. Brás describes her religion: she prays drowsily, is afraid of thunderstorms, and keeps a jacaranda oratory.

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Chapter LVIII: Confidence

AmbitionAppearance and Reality

Section summary

Lobo Neves adores his wife and says so to Brás Cubas, and little by little confesses to him the sad woodworm of his existence: he lacks public glory. He recounts the boredoms and bitterness of politics, and Brás tries to cheer him. Lobo Neves asks him to tell no one and, when two deputies and a political boss come in, receives them with joy, and within half an hour no one would think he was anything but the most fortunate of men.

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Chapter LIX: An Encounter

Ambition

Section summary

On leaving the house of Lobo Neves, Brás Cubas sees a minister in a chaise, an old schoolmate, and wonders why he should not be a minister too. The idea occupies him to the point of erasing Lobo Neves's sadness, and at the Passeio Público a man in worn clothes approaches him: it is Quincas Borba, a childhood schoolmate, once rich and charming, now a beggar. Brás gives him five milreis; Quincas kisses the note, refuses to work, and announces the philosophy of misery.

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Chapter LX: The Embrace

Section summary

Quincas Borba looks at the diamond that Brás Cubas wears on his finger, with tremors of greed, examines it from top to bottom, asks whether he is married and refuses to know where he lives: he asks for another note if they meet again, but will not go to fetch it, out of pride. He embraces Brás with impetus, and Brás moves away sad. On going to dinner he cannot find his watch: Quincas stole it in the embrace.

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Chapter LXI: A Project

Section summary

Brás Cubas dines sad, not because of the lost watch but because of the image of the thief and the comparison with the past, and feels the hypochondria of chapter XXV opening in him. He hurries to the house of Virgília, because she is the present, but it is too early, and he returns to the Passeio Público to find Quincas Borba. The guard says the man appears now and then, at no fixed hour. Brás promises to return, filled with the idea of regenerating the beggar.

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Chapter LXII: The Pillow

Section summary

Brás Cubas goes to Virgília and forgets Quincas Borba in five minutes, between clasped hands and a kiss. He says Virgília is the pillow of his spirit, where he rests from bad sensations, and that this is the reason for her existence.

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Chapter LXIII: Let's Flee!

Section summary

Three weeks later, Brás Cubas finds Virgília downcast: she says her husband, whom she calls Damião, seems to suspect, and that she dreamed he was killing her. Brás proposes flight to somewhere no one would bother them, saying the husband may find out and kill her, and that he himself would kill him. Virgília turns pale and fears her husband will kill her in the same way; Brás says he does not love her enough to come and fetch her, and she murmurs that her husband loves her very much. Lobo Neves arrives and kisses the son, whom Brás hates; Virgília receives the news of a box at the Candiani with joy, and Brás, invited to dinner, drinks more than usual, talks about politics and takes his leave early, irritated.

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